Hardening the Clamp-down

As this blog previously mentioned, there was no mass invasion of the Euro-tunnel by thousands of migrants at Calais. Police sources rejected suggestions of a “mass storming” of the site. They said that both on Monday night and in the early hours of today there had been repeated breaches of the security fence by groups of around 50 migrants at a time. The total trespass figure on both nights included people who had tried to enter the terminal several times. A police source said, “It is wrong to say that there was ever a mass break-in by 2,000 people at one time.” 

According to French media nine people have been killed at the tunnel since the start of June in accidents as they tried to smuggle themselves on to vehicles.

Eurotunnel has also been partially blamed for the recent rise of problems at the freight terminal. In a letter to the president of the company, the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the number of private security guards at the terminal had been cut in three since 2002.

Meanwhile, immigrants living in Britain illegally will face immediate eviction from their homes without the necessity of requiring a court order. Under the Right to Rent scheme, landlords will be obliged to see evidence of a person’s right to remain in the UK by examining their passport or biometric residence permit. A new criminal offence will target landlords who fail repeatedly to carry out the “Right to Rent” checks or fail to remove illegal immigrants from their properties. They could be fined, jailed for up to five years or face further sanctions under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The government has also been accused of acting in a “morally reprehensible” way after the Home Office confirmed it was planning to strip families of the automatic right to benefits if their asylum applications were rejected. The government Is planning to bring the rules for asylum seekers with children into line with the rules for those without children. This means that unsuccessful asylum seeker families would lose their automatic right to benefits which entitle parents and children to £36.95 a week each through the Azure card system.

Lisa Doyle, the Refugee Council’s head of advocacy explained:“We have grave concerns about the government’s proposals to remove support from some of the most vulnerable families in the UK, many of whom fear there is real risk of serious harm or persecution to them and their children if returned to their countries of origin.

We know that the government frequently gets life-and-death decisions on asylum claims wrong, as nearly 30% of appeals are successful. This harsh proposal seems to be based on the flawed logic that making families destitute will coerce them into going home.

The government has a duty to protect all children in this country and previous governments have recognised it is morally reprehensible to take support away from families with children.”

In another move control immigration, cabinet minister Matt Hancock said people who do not speak fluent English will be barred from public sector jobs which involve working directly with the public. Managers will have to test employees can "communicate effectively with the public". They will also decide to what degree employees work in a “customer-facing” role.