Britain's new Labour government's plans to offer a virtual amnesty to illegal immigrants could result in more than 40,000 foreigners being added to Britain's welfare rolls, an internal government impact assessment has found.
The Home Office is assessing Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plans to end the “duty to remove” illegal immigrants to overseas asylum processing centres in third countries such as Rwanda or their home countries, which could result in tens of thousands of extra welfare recipients. Daily Mail Reports.
More than 63,000 illegal immigrants were due to be deported by the previous Conservative government, but Starmer's government is reportedly planning to grant asylum to more than 44,000 people, effectively giving illegal immigrants an amnesty to remain in the UK and give them “full access” to British welfare benefits.
“Asylum seekers who are granted asylum will have full access to, and are obliged to contribute to, the welfare system to support them while they are unemployed,” the Home Office document reportedly said.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper claimed last month that scrapping the Rwanda and compulsory removal regime would save taxpayers around £7 billion, but Conservative MP Nick Timothy estimates that the welfare costs of granting amnesty to migrants could cost the country £17.8 billion over their lifetimes.
“Labour's plan is to rush all these cases through the asylum system, put migrants on welfare and hide the cost from the public of tens of billions of dollars,” Timothy said.
UK PM Starmer backs down plan to expel Rwandan migrants on first day: reportshttps://t.co/ViOKpYhfRa
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 6, 2024
Responding to the reports, Robert Jenrick, a former Conservative immigration minister and potential Conservative leadership candidate, said: “Sir Keir has kowtowed to people-smuggling rings by granting an amnesty to illegal immigrants – and it is the British taxpayer who will pay a heavy price for his kowtow.”
“Sir Keir's decision will only exacerbate problems like GP waiting lists, council housing shortages and pressures on school places. Instead of putting British people first, Labour will saddle local councils with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who they should be removing.”
A Labour spokesman said: “This scenario is unrealistic. Under a Conservative government, everyone who arrived here, regardless of nationality, would have been stuck in taxpayer-paid accommodation, including asylum hotels, forever, with no prospect of being removed. Continuing like this would have cost between £30 billion and £40 billion – twice the police budget.”
“Figures released last week show that their disorganised approach has created a record backlog of asylum claims, with more than 220,000 people currently in the asylum system.”
A further 526 illegal immigrants crossed the English Channel from France on Tuesday, bringing this year's total to more than 20,000. According to GB News calculates that there are more than 6,000 illegal immigrants. Landed The move comes as Britain has been battling the virus since Starmer's Labour party came to power last month.
On Wednesday morning, Reform UK leader and MP Nigel Farage wrote: pointed out “526 people crossed the Channel yesterday. At the time of writing there are 11 boats in the middle of the Channel and we have not heard a word from the Prime Minister.”
Former government minister says illegal immigrants are costing UK taxpayers £14 billion a year to public serviceshttps://t.co/rV48qxgtDz
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 8, 2024
