Priti Patel, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's appointee, is reported to have considered a proposal to send asylum-seekers to two Atlantic islands more than 4,000 miles away from the UK.
Send off migrants
Priti Patel is the Secretary of State for the Home Development, a government department that oversees the UK's immigration, policing, drugs, and counter-terror policy.
The secretary has suggested sending migrants to the isolated British territories of Ascension Island and St. Helena, off the coast of Africa.
Patel has reportedly dismissed the idea at first, but further alleged proposals emerged on October 1, and it reflects the very tough line on immigration under her leadership, and now the plans have leaked in the media, sending some migrants into a panic.
Since Patel took office in 2019, the first woman of color to hold the post, Britain's policies stance on immigration has hardened.
Although she has not originated the plans outlined in the media, but it has focused on the Home Secretary, her views, and her vow to curb the numbers of migrants who have increasingly been arriving in the UK by crossing the English Channel from France.
Patel wrote on her Twitter account in August that the number of illegal small boat crossing is appalling and unacceptably high. It is true that the number of asylum-seekers arriving by small boats from across the channel has increased since April 2020.
According to the House of Commons Library, between April and August 2020, around 4,600 people entered Britain, which is an increase from the 1,800 people that entered Britain in the whole of 2019.
Patel added that France and other EU states are safe countries, and genuine refugees should claim asylum in those countries. She urged them not to risk their lives and break the law by coming to the UK.
The Home Secretary has vowed to make the route unviable for migrants who are planning to go to the UK illegally.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson said on September 30 that thousands of people have rebuilt their lives in the UK and that they will continue to provide safe and legal routes in the future.
The spokesperson added that they are currently developing plans to reform policies and laws around illegal migration and asylum to ensure that they are able to provide protection to those who need it while preventing abuse of the system and the criminality linked to it.
Opposition party
The leaked plans of the administration were condemned by UK's opposition Labour Party. Patel's opposition counterpart Nick Thomas-Symonds said that the government was "lurching from one inhumane and impractical idea to another."
Thomas-Symonds said in a statement on October 1 that the idea of sending people to Ascension Island, creating waves in the English Channel to wash boats back, and buying ferries and oil rigs to process asylum claims shows that the current government has "lost control and all sense of compassion."
The proposals were also mocked by the British press. The Guardian derided the Home Office for being clueless and dismissed their inhumane ideas as "stupid and ill developed."