Dear Sir,
The Tory plan to offshore illegal immigrants in Rwanda is doomed to failure, the flaws are obvious in the detail. Transporting illegals to a North Yorkshire processing centre, where there is ‘nothing’ the government can do to stop them absconding and disappearing into the black economy, begs the question; how many will stick around for a one-way ticket to Kigali?
For those that do not abscond, who decides who is sent to Rwanda? We know families will not be broken up, so those with children stay; A real incentive to risk the lives of more children on unseaworthy dinghies perhaps? Whilst singles threatened with deportation just reach for human rights legislation.
Unless our outdated loophole infested human rights legislation is updated, the problem is here to stay. And even if Patel sends a few headline numbers to Rwanda (which is highly unlikely), more than 600 to 1,000 can arrive in a single day. The stated capacity for the transit facility at Linton-on-Ouse is set to be 1,200, about two days’ worth of illegals.
Effective enforcement, of which there is none is required. The Home Office struggles to remove those with no right to be here as it is.
The Rwanda policy has gone down well with the Tory faithful, just in time for the local elections, but it won’t take long for the wheels to fall off. Pretty soon we’ll be back where we started. New reception facilities will fill up fast and hotels will still be used as overspill.
Apart from lack of enforcement is French intransigence. French cooperation is required.
On that score, the French are unlikely to cooperate because, well let’s face it, they’re French!
Ultimately it is not going to work. It will allow Johnson and Patel to shift the blame to the ‘woke’ human rights/open borders blob, but the problem remains. Patel’s borders bill is still choked up in parliamentary process and probably won’t survive legal challenges unless the government is willing to quit the Refugee Convention or suspend elements of it. Which it isn’t.
It should be clear now to all but the dimmest that the Tories (and Labour) have no intention of getting a grip on immigration. Illegals are the least likely to integrate, creating ever more economic and societal pressures.
The estimates are that a million or more illegal immigrants work off the books in the UK economy, and nothing has been done about it. The Tories are too afraid of the wailing from the liberal establishment to do what is necessary to secure Britain’s borders. The Tories are trying to con us with the Rwanda agreement and Patel’s borders bill, but it’s all smoke and mirrors.
Managing borders is only part of what needs to be done, but more must be done to ensure a hostile environment for those with no legal right to be here. Regular inspections of factories, farms and businesses and a Home Office that doesn’t flinch from deporting thousands every week. That demands more resources for local enforcement and the removal of civil servants if they frustrate the process. At the very least a full up passenger aircraft should be leaving the UK every day.
If countries refuse to take their illegals back, then we must refuse all visas and flights from those that do and cease overseas aid the same way we’ve sanctioned payments to Russia.
A failure to get serious about immigration will result in more crime and civil unrest later down the line, and a bigger right-wing backlash. The way to avoid a far-right government in the future is to elect one that is serious about immigration now.
Enforcing borders is not a far-right proposition. It is one of the most basic obligations of any government.
AndyMac