Migration Morning Star
Ministers divided over Mahmood migration crackdown
SENIOR ministers are squaring off over plans to make migrant workers wait far longer before securing residency rights. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is refusing to back the plan announced by Home
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Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is refusing to back the plan announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood which would extend the time before migrant workers would gain indefinite leave to remain from five to 15 years.
The row broke out anew after a border security chief said a “mass casualty” tragedy in the Channel was inevitable as bigger boats are used by migrants trying to reach Britain.
Border Security Command chief Duncan Capps warned it was “only a matter of time” and it was “extraordinary” that it had not happened already.
He said: “I think the things that worry me most this year have been the increasing size of the boat and the increasing occupancy.
“This year we had a boat with 230 people in it — extraordinary.”
He added that around 4,000 migrants are presently in camps on the French coast waiting to make the crossing.
Ms Fahnbulleh said today that changes were needed but that they should be “based on the principle of compassion” and recognising contribution, declining to endorse Ms Mahmood’s policy.
Earlier this week she appeared to criticise the plans in a post on her Peckham constituency website that was later removed.
In the original account she was quoted as saying: “If we continually prolong the time people have to wait for settlement, we can also prolong the process of building cohesion.”