Starmer must wake up from ‘pipe dream’ of crushing gangs | Politics | News

Labor has been criticized for its ‘open invitation’ to migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria under a ‘fast track’ scheme.

Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet warned that processing claims more quickly “does nothing of the sort” and simply “transfers the burden to local authorities and strengthens the already powerful magnet” that draws asylum seekers to Britain.

He said: “It is an open invitation for anyone who claims to be from these countries to come here,” he said. ‘Starmer’s speech today… effectively ends border control. Full of platitudinous waffles.

“He called on the world to ‘wake up to the challenge of human trafficking’ – if only he would wake up from his dream of destroying the gangs.”

The Prime Minister today announced a £75 million spending drive on border security at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow, as both he and the Home Secretary vowed to ‘root out’ the networks of criminal smuggling gangs.

Some of that will go towards dealing with ‘unprocessed claims’, the Prime Minister said – but the plan is planned as ‘an effective abandonment of border control’.

Mr Mehmet called the £75m boost “peanuts”.

Speaking to GB News, he said: “While additional resources to tackle illegal Channel crossings are welcome, there is still no sign that the Government wants to do business with small boats.

‘Only by making it clear that illegal arrivals cannot stay will the right message be sent to human traffickers and migrants.

Speaking at an Interpol event in Glasgow yesterday, Sir Keir said: ‘I think we need to get all the cases through the system much more quickly.

“One of the problems we have is that the previous government did not process the claims. This has landed us in the worst of all worlds, namely unprocessed claims.

“More and more people are being added to the list of people who need to be treated, they’re all being housed in hotels, and you’ve got into this complete fundamental problem.

‘We have to process claims. Obviously we can assess them in terms of what can be done if we have to settle claims.

“We have to sort out the appeals processes and we have to remove people.”