Illegal migrants in the United Kingdom will be granted an “amnesty” from any immigration enforcement actions if they come forward to receive free coronavirus vaccinations.
The government has instructed Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) to not perform any “immigration status checks” on anyone who is seeking to be vaccinated, as well as for any other coronavirus-related doctor visit.
The temporary amnesty comes amid a massive effort to vaccinate the population of Britain in order to develop herd immunity to the Chinese coronavirus.
On Sunday, a government spokesman confirmed the free pass for illegal migrants, telling the Daily Mail: “Coronavirus vaccines will be offered to everyone living in the UK free of charge, regardless of immigration status.”
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “The moral in this is that everyone needs to get the jab, for everyone’s safety.”
Commenting on the revelation, Dr Ben Greening, of Migration Watch UK, told Breitbart London: “The need to beat Covid is an urgent priority so maximising the number of vaccinations makes sense. It should not lead, however, to regularisation which would only encourage illegal behaviour and be an insult to law-abiding citizens and migrants alike.”
“Frankly the public would have much more confidence in actions such as this if the borders weren’t porous as swiss cheese and if there hadn’t been over 11,000 people arriving illegally across the Channel from safe countries since 2018.
“Instead of Covid providing the excuse for further decays in enforcement, it is all the more important – in the midst of the pandemic – to ensure the huge gaps in our borders are plugged. Failure to do so is a public safety and health risk. The public wants real control of immigration to be delivered as promised,” Dr Greening declared.
The chairman of the anti-mass migration pressure group, Alp Mehmet, added: “It would be short-sighted and a wasted opportunity if the Government does not now keep thorough records of how many illegal immigrants come forward. That would be absolutely batty.”
“More dither and delay is unacceptable. The British people demand we protect our borders — we must act now.” https://t.co/n8YnCea9Pj
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 1, 2021
It is understood that the amnesty will apply to all forms of illegal immigrants in the UK, including those who came to the country on the backs of lorries or on rubber boats across the English Channel.
The government has also claimed that those migrants who come forward for the jab will not be able to use it as a means of gaining legal status in the country.
The move was praised by the Conservative MP for Dover, Natalie Elphicke, who said: “Once people are in our country, it’s in all our interests to contain the virus. So vaccinating everyone whose turn it is on public health grounds, in the end, will protect us all.”
It is not known how many illegal immigrants are in the country. However, independent research conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2019 said that there could be as many as 1.2 million illegals in Britain.
Last year a record number 8,400 illegal immigrants were recorded to have crossed the English Channel from France. The true number of illegals last year will, in reality, be much higher, as the numbers do not reflect those who skirted Border Force detection or entered the country through other means.
Despite the banner year for illegal immigration, the number of people who were deported by Priti Patel’s Home Office fell by 79 per cent, with over 4,000 fewer convicted criminals being kicked out of the country compared to the previous year.
Report: UK ‘Flying Blind’ on Migration Numbers as Extra 1.25m People ‘Appear’ in Stats https://t.co/Um7xT1zb72
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 5, 2021
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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