The real cause of the migrant crisis is neither migrants nor smuggling gangs – William Clouston
News that 20,000 illegal migrants have arrived since Labour came to power comes as no surprise. The government has no mechanism to deter them.
On the contrary, it continues to offer every incentive to new unauthorised arrivals. The bundle of inducements includes immediate free hotel accommodation, travel passes and cash allowances, together with a high likelihood of permanent settlement in Britain with full access to our social and other benefits. And these rights to our welfare system are gained without those benefitting having made any contribution to it.
The colossal financial costs of asylum migration to Western societies are finally emerging via research findings in states such as Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
A seminal study authored last year by economists from the University of Amsterdam (Borderless Welfare State, van de Beek et al) estimated the lifetime net cost of some categories of asylum migration was greater than €620,000 per person.
If such costs are in any way equivalent in Britain, then the 20,000 recent illegal arrivals could saddle our society with literally billions of pounds of future costs.
That is an alarming prospect for a state like the UK, which is running huge public sector deficits every year and whose stock of public debt is relentlessly expanding. I have no hesitation in describing those responsible – both Labour and the Tories – as utterly reckless and bereft of any sense of duty to protect social harmony or to secure national unity.
The ruling parties are playing a game with the public. Neither Labour nor the Tories are serious about reducing immigration, securing our border or stopping illegal migration. Their record speaks for itself – as the recently revised figures showed net migration to June 2023 climb to a staggering 906,000. Instead, they offer publicity stunts like the Rwanda scheme or soundbites such as ‘Smash The Gangs’. But advertising slogans are of no use to local people when unvetted young men – some from violent war zones – suddenly arrive uninvited and are placed in hostels and hotels in towns and cities throughout the country. Local people feel powerless and disrespected.
In truth, the British ruling class was simply not up to taking the Brexit freedoms on offer after 2016. They could have secured our border and protected the people by leaving the outdated postwar refugee conventions along with the ECHR.
They could have deterred border breaches by instituting offshore processing in a British overseas territory such as Ascension Island. As the Australians have proven, in such circumstances, the flow would immediately cease. Our governing class chooses not to because it lacks the courage to govern.
No doubt the public will deliver their verdict at the next election. In the meantime, the illegal flow of illegal migrants will grow, the social and economic costs will escalate and society will suffer.