Suella Braverman Says She Will Fix UK’s ‘Hopelessly Lax Asylum System’

A group of illegal immigrants are brought to port after being rescued by the RNLI, at Dungeness, Kent, England, on Sept. 15, 2022. (Gareth Fuller/PA Media)

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in Parliament that there is an “invasion on our southern coast” and that she was serious about “ending the scourge of illegal migration.”

On Monday, Braverman told MPs at the House of Commons that around 40,000 people arrived on the south coast of England in 2022, more than double the number of arrivals via the English Channel in 2021.

“Let’s be clear about what is really going on here: the British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not,” she said in response to questions and criticism from left-wing opposition party Labour.

“Some 40,000 people have arrived on the south coast this year alone. Many of them facilitated by criminal gangs, some of them actual members of criminal gangs,” said Braverman.

The number of people smuggled into the UK in small boats has soared in recent years.

Last week Dan O’Mahoney, the Home Office’s clandestine Channel threat commander, told the Home Affairs Committee that 38,000 people had crossed the Channel in 936 small boats this year, a figure he described as “unacceptable.”

Kent County Councillor Nigel Collor told the BBC on Monday that almost 1,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Saturday alone.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman leaves Downing Street following the first Cabinet meeting after Liz Truss took office as the new prime minister, in London, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

‘Ending the Scourge of Illegal Migration’

“So let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows that is not true. It’s only the honourable members opposite who pretend otherwise," said Braverman, referring to Labour Party MPs.

“I am utterly serious about ending the scourge of illegal migration and I am determined to do whatever it takes to break the criminal gangs and fix our hopelessly lax asylum system,” she said.

“That is why I am in government, and that is why there are some people who would prefer to be rid of me,” she added.

Braverman added that “we need to be straight with the public.”

“The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control and too many people are interested in playing political parlour games, covering up the truth than solving the problem,” she said.

At the House of Commons, Tory MP Lee Anderson said “Albanian criminals” are leaving safe countries to reach the UK.

“Then, when they get into accommodation, we’ve got the opposition parties saying the accommodation is not good enough for them. Or does the home secretary agree with me that if the accommodation is not good enough for them they can get on a dinghy and go straight back to France?” said Anderson.

“The average cost per night is £150 per person per night in a hotel. By my standards, that’s quite a nice hotel, I’m afraid, and therefore any complaints that the accommodation isn’t good enough is frankly absolutely indulgent and ungrateful,” replied Braverman.

Labour’s Andy McDonald accused Braverman of trying to defend “cruelty towards the most desperate of people.”

“Doesn’t she need to take a look in the mirror to see who is a threat to national security and accept she’s totally unfit for the job?” he said.

The home secretary said in September that she would do “whatever it takes” to stop illegal immigration across the English Channel.

She said she would work with the French to ramp up actions on the French coastline and against people-smuggling gangs; find a way to make the Rwanda scheme work; get asylum seekers out of hotels, which she said costs £5 million a day; and “take back control” of the UK’s immigration policy from the European Court of Human Rights.

PA Media, Chris Summers, and Lily Zhou contributed to this report.