Home Office's open-door policy is a magnet for migrants, says ANN WIDDECOMBE
KENT County Council is preparing legal action against the Home Office because it is expected to cope with all the unaccompanied children who end up arriving at its ports, claiming asylum. It is a long overdue decision. The problem is the nation's, not just Kent's.
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Furthermore, the Home Office has for too long shirked its responsibilities on this one. I well remember the late Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, telling me, when he was Chairman of the Council, that he had gone to observe immigration in action at Dover and had found people claiming to be 15 when they were visibly middle-aged! Yet they were processed as minors. Our immigration crisis has always come down to a lack of real will. People claim a nationality whose language they cannot speak. They lie about where they have come from and why.
They tell heart-rending stories which deceive kind-hearted do-gooders (remember the rapist saved from deportation by naïve passengers on the plane?) And among this stream of economic migrants are a few genuine, seriously frightened refugees who will face long delays in having their claims determined.
The message should be "If you come to Britain with a false claim, you will be detained, you will be dealt with quickly and you will be sent back." Instead, it is "Come to Britain and the chances of being sent back are remote."
Of course, sending people back is not as easy as it sounds. The receiving country must accept them as nationals, safe countries through which they may have passed and in which they should have made their claim, may resist return. France, a perfectly safe country, is used by countless migrants as a base from which to get illegally into Britain.
I tuned into the BBC's new evening drama northern prison. It is realistic and left me just how long it will be can keep non-violent safe. It was marred only mumbling of the chap who the prison officer. Why the BBC continue to poor articulation ruin show after show?
Yet if Britain put a bit more effort into establishing nationality and detaining all applicants securely while that was done, the incentive to try it on here would be lost. But it needs real will, determined effort and, initially, money. Over to you, Priti.