British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that the left-wing Labour Party government will reopen a scheme to import alleged refugees from Afghanistan and Palestine, despite a clear and longstanding majority of the public being opposed to more immigration into the country.
In an address to the Labour Annual Conference in Liverpool, Home Secretary Mahmood touted her record in reducing the number of illegal crossings of the English Channel — which are still set to remain in the tens of thousands this year — and said that because of this, Britain now has the capacity to open up more legal routes for alleged asylum seekers, starting with supposed refugees from Afghanistan and Palestine.
Mahmood, who was pitched to the public as an immigration hawk, said the government will reopen the UK Resettlement Route in conjunction with the United Nations to “take vulnerable refugees from camps across the world and give them the chance of a new and better life here in Britain.”
The first female Muslim Home Secretary said that the scheme will begin to import migrants from Afghanistan and Palestine this year with a focus on women and girls. While Mahmood said the scheme will be capped, she did not provide a firm figure for how many migrants will be brought to the UK under the scheme.
The move comes despite widespread opposition to more immigration among the British people, with a YouGov survey finding last month that 69 per cent believe that immigration has been too high over the past decade, while a plurality of 43 per cent view immigration as having been mostly bad for the country.
While those who arrive under the scheme will be subject to security screening, the ability of the government to properly vet asylum seekers was further called into question over the weekend, after the Sunday Times reported that a previous Tory government granted asylum and ultimately citizenship to a Hamas leader’s former bodyguard, who allegedly went on to plot terror attacks across Europe against Jewish targets from England.
The previous incarnation of the Afghan migrant scheme also came under fire after Freedom of Information requests showed that the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) imported 28 people who were later convicted of a violent crime in the UK and at least one Afghan national who was referred to the government’s anti-terror Prevent programme.
In response to the announcement from the Home Secretary, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that if his party is elected at the next general election, he would immediately look to deport those brought to the country under the Labour scheme.
“I want to be extremely clear. Britain is not obligated to take in more migrants, and under a Reform government these people will not be able to stay,” he said.
“If Labour are so sure the public wants their open borders policies, they’d call a general election to get a mandate. Without it, Andy remains unelected, and his government’s policies remain illegitimate,” Farage declared.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary, added: “Nobody voted for this. It is illegitimate. Let Labour know this: As Home Secretary, I will not allow anyone brought in on this scheme to stay in Britain.”
Professor Matt Goodwin, a prominent supporter of Reform UK, argued that Britain should not take in Palestinian refugees, pointing to the experience of the Netherlands taking in just 321 Palestinians in 1992.
Data from the Dutch government found that of the initial cohort of 321 Palestinian refugees, a staggering 204 would go on to be convicted of crimes, while 337 out of their 999 children born in the country would also go on to commit crimes. Additionally, 176 of the 321 refugees (55 per cent) received state benefits, while 372 of 999 people (37 per cent) had also been on the dole.
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