1. We make this submission after considering reports and official statistics that have been released about Channel crossings, asylum and enforcement in recent months. These include publications by the Home Office (HO), the National Audit Office (NAO), the House of Commons Library, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and the Independent Chief Inspector of […]
Official statistics show that over half of asylum seekers whose age was checked after they claimed to be under 18 were found to be adults between Q2 2016 and Q2 2020. That is just under 1,600 out of 3,100 cases. Ahmed Hassan, the Parsons Green Tube bomber, was one of many adult migrants who lied […]
What is the estimated cost of supporting asylum seekers and how has it changed? 1. The overall cost of the asylum system is nearly £1 billion per annum (Home Office figures for 2019/20). As part of this spending, the government is required by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (henceforth ‘the 1999 Act’) to provide […]
Between 1 January 2019 and 1 October 2020, 237 migrants who crossed the English Channel were returned to mainland Europe. This is just over 2% of of just under 10,000 or so people who have been reported illegally crossing the Channel since the start of 2019 (see our Tracker) – only one in every 42 […]
Illegal Channel crossings have spiralled upwards this year. More people crossed in September 2020 than during all of 2019. It’s part of a larger European debacle which began in earnest with Angela Merkel’s foolhardy invitation in the summer of 2015 to irregular migrants to come to Germany. Nearly 1.9 million people have illegally crossed into […]
A proportion of those who are illegally crossing the Channel to get to the UK have repeatedly claimed asylum in countries across Europe but then been rejected. The next stop on their huge asylum shopping spree? The UK. The Home Office noted earlier this year the case of an individual who ‘claimed asylum in a […]
Recently we pointed to an explosive claim that there has been a recent ‘increase in abuse’ of the asylum system. This triggered the open borders industry. Clearly we struck a nerve. We cited as a source a June 2020 National Audit Office report (NAO) on immigration enforcement which examined a claim by the Home Office […]
The Home Secretary told a Parliamentary Committee that those crossing the Channel have previously rejected the option of seeking asylum while passing through safe countries. Ms Patel said ‘migrants had journeyed through other countries which were safe refuges’. She added: “France is a safe country, Germany is a safe country, Italy is a safe country, […]
The number of people arriving in the UK via illegal Channel crossing is on course to reach at least 7,500 in 2020 should they continue at the rate seen since January and in the absence of effective measures to stop them. The number of crossings in the year so far – 2,400 – is four […]
A majority of the public believe that the government is not doing enough to tackle illegal Channel crossings in small boats from France and Belgium. And, as a new Migration Watch UK paper highlights the many millions of pounds spent by the government with France on addressing illlegal immigration, we ask: ‘Are UK taxpayers getting […]