It is not illegal to cross the English Channel in a small boat - Yorkshire Post Letters

It is sad and disappointing that in the month that will see the first anniversary of a small boat capsizing in the English Channel with the loss of 27 people’s lives the Yorkshire Post chooses to print three letters spreading misinformation about the Refugees Crisis. (Yorkshire Post Letters, November 3, 2022).

It is not illegal to cross the English Channel in a small boat. Desperate people are prepared to take the risk because, unless you are from Ukraine or Afghanistan there are no safe routes open for asylum seekers to reach the UK.

People who cross the channel are not “illegal” if they apply for asylum on landing. If their application fails, they will become illegal and should be removed.

The problem in the UK is that only 4 per cent of asylum applications from people crossing in small boats are processed in a year.

Refugees do not have to apply for asylum in the first safe country they come to under the 1951 Refugee Convention which the UK is a signatory to. It is also a fact that France has more asylum applications than the UK and in terms of asylum applications per 1,000 head of population the UK comes 19th in a European league table.

France has also offered to set up a reception centre on French soil for the UK to “process” asylum seekers, but the UK government has snubbed the offer.

With regard specifically to Albanian asylum seekers (the new hate figures), the Albanian government has offered to work with the UK government but has been ignored.

When the Home Secretary uses language like “an invasion” or that she dreams of sending people to Rwanda it is not misogynistic to call that out. Let’s be clear that it is the language of a fascist and has no place in a modern democracy like the UK.