By Andrej Sekulović
Despite leaving the European Union, the UK continues to face mass migration. There are more illegal migrations year in and year out. According to opinion polls, more than half of Britons oppose them. Migrants are also dangerous due to the transmission of COVID-19 disease. In London, they are supposed to be accommodated in a four-star hotel. They also received free vaccines.
Regardless of the epidemic, mass migration to Europe do not stop. The UK, which has left the European Union, also continues to face a wave of migrants and immigrants trying to enter the island nation illegally. One of the main reasons for Brexit and for the British to leave the European Union is dissatisfaction with mass immigration and Brussels’ policy of open borders and migrant quotas. The British have said a resounding no to mass migration by voting to leave, however, since the beginning of the year, when the UK also officially left the EU, they have continued to face a record number of incoming migrants. Allegedly, more than 500 illegal migrants already arrived on British shores this year.
Mass migrations are intensifying with each passing year
In January, 223 illegal migrants arrived in the UK and another 308 arrived in February. With warmer weather, migrations across the English Channel have also increased. Thus, last Saturday in February 87 new migrants arrived. According to official figures, 531 migrants arrived in the UK this year alone, which is almost once more than in the same period last year, although we are now in the middle of an epidemic, and last year the epidemic has just started. The British, as well as other Europeans, are imprisoned in isolation at home due to the Chinese virus, while migrants travel around Europe and the UK on their own free will. Last year, 297 illegal immigrants were detected at that time. Trends in the gradual increase in mass migration have been going on for many years. It should be pointed out that last year, despite the pandemic and all the restrictions and bans, 8,410 illegal migrants came to the UK in boats alone, compared to only 1,850 the year prior. However, we need to know that in all cases the real numbers are probably much higher as migrants who are supposed to be minors are excluded from the official numbers. It is also not known how many are managed to be smuggled into the country and are not caught.
Problems with deportations despite Brexit
Complications are also occurring with deportations. Last year, the UK deported only 1,128 migrant criminals, which was almost 80 percent less compared to the year before, when 5,322 migrants were successfully deported. The Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for migration control, revealed in December 2020 that it had lost track of nearly 37,000 illegal migrants who had fled migrant centres or had simply gotten lost in previous years. The United Kingdom has also not yet reached an effective agreement with the European Union and its individual members on the return of rejected asylum seekers.
To that end, in addition to the tens of millions they have been giving to France since 2014 onwards to control migrants, the British paid an additional £28 million last November to provide their neighbour with additional coastal patrols to prevent illegal migration from its borders to the coasts of the British Isles. However, this obviously does not help much given the numbers listed above. Although after Brexit the government promised that the British would once again have their country in their own hands and decide their own destiny, it is clearly not tackling mass immigration harshly enough. Above all, it is not prepared to adopt the Australian model of illegal migration policy, which is otherwise supported by many Britons. It is a fairly effective principle of turning boats full of illegal migrants back before they even reach the land. In doing so, there is no need to worry that migrants, who often escape from migrant centres, will actually be deported, but they turn them away from the coast on the spot. However, the Ministry of the Interior has repeatedly emphasised that refugees and asylum seekers must apply for asylum in the first safe country, instead of embarking on a dangerous sea route. The Ministry also ensures that it is prosecuting human smugglers who stand behind these illegal border crossings of Great Britain. However, some Britons are disappointed, as no one seems willing to take a more radical approach to this problem in a country whose capital has made the indigenous population a minority. According to a survey by the YouGov Research Center, about 60 percent of Britons believe that the rate of mass migration is too high. When asked whether there have been too many or too few migrations in the last ten years, at the end of February this year, 57 percent of respondents said there were too many. In August last year, 61 percent said so. In London, 38 percent of respondents think so, while only 10 per cent think there is too little migration. 32 percent of respondents believe that there is just enough migration, and 19 percent did not want to comment.
Migrants received the vaccine for free
In addition to the disintegration of local culture, rising crime, and major demographic change, this time migration is also dangerous due to the spread of COVID-19 disease. Former MEP and one of the main advocates of Brexit, Nigel Farage, recently drew attention to this problem. According to his sources, at least 12 migrants infected with the new coronavirus arrived across the English Channel on one Saturday in February alone. The Ministry of the Interior denied this, saying that only one migrant had COVID-19. However, this is not the only problem of mass migrations during the epidemic. Even more shocking is the reporting of some British media that illegal migrants, who were accommodated in a four-star Plaza Hotel in London at the expense of taxpayers’ money, received the vaccine for free. Thus, young foreigners who have barely arrived in the country illegally have a clear advantage over older Britons, who are, of course, more susceptible to the virus. Illegal migrants staying at the hotel were also not subject to the strict restrictions imposed on those who come to the UK legally from countries on the red list. Someone who comes from a country on the red list must, at his/her own expense, be isolated in quarantine in a dilapidated hotel and receive a large fine if s/he violates the ordered quarantine period. Migrants trying to smuggle into the country, however, stay in a luxury hotel and then get a free vaccine. One of these illegal immigrants, a 20-year-old from Sudan who came to England from France in a rubber boat more than seven months ago, told the media that he had received a free vaccine at a hotel. He added: “The hotel currently houses 400 migrants and almost all have received the vaccine.” This was also confirmed by a group of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants, and one of them said that everyone was vaccinated regardless of age. He also stated that no one had to pay anything and that they should be vaccinated again before the summer. Migrants are housed by the state in hotels where it pays £100 a night for a room because they simply do not know where else to put them.