Modern slavery loophole to be shut for foreign criminals and illegal migrants

Foreign criminals and illegal migrants who claim to be victims of modern slavery face deportation under new rules, as the number of claimants hit a new record high.

Almost 17,000 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office last year, 33 per cent up on 2021 and the highest figure on record.

Albanians overtook UK nationals as the most commonly referred nationality, with people from Eritrea the third most referred.

Albanians accounted for 4,659 modern slavery claimants, an 86 per cent jump from 2,508 last year and the highest on record fuelled by the surge in cross-Channel migrants from the Balkan state. It meant that 27.5 of all people referred were of Albanian origin.

New rules will allow ministers to deport any foreign criminal who has served more than a year in jail or has been convicted of serious offences, even if they claim they are victims of modern slavery.

Any migrant who makes repeated false claims to have been a victim of modern slavery will also be removed to combat what ministers claim is abuse of the system.

The threshold for claims will be raised to make it harder for migrants to claim to be victims and delay their removal from the UK while their case is considered.

Under the new rules, migrants will be expected to provide objective evidence of modern slavery, such as medical reports on physical or psychological harm, toughening the current rules which allow claims on the basis of “suspicion” of abuse.

This came on top of an agreement with Albania to allow the UK to detain and return migrants who claim to be victims of modern slavery to have their cases processed in the Balkan state.

Although fewer than one in 10 Albanians who claim to be victims of modern slavery currently have their cases rejected at the initial stage, ministers believe the changes will allow the “vast majority” of applications to be declared unfounded.

The news came ahead of a new small boats Bill expected to be unveiled next week that will bar any migrants who seek to enter the UK illegally from claiming asylum in the UK.

The new laws will mean that anyone entering the UK illegally will be detained and returned either to their home country or to a safe country, such as Rwanda, where their claim for asylum will be considered.

A total of 2,950 migrants have reached the UK on small boats so far this year, compared with 1,484 in the first two months of 2022. 

This puts the Channel crossings on course to hit the upper estimate of the Home Office modelling of 85,000, compared with 45,728 in 2022 and 28,526 in 2021.

The winter crossings have been fuelled by a surge in Afghans, who have overtaken Albanians as the nation with the most arrivals, and Indians who have emerged as a growing presence on the small boats. 

The number of Albanians, many of whom work their way across Europe during the spring and summer, are expected to increase in the coming months.