Former Immigration Minister Says Modern Slavery Law Is ‘Loophole’ for Illegal Immigrants

A drone photo showing a group of illegal immigrants react as they succeeded to get on an inflatable dinghy, to leave the coast of northern France and to cross the English Channel, in Wimereux near Calais, France, on Dec. 16, 2021. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

A former immigration minister has said a law on modern slavery introduced by David Cameron’s government in 2015 has been used thousands of times by illegal immigrants to escape deportation.

Chris Philp, who was immigration minister between September 2019 and September 2021, said the Modern Slavery Act had “inadvertently turned into one of the biggest loopholes in our immigration system, allowing illegal immigrants and foreign criminals to remain in the UK.”