Sajid Javid has questioned whether people crossing the English Channel are “genuine” asylum seekers, prompting criticism from opposition MPs, immigration experts and refugee charities.
Speaking during a visit to Dover yesterday, the Home Secretary said: “A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?”
“Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever,” he added.
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Javid also suggested that British authorities were likely to reject asylum applications by migrants in an effort to deter others from embarking on the same perilous journey, according to the Financial Times.
Last week, Javid declared a major incident and deployed additional patrol vessels to the Channel after an increase in the number of people attempting the crossing in small boats.
However, critics say the numbers involved are relatively low compared with major migration crises around the world. During the whole of 2018, 539 people made the journey.
The Refugee Council has described the Home Secretary’s remarks as “deeply concerning”.
“The outcome of an asylum application cannot be pre-judged before it has been made and must be processed on its individual merit, irrespective of how that person reached the country,” Dr Lisa Doyle, Director of Advocacy at the Refugee Council, told the BBC.
Labour MP Stella Creasy accused Javid of “normalising anti-refugee rhetoric,” while Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Ed Davey said his remarks “show that the Tories’ nasty, hostile environment is alive and well”.
Colin Yeo, a leading immigration and asylum barrister at Garden Court chambers, told The Guardian that Javid’s apparent threat to reject applications was illegal.
“I imagine the home secretary knows this, but if so it is depressing that he is still saying it as a way of trying to make himself sound tough,” he said.
“The latest asylum statistics show that around three-quarters of Iranian asylum claims succeed, so we are talking here about genuine refugees.”
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