UK's Priti Patel announces 'harsher sentences' against illegal channel crossings

As controversy mounted over the French Coastguard handover of illegal migrants to the British Border Force in the mid-English channel, UK home secretary Priti Patel on Saturday announced a “severe prison sentence” under the Nationality and Borders Bill to deter unlawful asylum seekers from entering into the UK. 

In a bid to fix UK’s “broken asylum system,” Patel is expected to announce the proposed legislation in the House of Commons on forthcoming Tuesday. The new legislation will make illegal border immigration a “criminal offense” leading to a maximum prison sentence of four years, up from six months, according to several reports. If found guilty of smuggling undocumented migrants across the channel, the UK border force officials risk a prison sentence of up to 14 years, as per the terms in the new legislation.

A separate clause states, that those arriving unlawfully or entering the UK by covert means despite interception by the British Border Force in British territorial waters might face prosecution “immediately”. 

“We will welcome people through safe and legal routes whilst preventing abuse of the system, cracking down on illegal entry and the criminality associated with it,” Patel said in a statement announcing the radical anti-illegal immigrants' plan.

Furthermore, she stated that the new plan is “fair but firm.” UK’s Home Office meanwhile stated that those sailing on dinghies towards the British territorial waters mostly travelled from the safe European countries where they could have claimed asylum via legal routes. 

“Where this is the case, they are not seeking refuge at the earliest opportunity or showing good reason for seeking to enter the UK illegally but are instead ‘asylum shopping’ by picking the UK as a preferred destination over others and using an illegal route to get here,” UK Home Department's statement read.

Patel will introduce the "world's most effective border system” saying that the rules and border controls will meet the demands of the British people by slamming the door on dangerous criminals shut, The Times reported. Furthermore, the UK Home Department will make an announcement for implementing a “fully digital border” by 2025 that will require all legal entries to pay £9 for a US-style electronic travel authorization (ETA) as a part of the custom inspections, security, and criminal checks. 

Critics slam UK gov't for encouraging 'human smuggling' 

Patel's plans to make the English channel route "nonviable" for the asylum seekers come in midst of a record number of migrants that continue to make a perilous journey in rubber dinghies, attempting to cross the 21-mile Dover Strait. Nearly 6,000 were taken into the UK by the British Border Force security officials, many of whom entered the French waters to collect asylum seekers with permission from France's Calais patrol, a maritime radio conversation revealed. Many such exchanges were orchestrated between HMC Valiant and French patrol ship Athos last month that sparked questions on the  'legality' of such operations.

UK border agency officials were seen "picking" asylum seekers from French waters "secretly," as they facilitated the illegal entries, according to the footages shot by the British news outlets that circulated on social media. critics slammed the UK Home Office for realizing the “people smuggler’s dream” and human trafficking.