UK announces harsher sentences for Channel
migrants
EURACTIV.com
with AFP 5 Jul 2021
Britain has
announced it will seek harsher sentences for migrants caught entering the country
without permission amid a record-breaking surge in arrivals over the English
Channel.
The
stricter prison sentences for both migrants and people smugglers come as part
of Home Secretary Priti Patel’s plans to overhaul asylum rules in a bid to prevent
what her department has characterised as “asylum shopping”.
The
legislation announced Saturday makes it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK
without permission, with a maximum sentence for those entering the country
unlawfully increasing from six months to four years.
Under the
law set for its first reading in parliament on Tuesday, people smugglers will
face life sentences, up from the current maximum of 14 years.
Patel said
the plans were “fair but firm”, adding that the UK would “welcome people through
safe and legal routes whilst preventing abuse of the system, cracking down on
illegal entry and the criminality associated with it”.
The bill’s
unveiling comes as the Britain’s asylum system strains under the pressure of a
record number of arrivals over the Channel.
A total of
nearly 6,000 migrants have made the dangerous crossing in the first six months
of 2021.
The total
number of 8,417 arrivals for the whole of 2020 is likely to be overtaken in the
next two months if trends continue, according to figures from the domestic
Press Association news agency.
The Home
Office said it was “very likely that those travelling to the UK via small boat
will have come from a safe European Union country in which they could have
claimed asylum”.
“Where this
is the case, they are not seeking refuge at the earliest opportunity or showing
good reason for seeking to enter the UK illegally but are instead ‘asylum
shopping’ by picking the UK as a preferred destination over others and using an
illegal route to get here,” it added.
The
government launched plans earlier this year for what it called the biggest
changes to asylum rules in decades, saying the current system was overwhelmed.
The plan
drew fire from refugee groups, who accused the ruling Conservatives of political
cynicism.
“Instead of
peddling deliberately misleading myths and untruths about asylum and migration,
the Home Office should be establishing safe routes for those few people
escaping persecution who wish to seek asylum here,” Amnesty International UK’s
refugee and migrant rights director said.
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