Britain’s newspapers are filled almost daily with stories of horrific crimes carried out by illegal migrants. Yet the Labour government—much like the Conservative administration that preceded it—continually refuses to take decisive action, opting instead to tinker around the edges of the issue at hand.
Ministers said on Saturday they are preparing new plans which would see those who advertise Channel crossings or fake passports on social media face up to five years in prison. A nice side measure, perhaps, but nowhere near significant enough to effect any change on its own.
Dr Annette Idler, director of the Global Security Programme at Oxford University, dismissed it as going after the “very small players in this really huge illicit economy.” She stressed that those who advertise the crossings “can be very easily replaced.”
‘We’ve learnt our lesson with the war on drugs: this isn’t going to stop it.’
Dr Annette Idler, Director of the Global Security Programme at Oxford University, reacts to the Home Office’s new plan to fine smugglers advertising Channel crossings online. pic.twitter.com/eaqZh6xGCt
But Keir Starmer’s administration still won’t take the bigger steps, such as leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, Britain’s membership of which makes effective border control an impossibility.
This becomes all the more difficult to justify as public frustration mounts over the activities of migrants engaging in illegal activities, including violent crime.
Reports emerged on Sunday of a Sudanese asylum seeker who has been charged with attempting to kidnap a 10-year-old girl—in front of her father—while staying in a three-star hotel on the taxpayer’s purse.
On the same day, police were also accused of covering up an alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl by Afghan asylum seekers. Reform leader Nigel Farage fumed that “the rape and sexual assault of our young girls is a direct result of the weakness of Tory and Labour governments.” He said all those behind these assaults should be deported.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
