Robert Jenrick to attack SNP for being 'humanitarian NIMBYs' on migrants

Opponents of the Government’s crackdown on small boat Channel crossings are “humanitarian NIMBYs” unwilling to see more migrants in their own areas, the immigration minister will say on Tuesday.

In a speech, Robert Jenrick will accuse politicians who promote “open borders”of “virtue-signalling” when in reality they refuse to take their fair share of asylum seekers.

The main target of his attack will be the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales as data show the whole of Scotland has provided fewer spaces for migrants in hotels than the London borough of Kensington.

His speech at the thinktank Policy Exchange comes ahead of Wednesday’s report stage of the Illegal Migration Bill in the Commons where ministers face revolts by Tory MPs over their plans for child detention, curbs on modern slavery claims and new powers to ignore European judges’ orders.

It also coincides with attacks on the plans by a Council of Europe migration committee which described the bill as a "wilful distortion of core UN and European conventions which the UK itself contributed to designing”.

It followed the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which said it remained "seriously concerned" that the Bill could put the UK in breach of its international legal obligations and expose migrants to “serious harms”.

Mr Jenrick will, however, defend the bill - which effectively bars illegal migrants from claiming asylum in the UK - as a necessary radical overhaul because “tweaks to our broken system will not suffice”.

He will claim it provides a coherent 21st-century system to counter global mass movement with “zero tolerance of illegal migration” coupled with “generous resettlement routes”.

He will label proponents of open borders “naive” and invariably “humanitarian NIMBYs” who “rhetorically welcome refugees, but then fail to take their fair share”.

“These politicians grandstand and virtue-signal their supposed generosity. But there is nothing virtuous about making generous offers at the expense of others when it comes to housing supply, waiting lists and the tax burden,” he will say.

Scotland has provided hotel spaces for just 500 migrants compared with 600 currently being housed in Kensington and Chelsea. It is understood that Wales has even fewer migrants in hotels than Scotland.

It means that Scotland accounts for just one per cent of the 51,000 migrants being housed in hotels even though it represents eight per cent of the UK’s population.

Mr Jenrick will say western Governments have to re-establish the integrity of their borders as they enter an “age of mass migration” fuelled by individuals displaced by war and climate change and increased mobility.

“The consequence of this has been unprecedented amounts of illegal migration which has placed our public services under strain, weakened community cohesion and set back integration efforts,” he says.

“If states are to retain their sovereignty – their ability to exclude individuals from their territory – then they need to find new ways to enforce their laws. Deterrence must be restored. Those that make illegal journeys must know that it will be a futile endeavour.”

This is why, he will say, the illegal migration bill - which gives ministers unprecedented power to detain and remove migrants who enter illegally - is required.

However, ministers are expected to face a revolt on Wednesday from at least 20 Tory MPs, led by former minister Tim Loughton, who want restrictions on the Home Office’s powers to detain unaccompanied child migrants.

They want time limits of up to 72 hours to be written into the legislation with courts required to sign off any extension of detention beyond that.

Ministers have so far just offered concessions that unaccompanied child migrants will only be detained under limited circumstances, including where they are to be removed to be reunited with a family overseas or if the Home Office disputes their claim to be under 18.

A number of senior Tories, including Sir Bob Neill, the chairman of the Commons Justice Committee, have also warned that they will not support the Bill in its current form if it leads to the Home Secretary ignoring so-called rule 39 injunctions from the European Court of Human Justice (ECHR).

The orders – described by some Tory MPs as “pyjama injunctions”– were used late at night by a single judge at the European Court of Human Rights in June to ground the first flight to Rwanda.

Former Tory leaders Theresa May and Sir Iain Duncan Smith are pushing to exempt migrants who are victims of modern slavery in the UK from the detention and removal.

Excessive illegal migration threatens to cannibalise Britons' compassion for asylum, says minister

Excessive illegal migration threatens to “cannibalise” the compassion that Britons have for asylum seekers, the immigration minister has warned.

In a speech, Robert Jenrick warned that the uncontrolled influx of migrants with “different lifestyles” was undermining “social trust and cohesiveness” as he insisted Governments must tighten their borders in an “era of mass migration.”

He said violent protests against migrants housed in hotels such as that in Knowsley, Merseyside, were a “warning to be heeded” and demonstrated how the current scale of illegal migration was outstripping the capacity of local services to cope.

Speaking at the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange, he suggested post-war international refugee and human rights treaties needed to be “refreshed” to make them fit for a different age.

Ministers were on Tuesday night engaged in talks to head off a revolt by up to 30 Tory MPs led by former minister Tim Loughton over plans to detain unaccompanied child migrants. Ministers were said to have accepted any extension to detention would have to be agreed by judges but were still wrangling over the time limit.

It is understood ministers have backed down on the one rebel amendment by former minister Tim Loughton that could have seen a revolt in the voting lobby by up to 30 Tory MPs. They have agreed to time-limit the detention of unaccompanied child migrants and that any extension has to be agreed by judges.

Spelling out why he believed the Government’s tougher approach to illegal migration was needed, Mr Jenrick said: “Put simply, excessive, uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion that marks out the British people.

“Those crossing tend to have completely different lifestyles and values to those in the UK and tend to settle in already hyper diverse areas, undermining the cultural cohesiveness that binds diverse groups together and makes our proud multi ethnic democracy so successful. 

“The current numbers of people arriving here illegally surpass any reasonable numbers that the state could be expected to provide or integrate successfully into our national community.”

Some 51,000 migrants are being held in hotels at a cost of up to £7 million a day, after a record 45,755 crossed the Channel last year.

“I firmly believe that we have to tackle [migrants in hotels] or we will lose the trust and respect of the British public. While I've always condemned violence, some of the protests that we've seen in places like Knowsley are a warning to be heeded, not a phenomenon to be managed,” said Mr Jenrick.

“We need to listen to public concern and act upon it. And the kind of approach we're setting out here is the beginning of that.” As well as the bill, the Home Office has identified larger sites such as former military bases and barges moored offshore to which to decant 10,000 migrants from hotels.

He said the Government had already raised with France’s President Emmanuel Macron the need to “refresh” international refugee frameworks to “maintain their relevance in an age of mass migration.”

“Writing in the aftermath of the Second World War and motivated by its horrors, the authors of the post war settlements would be shocked by the fact that the system they founded has become mired in organised criminality and exploited by economic migrants,” said Mr Jenrick.

He defended plans to detain unaccompanied children, but only for “initial processing” and for age assessments to prevent young adults posing as children.

Theresa May and Sir Iain Duncan Smith are seeking modern slavery victims in the UK should be exempted from removal but Mr Jenrick stressed it was a legitimate “suspension” of the protections to prevent the trafficking law being exploited by people smuggling gangs.