MPs are backing the new immigration bill that will prevent illegal entry into the UK. The bill that will make knowingly arriving in the UK without permission a criminal offence has passed its latest parliamentary hurdle.
“The bill, which passed its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday evening by 366 votes to 265, will give Border Force officers the powers to turn back migrant boats attempting to cross the Channel from France and use "reasonable force, if necessary",” Sky reported.
There’ll be prison sentences for those who enter the country without permission for four years and a maximum of life imprisonment for convicted people smugglers will be introduced under the legislation. And, for the first time, the way an individual arrives in the UK - legally or illegally - will have a bearing on whether their asylum application is accepted.
Priti Patel said, "The British people have had enough of open borders and uncontrolled migration.
"Enough of a failed asylum system that costs the taxpayer over a billion pounds a year, enough of dinghies arriving illegally on our shores, directed by organised crime gangs, enough of people drowning on these dangerous, illegal, and unnecessary journeys.
"Enough of people being trafficked and sold into modern slavery, enough of economic migrants pretending to be genuine refugees, enough of adults pretending to be children to claim asylum.
"Enough of people trying to gain entry illegally, ahead of those who play by the rules, enough of foreign criminals - including murderers and rapists - who abuse our laws and then game the system so we can't remove them.”
