Writing in an opinion piece, Shadow Home Office Minister Katie Lam said the footage of tens of thousands of illegal migrants, the vast majority of them young men, pouring across the Spanish border at Ceuta was “truly horrifying”.
She argued the influx did not appear out of thin air, pointing to Spain as the starkest example of how a soft touch on illegal migration only invites more of the same.
Spain's amnesty and court ruling
In April, the Spanish Government announced plans to grant an amnesty to almost all of the country's illegal migrants. It predicted that half a million people would apply for legal settlement, but more than a million have applied for the scheme so far.
Earlier this month, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that migrants arriving in Ceuta by sea could not be automatically removed to Morocco. Instead, they have to be processed through Spain's ordinary immigration system. Ms Lam said the decision sent a clear signal to migrant smuggling networks that they would face no real consequences for helping people into Spain.
Once in Spain, she said, illegal migrants would be able to seek asylum en masse and, thanks to the EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum, spread out across the continent. All EU states would be obliged to host a share of them, or otherwise assist in and pay for their resettlement. She asked what possible deterrent there was for crossing illegally into Spain.
UK making the same mistakes
Ms Lam described the situation as a wake-up call for the UK Government, which she said is disgracefully making “essentially the same mistakes” as the Spanish Government. She noted that Labour scrapped rules introduced by the previous Government that banned illegal migrants from seeking asylum, and that fewer than one in six rejected asylum seekers are removed from the country.
She also pointed out that the Home Secretary is talking about opening up more “safe and legal routes”, with “community organisations” allowed to sponsor asylum seekers.
A deterrent needed
As Spain's example shows, Ms Lam wrote, if national governments will not take their borders seriously, illegal migrants will not either. A soft touch on mass migration today always means more mass migration tomorrow.
To prevent Europe's immigration crisis from adding to the UK's own crisis at the border, she argued, the Government must make clear that those who come to the country illegally will never be allowed to stay. That means leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and swiftly removing everybody who arrives illegally. If the Government does not act now, Spain's self-imposed immigration crisis could soon filter through to British shores.
