Migrant boats will be turned and sent back across the Channel

Migrant boats will be turned and sent back across the Channel
Migrant boats will be turned and sent back across the Channel

Priti Patel will today unveil powers for UK Border Force to turn away migrant boats in a new bid to tackle the Channel crisis and shake up the asylum system

Priti Patel will today unveil powers for UK Border Force to turn away migrant boats in a new bid to tackle the Channel crisis and shake up the asylum system

Priti Patel will today unveil powers for UK Border Force to turn away migrant boats in a new bid to tackle the Channel crisis and shake up the asylum system.

The Home Secretary's masterplan will slash asylum rights for migrants who arrive in Britain illegally, and target trafficking gangs.

Writing exclusively in today's Daily Mail, Miss Patel reveals how gun-wielding people smugglers forced a migrant couple to separate from their daughters over the weekend.

The parents were made to travel in another boat to the UK, adding to fears that trafficking leaves children open to awful exploitation. The two girls, both under 12, had not been accounted for last night.

Publication of the Nationality and Borders Bill today is being heralded as the biggest shake-up of the asylum system for a generation.

It will see UK Border Force granted new powers to 'stop and redirect vessels out of UK territorial seas', provided the French authorities agree.

Border Force will also be able to seize boats at sea, and to forcibly disembark migrants from boats when necessary.

Miss Patel said: 'Access to the UK's asylum system should be based on need, not the ability to pay people smugglers. While people are dying and families are suffering at the hands of gangs, we have to act, and act quickly.'

Migrants who enter the UK without permission will face potential criminal charges and up to four years in prison.

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on July 4

A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, on July 4

Under Miss Patel's new 'two-tier' asylum system, illegal entrants will be given far fewer privileges. Even if they have a legitimate claim to refugee status, illegal migrants will be granted only permission to stay in this country temporarily, for up to 30 months. They will be barred from claiming most welfare benefits and their ability to bring relatives here will be curtailed.

By comparison, asylum seekers who apply in advance to come here through legal routes – such as through the United Nations' refugee agency – and are successful, will win permission to come to Britain immediately, and will be allowed to stay indefinitely. Other elements in the wide-ranging legislation include a streamlining of the asylum appeals process. Lawyers who bring hopeless immigration claims will be more likely to be hit with a bill for the Home Office's costs.

It comes after Border Force intercepted 221 migrants on small boats on Sunday, bringing the total to have reached Britain this year to just under 6,600, compared with a record 8,400 in the whole of 2020. But Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council charity, said last night: 'This anti-refugee Bill will drive an already inefficient and ineffective system into disarray with even worse delays and far greater expense.'

PRITI PATEL: This sickening trade in humans by vile gangs must end

By Priti Patel  

Home Secretary Priti Patel

Home Secretary Priti Patel

On Sunday evening, I received a call from Border Force officials, who told me a family trying to cross the Channel had been separated.

People smugglers in Northern France had, at

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