Securing Our Borders and Tackling Illegal Immigration ● The UK has a proud history of supporting those in need of protection and our resettlement programmes have provided safe and legal routes for hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. ● Our response to the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Afghanistan, and the situation in Hong Kong have shown the world-leading role we play in protecting the most vulnerable. ● However we are facing a global migration crisis on an unprecedented scale; there are currently 80 million displaced people in the world, and people are dying attempting to cross the Channel in unseaworthy boats. Urgent change is needed to prevent evil people smugglers putting people’s lives at risk and to fix the broken global asylum system. ● The demands on the system, costs to the taxpayer and flagrant abuses are increasing every day. This cannot continue which is why we have brought forward the New Plan for Immigration to begin the biggest overhaul of our asylum system in decades. ● Encompassing the Nationality and Borders Act, and new agreements with partners globally (including the world-leading Migration Partnership with Rwanda), this Plan will secure our borders and tackle illegal migration. The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 ● The Nationality and Borders Act – the legislative framework for the New Plan for Immigration – became law at the end of April. ● It will deter illegal entry into the UK, break the business model of peoplesmuggling networks, and speed up the removal of those with no right to be in the UK. ● It will ensure that those who arrive illegally in the UK – who could have claimed asylum in another safe country – can be considered as ‘inadmissible’ to the UK’s asylum system. ● These key reforms will operate alongside a range of other new measures, to secure our borders and tackle illegal migration, including: o
tougher penalties for people smugglers with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment;
o
increasing the maximum penalty for illegally entering the UK or overstaying a visa to four years’ imprisonment; 120
