The British Prime Minister announced that the UK’s new immigration policy is working. Six months after the introduction of the new regulations, Rishi Sunak said the number of sea crossings into the UK has fallen by 20 per cent this year. It is not the smugglers, he said, but the government that decides who can enter the UK.
Migrants arrive on British shores by boat. In recent years, they have arrived in the island nation in the thousands. According to statistics, the number of immigrants always jumps in the summer months, with the arrival of favorable weather conditions. Between July and September last year, more than twenty thousand illegal immigrants entered the UK in this way. This is two and a half times the number that arrived in the same period in 2021.
Shortly after taking office, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the London government’s new immigration policy, in which it promised to prevent illegal immigrants from arriving in the country by small boats by any means possible.
Half a year after the anti-immigration policy came into force, Rishi Sunak himself boarded a British Coast Guard ship to see for himself against the white cliffs of Dover that the measures had yielded results, reducing the number. from illegal crossings.
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“What we planned works. For the first time, the number of crossings decreased by 20%. But we cannot be satisfied with this result yet. We know that this problem cannot be solved overnight, and that they will continue to arrive illegally in our country this summer. But the bottom line is we have a law and our guiding principle is clear: the state and government decide who can enter the UK, not people smugglers. I will do everything to make it happen, I promised that we would stop the shipssaid the British Prime Minister.
A focal point of the immigration policy of Rishi Sunak’s government is that those who cross the British border illegally cannot remain in Britain under any circumstances.
The government in London announced in May that it would house illegal immigrants on huge pontoon boats while immigration proceedings were carried out against them. 500 unmarried men will be given temporary accommodation on the three-deck barge Bibby Stockholm, and two similar ships will also be used for this. This allows them to save significant money, because until now they have been renting hotels to accommodate illegal immigrants for several months or even years.
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Illegal immigration undermines the integrity of our immigration system. This is why we want to stop the ships and secure our borders. “This bill serves that purpose,” Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said before the vote in parliament.
As part of the government’s immigration policy, London has an immigration agreement with Rwanda.
This agreement also includes a major economic financing package for the central African country. It also allows those who enter the UK illegally and then apply for asylum to be resettled in Rwanda by the British authorities, without any numerical restrictions.
Meanwhile, 1,800 Albanian citizens have been expelled from the UK in the past six months. 30 percent of those arriving illegally by sea are Albanians. London also reached an agreement with Tirana that Albania would take back its deported citizens.
Featured Image: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Dover on June 5, 2023. (Photo by Yui Mok – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
