The Home Secretary had more than a year as Justice Secretary. She let out a lot of prisoners early, watched as wrongful releases rose in numbers, allowed a weakening of control over the prisons and was promoted to leave Mr Lammy with a difficult inheritance where he blamed his predecessors. She now tells us she…
The Home Secretary had more than a year as Justice Secretary. She let out a lot of prisoners early, watched as wrongful releases rose in numbers, allowed a weakening of control over the prisons and was promoted to leave Mr Lammy with a difficult inheritance where he blamed his predecessors.
She now tells us she is carrying out the biggest ever changes to our immigration system. I doubt that. The biggest changes have been made by the European Court of Human Rights endlessly extending the grounds to allow more and more people to come and stay against the wishes of many voters and past Ministers. Big changes were made during our period in the EU when we had to have open borders. Brexit has stopped the flows of EU nationals, only to see many more coming from non EU countries as government, the public sector employers and business have welcomed more and more in to take lower paid jobs and then to be joined by dependents.
The present package of measures can help a bit, but does not go far enough to stop the boats and smash the gangs, nor to relieve the pressures of legal migration on homes, infrastructure and benefits.
When will she produce draft legislation and when will it pass the Commons? Why the delay?
How can she limit the jurisdiction of the European Court of human rights over migration cases when the government is firm that it wishes to abide by international law and the Convention? She will need to negotiate and agree changes with the ECHR which will take time and give limited or no improvement.
When she says people granted asylum may need to return to their home countries if the UK view of these countries changes, how will she enforce deportation if the people want to stay? What will be the status of children born here to people granted refuge?
How often will the government make a new assessment of a country’s risks and status? Will Afghanistan under the Taliban ever be deemed safe? Sudan in civil war? Iran under the theocracy?
When she offers additional legal routes for people to seek asylum, will there be any limit on numbers? Could we see all the people currently coming by illegal boat simply being able to come legally with speedier processing? Will people using these legal routes require prior vetting on the continent before being allowed to come here by boat or plane from France?
It is important to both reduce legal migration substantially and stop illegal. These measures will not do either.
