Boris Johnson’s government plans visas for 5,000 foreign drivers to meet demand, despite coronavirus lockdowns having put many British people out of work — with a senior Tory MP suggesting Afghans be used.
Driver shortages have led to shortages at petrol stations and a round of panic-buying, but rather than pressing employers to increase pay and establish training programmes for unemployed Britons — whose ranks have been significantly swelled by anti-coronavirus lockdown policies — Britain’s governing Conservative Party is, as ever, looking to bring in more foreign workers.
Temporary visas will be issued for around 5,000 foreign drivers primarily but not exclusively from the European Union, according to the BBC, with more details on the scheme expected on Sunday.
Tobias Ellwood, a senior backbench Member of Parliament (MP) for Johnson’s party and a former Defence minister, meanwhile, suggested “imaginative ideas” to supplement the driver drive in comments reported by the publicly-funded broadcaster.
“We could retrain hundreds of Afghan refugees, many of them are over here, they drove much bigger HGVs [Heavy Goods Vehicles] in their own countries,” he said.
“There are solutions out there but we need to act.”
Why the focus should not be on training British citizens — and British youngsters, in particular — was not explained.
Sweden Attack: Truck Mows Down Pedestrians in Stockholm https://t.co/HaoKuO08HM
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 7, 2017
Such a scheme would not be without risk, either, as migrants have previously made use of lorries in some of the deadliest radical Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe, including a ramming attack on crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice which killed 86 and injured 434 and a ramming attack on a Chrismas market in Berlin which killed 12 and injured 56.
Reports already indicate that some of the Afghans recently airlifted to Britain may be of questionable character, despite government efforts to keep the public in the dark.
One evacuee was found to have previously been on the British ‘no-fly’ list, while another — a former Special Forces commando — was detained by police following a dawn raid on the hotel he was staying at.
Some are known to have arrived with forged or no papers, and former interpreters need security due to the presence of “Taliban sympathisers” among their fellows.
Breitbart London has tried to make the Home Office disclose exactly how many Afghan evacuees arrived with inadequate or false documentation, were formerly on no-entry lists, or are persons formerly deported from Britain via a Freedom of Information Act request, but they have delayed answering beyond the 20-day statutory deadline while they consider whether it is in the “public interest” to keep this secret.
Former UK Veterans Minister: We’ve Taken in Afghan Evacuees ‘We Really Shouldn’t Have’ https://t.co/Z0kCsNjdOi
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 24, 2021
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