Asylum Hotels and Illegal Channel Crossings Debate

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Department: Home Office

Asylum Hotels and Illegal Channel Crossings

Sally Jameson Excerpts
Tuesday 25th March 2025

(1 week ago)

Commons Chamber
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Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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The right hon. Gentleman says that Wethersfield is now getting more people, but it is still not holding the numbers that his Government planned for it to hold when it was opened, so that is rather an odd argument for him to make. If he was serious about reducing the problems at our borders, I would have thought that he would want to support the counter-terrorism-style powers in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, but it seems that he is not.

Sally Jameson Portrait Sally Jameson (Doncaster Central) (Lab/Co-op)
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Under this Government, illegal workplace raids and arrests are up by a third. While that is welcome, we all know from our high streets and constituencies that there is still a way to go, so can the Minister confirm that we will continue at pace on this trajectory to send a clear message that the UK will not tolerate people abusing the asylum system, or indeed illegal activity in any form?

Angela Eagle Portrait Dame Angela Eagle
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Yes. Of course, we have to crack down on abuse of our asylum system, but also on the exploitation of vulnerable and desperate people by vicious criminal gangs.