Boat suppliers have been warned that they face organised crime groups coming to them to buy or steal vessels and equipment for smuggling people across the Channel ahead of an expected increase over the summer.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has issued an alert to the UK maritime industry, warning that the significant rise in asylum seekers attempting to reach the UK from France has seen a rise in demand for boats.
Q&AHow is the UK government proposing to change the UK's asylum system?
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The home secretary, Priti Patel, says her immigration proposals amount to “the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades”. The key measures being put out for consultation are:
- Asylum seekers deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive in the country via legal routes. Even if their claim is successful, they will be granted temporary refugee status and face the prospect of being indefinitely liable for removal.
- The government wants to amend legislation to make it possible to move asylum seekers from the UK while their asylum claim or appeal is pending. This will keep the option open to develop the capacity for offshore asylum processing.
- For those who have been deemed to have arrived illegally, access to benefits and family reunion rights could be limited.
- The appeals and judicial process will be reformed to speed up removals of those whose claims are refused.
- The home secretary will be able to offer protection to vulnerable people in “immediate danger and at risk in their home country” in exceptional circumstances. It is thought this will be used to help a small number of people.
- The system will be made “much harder for people to be granted refugee status based on unsubstantiated claims” and will include “rigorous age assessments” to stop adult migrants pretending to be children. The government is considering the use of bone scanners to determine age.
- Life sentences will be brought in as a maximum penalty for people smugglers.
- Foreign criminals who breach deportation orders and return to the UK could be jailed for up to five years instead of the current six months.
- A new one-stop legal process is proposed so that asylum, human rights claims and any other protection matters are made and considered together before appeal hearings.
Jamie Grierson Home affairs correspondent
UK law enforcement detected more than 8,000 migrant arrivals over the Channel throughout 2020, more than four times the total in 2019, as other routes into the UK were hit by the coronavirus pandemic. However, overall asylum claims in the UK were down.
The NCA said criminal groups targeted legitimate sellers of vessels and equipment such as outboard motors and lifejackets, in person and online, while there also have been incidents of boats and equipment being stolen.
The NCA alert outlines a number of examples of suspicious activity, including:
Cash being used in large sums to make payment
Unusual combination of boats and equipment in one transaction
Enquiries about bulk buying of equipment (eg lifejackets)
Repeat buying of boats and equipment from the same retailer
Lack of concern about the condition of the boat or equipment being bought, or an indication that it may not be for the buyer’s use
Customers wanting to complete their transaction and collection as quickly as possible
Online buyers travelling to collect the boat and/or avoiding providing a fixed delivery address
The NCA’s head of organised immigration crime operations, Miles Bonfield, said: “Essentially, we want people to follow their gut feeling. They know their industry and their customers well.”
The arrival of migrants over the Channel in part inspired a proposed overhaul of the asylum system called “inhumane” by the British Red Cross.
Spearheaded by the home secretary, Priti Patel, who came under pressure last year for failing to get a grip on the rising numbers of boat arrivals, the reforms would see migrants who arrive in the UK by small boats or other illegal routes indefinitely liable for removal even if they are granted asylum.
The home secretary pledged to remove people who entered the UK illegally having travelled through a “safe country” in which they could and should have claimed asylum, though having exited the EU-wide system for facilitating such removals it is not clear how the UK would achieve this, least of all because a number of EU states have said they would not cooperate.