This Minister Has Just Explained Why Asylum Seekers Take 'Illegal' Routes To Come To The UK

A Home Office minister might just have explained why the number of small boats crossing the English Channel is so high.

The number of asylum seekers arriving on English shores has soared in recent years (exceeding 45,000 in 2022) creating an intense political headache for the government.

PM Rishi Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman recently unveiled their new crackdown on these supposedly “illegal” migrants – plans which could undermine the UK’s commitment to international laws and human rights. 

But, as The Independent’s Lizzie Dearden spotted, minister for immigration Jenrick revealed on Monday that there are currently no legal routes for asylum seekers to travel to the UK.

Jenrick was responding to a written question from Liberal Democrat, Tim Farron.

He asked: “What the (a) quickest and (b) slowest time was for communicating an asylum decision for an application made in the United Arab Emirates for an Afghan national who is a spouse of another Afghan national already granted asylum in the UK in the latest period for which data is available?”

Jenrick replied: “There is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to claim asylum or temporary refuge or make a claim for asylum or protection from abroad.

“Therefore, the information requested does not exist.”

He then went on to list how the UK has committed to relocating “at-risk people” in Afghanistan after the evacuation of Western troops in 2021.

Home affairs editor Dearden tweeted that this has been the case for years – and pointed out that there has therefore driven up the number of irregular routes, fake documentation, and attempts to use all kinds of dangerous means to get to the UK.

While tourists, those on work or student visas can arrive legally and then claim asylum, this is not always an option for many asylum seekers travelling across the Channel.

Seeking asylum needs documentation and permission to leave your home country – something persecuted Afghans, for instance, will not be able to achieve.

Jenrick did actually appear on BBC Question Time in February to defend the government’s staunch approach to asylum seekers – but strangely then claimed that “illegal” asylum seekers “throw their documents into the sea so they can exploit our human rights laws”.