NGOs have demanded Britain totally open its borders to illegal immigration and fly in migrants’ families from across the globe after four people died off the French coast in an attempt to reach UK shores.
Groups including Save the Children, which is funded by some of the world’s richest individuals and corporations including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, called for the government to expand “safe and legal” migration routes for the effectively unlimited number of people in the world who could seek to “flee” to Britain from “poverty”.
The push for open borders, which is being heavily publicised across the United Kingdom and even international media, comes after a family of two adults and two children from Iran died when their boat capsized in the English Channel. A 15-month-old baby who was with them is also missing.
Refugee Action declared that the deaths were “entirely inevitable” and that the situation would be repeated unless the government allow would-be migrants from across the globe to resettle in Britain.
“If you look at the particular people in this boat, as far as we can see they were from Iran and if you think about the journey they will have taken, there are many ways in which focusing on safe and legal routes could have potentially prevented them from thinking about crossing the English Channel,” said Naor Hilton, the NGO’s head of asylum.
Hilton gave no indication that migrants might themselves bear some responsibility for drownings in the Channel, particularly of children, despite the publication of undercover footage showing youngsters being ordered onto boats despite begging not to go on them.
“We have been fearing that something like this would happen since earlier in the year as the number of [Channel crossings] increased and as the government’s response focused on talking tough and creating hostile environments for the people arriving,” Hilton added.
It is not entirely clear what “hostile environment” he could be referring to, however, as the British government has turned back no boats intercepted at sea and deported only a tiny minority of their passengers after their arrival.
All children deserve to be safe from harm.
The British and French governments must work together to expand safe and legal routes for desperate families fleeing conflict, persecution, and poverty.
The English Channel must not become a graveyard for children. https://t.co/DEGMEMLONH
— Save the Children UK (@savechildrenuk) October 28, 2020
Earlier this month Breitbart London noted how some 9,500 asylum seekers who broke into Britain are being housed at taxpayers’ expense in 91 hotels around the country, with between 20 and 50 of these — including some with four-star ratings — reported to be benefiting from a £4 billion ten-year contract with the government to accommodate illegal immigrants.
With record thousands of migrants having successfully crossed the English Channel this year, more than triple the figure recorded in 2019, other newcomers are living in open camps at disused military facilities such as Napier Barracks, where illegal arrivals are provided with taxpayer-funded mobile phones, as well as having access to “TVs, WiFi and sports equipment”.
Head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, Andy Hewett, asserted that the “tragic loss of life needs to be turning point for the UK government who can act now”.
“The lack of safe and regular routes into the UK for people fleeing war and persecution leaves them with little choice but to undertake these dangerous journeys,” he claimed, apparently not considering that they might opt not to attempt to enter Britain illegally via small boats, and instead claim asylum in France or any of the other safe countries most will have passed through en route to the Channel coast.
“The government urgently needs to increase access to safe and regular routes, including changing the family reunion [chain migration] rules to enable more refugees to be reunited with their family members, immediately restarting the UK’s resettlement programme, and explore the development of humanitarian visas to enable people to make a claim for asylum without having to risk their lives,” he added.
Labour Unveils Retro Class-War Manifesto, Chain Migration, Voting for Children and Foreigners https://t.co/3VbhgQIGqB
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 21, 2019
The government has stated that it is against expanding family reunification laws as demanded by open borders campaigners as well as Labour and Scottish National Party (SNP) MPs, stressing that such a change would “create perverse incentives for people, particularly children, to leave their families and risk dangerous journeys hoping relatives can join them later”.
On Wednesday, Environment Secretary George Eustice noted that Britain is already in the top five countries in the world for the number of refugees resettled in the country at taxpayers’ expense, insisting illegal immigrants have “no reason” to cross the English Channel.
Blasting “callous gangs” for making money pressuring people to make the journey, he told BBC Breakfast: “There is no reason for them to make this crossing, they are in safe countries, they are in the EU, they are in France.
“There isn’t a rationale, they’re not in danger and there is no reason for them to make a particular crossing. They are being encouraged to do so by gangs that are taking their money.”
UN Insists Record Boat Migrant Numbers ‘Not a Threat’ to Britain https://t.co/i7G63RHfAm
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 1, 2020
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