FORMER Tory Party chairman Brandon Lewis has endorsed the idea of rehoming Channel migrants, à la Homes for Ukraine scheme, calling on charitable Brits to open their doors to newcomers to our shores.
This is what he writes in a foreword to a Policy Exchange report on the small boats emergency. (You can read the report by Dr Rakib Ehsan here.)
‘But should our generosity and humanitarian spirit be directed towards healthy young men from safe countries illegally crossing the Channel? I think most of us know the answer to that question.
‘Of course, we should all take pride in the UK’s rich history of rehoming some of the world’s most persecuted peoples. In more recent times, our country has quite rightly helped to resettle significant numbers of Ukrainians fleeing Kremlin-led militarism and Hong Kongers escaping the totalitarianism of the Chinese communist regime.
‘That is why I support Policy Exchange’s recommendation that a safe and legal route, with a cap directly controlled by Parliament, should be established – thereby enhancing the degree of democratic accountability in the sphere of immigration and asylum policy. As the report says, we must also do more to galvanise community efforts, such as by expanding of the sponsorship model for Ukrainian refugees to other nationalities – so that the burden of supporting refugees is spread evenly, rather than falling on the poorest.’
I have a fair idea who Mr Lewis is referencing in the rehoming scheme: genuine refugees and asylum seekers. The problem, though, is that those arriving on our shores are criminals, illegally taking the back door. I’d like to think that the majority of people in this country would send those arriving on dinghies back to France but that is not happening. Instead, they are taken to hotels to await processing of their ‘asylum claims’, essentially jumping the queue while those making legitimate claims to asylum are left to rot in the system. This is costing the country a whopping £3.5billion a year (£2.2billion for hotels) which, as the report highlights, is three times the amount spent on helping the homeless. With the government doing nothing to stop the boats, that figure is expected to rise.
In the report Dr Ehsan points to the Homes for Ukraine scheme which ‘has been described by the UK Government as a “significant success”’ before saying that ‘the UK Government should explore the possibility of expanding the Ukrainian-style sponsorship model for asylum seekers of other nationalities. With the UK being a multi-ethnic success story, there are now well-settled families and established communities of Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian origin with specific cultural assets that could help with the rehoming of asylum seekers and aid refugee integration. Charities such as Refugees at Home, along with organisations such as the Afghanistan & Central Asian Association, Iranian Association, the Federation of Iraqi Refugees, could play important roles in a wider refugee and asylum voluntary model co-ordinated by government. Volunteers could also be mobilised to help refugees improve their command of the English language, thereby reducing pressure on the ESOL budget and organically facilitating integration in local communities.’
For a start, I don’t know how on earth Dr Ehsan can describe Britain as a ‘multi-ethnic success story’ after the grooming scandals, various acts of terrorism, honour killings, drug trafficking, fraud and FGM. But with senior figures such as Brandon Lewis backing Dr Ehsan’s proposals, it looks as if ‘Homes for Everyone’ could be rolled out, leaving our indigenous homeless on the streets and those in temporary accommodation languishing for many more months, possibly years. I find it strange that while Dr Ehsan proposes this scheme for genuine asylum seekers, he’s added the recommendation to a report on small boat people, i.e. criminals who have sought to enter the country by illegal means. Most, if not all, will have thrown their papers into the sea and so will be processed like a genuine claimant. We’ll have no idea who these people are, what country they came from, whether they were fleeing violence or persecution or if they were fleeing the law, what criminal convictions they may have – nothing.
If Dr Ehsan, Brandon Lewis and government are wondering how to alleviate this gigantic drain on the public purse by criminals, let me make it plain to them. Turn them all away at the coast or border. Send all those currently residing in hotels to the airport and pack them off to the last country they came from. Since we don’t know where the majority originated, send them back to France and let them deal with it. After all, we’ve paid the French a small fortune to do something about this. Stop inward migration altogether until this debacle has been sorted out. It really isn’t that difficult.
Of course, they would point out that I was being horrifically naïve, what with the various migration treaties we’ve signed. Well, my suggestion would be to rip the treaties up. No voters asked for them. We were not given a choice in the matter. Pull out of whatever agreements we’ve made so we can finally sort out this problem.
As for those do-gooders who think that Britain’s citizens should open their homes to all-comers, let them do it. If they think that there’s nothing wrong with our immigration system as it is, despite the fact that Britain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, they can open their doors and let the world and his brother in. I’ll wait to hear when Mr Lewis puts out the welcome mat.
