The Channel crisis is a national disgrace
How much more abuse and exploitation of our laws can we take?
You will no doubt have noted the record numbers who crossed the Channel illegally again this week. On Monday alone nearly 700 (that we are aware of) reached Britain on small boats and July saw a record month of nearly 4000 crossings. Mickey-taking of such industrial proportions is intolerable, but all we hear from the Conservative leadership hopefuls is talk of Rwanda and leaving the ECHR. Action is needed now, not three years down the road. We have to send a clear and simple message to the people smugglers and chancers; that illegal entry will never lead to the granting of asylum and that those entering this way will be held and removed at the earliest opportunity. As our Chairman Alp Mehmet told Nigel Farage this week (see below), so long as illegal entrants believe that once here they are here to stay with many absconding and disappearing into the undergrowth of the criminal world while their applications for asylum are being considered, they will continue to come in increasing numbers. At the current rate we are likely to see well over 50,000 illegal Channel-crossers by the end of 2022. It is rumoured that Home Office officials regard this as a success because the flow is not as high as they were expecting. If 50-60,000 illegal entrants constitutes success we would hate to see what they regard as failure. The truth is that our borders may as well not be there. That is a national disgrace of which we should be thoroughly ashamed.
While the numbers crossing the Channel illegally and claiming asylum are high and growing, they are dwarfed by the numbers arriving legally. in 2019, the government promised to control and reduce immigration. Instead, they have opened the door to millions of foreign workers from around the globe. At the moment, there is simply little, if any, control. Big business interests have got all they wanted and more, as have the NGOs – and still they press for more.
Meanwhile, our aspiring Prime Ministers have touched on illegal Channel crossings and asylum, but have kept worryingly schtum on the scale and pace of net migration which is back to record levels. They appear oblivious to the impact this is having on their 2019 supporters, especially in Red Wall constituencies. This brilliant piece by Professor Eric Kaufmann of Birkbeck, University of London, illustrates the point admirably. Prof Kaufmann analysed polling commissioned by Migration Watch (we wrote about it in last week’s email), concluding that having largely lost the Red Wall since 2019 the Conservatives can still win it back and that “immigration is the key”. Indeed, Prof Kaufman also makes the point that our poll showed “86% of ex-Tories want less immigration compared to 73% of those currently intending to vote Tory”.
There’s no doubting the importance of “reducing immigration” for Conservative voters and yet neither of the runners have so far had the courage to tackle the issue regarded as second in importance to selecting the candidate who can win the next election.
There is still no reply from Ms Truss or Mr Sunak to our chairman’s letter challenging them to commit to policies that will reduce immigration. We will keep you posted. Should you find yourself at one of the hustings, do ask the question, “will you commit to much lower immigration?”.
Blog of the week
What Is The Evidence Of Asylum Fraud?
‘Fraud’ means deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. There is a mass of evidence that this kind of behaviour is rife within the asylum process and even that the current system very likely encourages it. The Home Office itself pointed to large-scale and growing exploitation of our overwhelmed asylum system, which has 125,000 outstanding cases, including 40,000 failed claimants who have no right to be in the UK but are. Thousands who claim asylum in the UK have been turned down in another country before coming here. We also know, because they have been observed doing it, that many destroy their documents before they are picked up or arrive in the UK in order to facilitate their entry and make it more difficult to identify them and where they are from. Read our full blog here.
Migration Watch in the news
It’s been a busy week in the national media again. See below:
Talk TV: 696 migrants illegally crossed the Channel on Monday
‘At the moment the integrity of our border has been shot to pieces, and we should be ashamed of that frankly.’
GB News: Why on earth are people smugglers allowed to advertise their services on TikTok?
‘Once they get here if they’re not being moved on anywhere else, if they are not being sent back, then what on earth is going to persuade the smugglers in particular, that they’re not going to be able to make money out of this?’
Make your voice heard
Join us in the fight to restore proper control and reduce immigration. We are taking the battle to the elites, open border enthusiasts, activists and criminal abusers of what used to be tightly controlled borders. We are calling for a massive reduction in net migration and a clamping down on illegal entry. The stability, prosperity and national heritage of the United Kingdom is at stake. Your help and support is vital. You can do this by writing to your MP, to let him/her know how let-down you feel about the repeated government failures on immigration.