HOME Secretary Priti Patel took aim at "do-gooders" and "lefty lawyers" as she vowed a toughened-up asylum system in her Tory Party conference speech.
Patel said she is doing what the public wants despite days of outcry over leaked plans about putting sanctuary claimants onto ferries, disused oil rigs and islands in Scotland and beyond.
The Home Office has already put some asylum seekers into an army training camp in Wales amidst heightened anti-migrant rhetoric over cross-Channel migrants who arrive by small craft provided at high cost by organised gangs.
Charities say that practice is driven by a lack of safe routes into the UK for people from Iran, Iraq, Syria and other countries.
But in her afternoon speech, Patel said she is set on a "firm and fair" new system which stops those who arrive through illegal channels from "elbowing women and children in need to the side".
Insisting the Conservatives have a "proud history" of compassion towards those fleeing war and persecution, she also accused claimants who reach British shores of "shopping around" Europe for the best place to apply for help.
Despite a lack of clear detail on what her plan will mean in practice, she urged the public not to believe those who would "lecture us on their grand theories about human rights".
These include "do-gooders, lefty lawyers and the Labour Party" who she said are defending a "broken system".
That's despite concerted criticism of the bureaucratic, slow and expensive "hostile environment" by academics, expert agencies, devolved governments and all opposition parties.
Patel said she will accelerate the returns of those who are refused asylum and make the system faster and less expensive for the taxpayer. Immediate deportations are promised in some cases.
She said: "If at times I am unpopular on Twitter I will bear it."
Patel stated: "After decades of inaction by successive governments, we will address the moral, legal, practical problems with this broken system. Because what exists now is neither firm nor fair.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says those who are "defending the broken system" are "defending the indefensible" which she says she "will never do".
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) October 4, 2020
She adds "if at times that means being unpopular on Twitter, I will bear it"
Read more here: https://t.co/xZ5wwD0psM pic.twitter.com/S6ERUq3pXr
"I will take every necessary step to fix this broken system amounting to the biggest overhaul of our asylum system in decades."
According to Refugee Action, almost 35,600 asylum applications were made in the UK last year. This is less than half of the 84,000 peak seen in 2002 but four in five of those lodging claims in the last three months of 2019 waited six months or longer for their applications to be processed.
Gary Christie of the Scottish Refugee Council called her speech "big on rhetoric, short on detail", saying her analysis of what is "broken" is "wrong".
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are "rarely in a position to comply with the requirements for legal entry" into the country where they are seeking refuge.
Christie called Patel's statements on people who enter the UK illegally "worrying" and said such deportations would be "in complete opposition to our fair, firm and fundamental obligations under international law".
Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, commented: "There’s no question that the current brutal, racist and inhumane asylum system must be overhauled, but it’s clear that the Home Secretary’s planned changes will only increase the cruelty inflicted on the most vulnerable.
"To be asked to provide asylum is a privilege, yet in the UK we currently treat those fleeing unimaginable horrors appallingly."
He went on: "I look forward to the day, soon, when an independent Scotland builds a compassionate asylum system based on human dignity and human rights.”
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