Question from Mr David K Holdaway on 13th September 2014
From my own personal experience as a now retired police officer, why were people found in GB and considered to be here illegally, directed by the police and the border agency to voluntarily report to the immigration service at Lunar House, Wellesly Rd, Croydon? It makes nonsense of our secure borders. They should be detained until lawful entry is permitted, or deported, not allowed to disappear in our country.
Reply
Dear Mr Holdaway
Thank you for your question, in time for the next election.
The basic reason for the behaviour you describe is that the Home Office, and government more generally, don’t take border controls seriously (and never have done).
There is still deep in the British official psyche a hankering for pre-1962, or even pre-1914 (!) free movement of Commonwealth people which now subconsciously extends to the whole world.
Every single thing the government does about immigration is reluctant and reactive to events like the closure of the Cambridge asylum-seekers’ detention centre in 2010. They never anticipate trouble.
Immigration is the Cinderella of the Home Office, itself seen as the graveyard of political ambition, and so attracts ambitious mediocrities like Lin Homer (now unbelievably head of HMRC). The top brass in the Police Force take their cue from the Home Office.
What is to be done?
Please read chapter 8.1 (page 74) and Appendix 8.2 (page 126) of “A Brexit Blueprint: Britain Revitalised and Independence Regained”. This is available on Britain Watch as a pdf at the bottom of the page you will find if you click on BushBrexit2.
This was a prize winning entry for the 2014 Institute of Economic Affairs international Brexit[1] competition. Chapter 8.1 defines policy for immigration. Appendix 8.2 sets out a system for actually controlling immigration and residency according to the policy. Obviously under the policy illegal asylum seekers should be escorted to the nearest detention centre and deported to their country of origin or, if they prefer, the “safe” country they were last in before entering the UK, as you suggest. The world should be told by leaflet, BBC broadcast, on Twitter and Facebook, that illegal entry to the UK will always be followed by deportation with no appeal to the UK courts allowed.
Best wishes
Prof Stephen Bush
[1] “Brexit” is code for British Exit from the EU. The IEA asked for essays of up to 20,000 words main text to set out what a British government should do at home and abroad in the event that the British people voted to leave the EU. This essay thus forms the first shot in the Brexit referendum campaign.