Indian migrants now second-largest group crossing Channel by small boats to UK: Report

LONDON April 26: The Home Office data showed 675 Indian nationals arrived by small boat between January and March in what sources said was a surge in attempts to evade work visa restrictions. Only 683 Indians arrived by small boat during all of last year.

A Home Office source said: ‘There’s been an unexplained spike in Indian nationals arriving here by small boat in the last few months. We believe they are attempting to dodge visa checks and are coming here to work illegally in the underground economy.’

In contrast, during the first three months of this year the number of Albanians reaching Britain by small boat fell to 29, compared with 1,100 in the previous quarter. This appeared to reflect official predictions that Albanian numbers would drop off over winter and resume this spring.

Indians takeover Albanians to become second largest migrant group in UK.

He said in December that 92,000 ‘legacy’ applications lodged before July last year would be ‘abolished’ by the end of this year.

However, there were still 80,148 cases in the system at the end of March – meaning an average of 4,000 per month were resolved since the PM’s commitment.

It means caseworkers will have to more than double their work rate and get through about 9,000 claims a month between April and December to ensure the pledge is fulfilled. The backlog also contains a further 56,000 cases lodged since July, making a total of 138,000 – not including dependants.

Reports indicate that Serbia’s visa-free travel rules for Indians have provided a gateway into Europe, with channel crossings on small boats becoming an established entry point into Britain.

Until the start of this year, Indian passport holders were allowed to enter Serbia without a visa for up to 30 days.

The cost of a small boat journey has also reportedly dropped to an average of £3,500 and may even be lower.

“The small boat crossing has become an established route into the UK and is pretty reliable compared with lorries which are more expensive. I think you will see more people coming from countries that are not previous refugee nations,” an immigration source told The Telegraph.

A record number of 45,755 migrants crossed the Channel last year. Small boat arrivals accounted for about 45% of asylum applications.

In response, the UK Parliament introduced the “Illegal Migration Bill” last March.

If approved, migrants arriving in the UK on small boats will not be allowed to apply for asylum. They will be detained and deported and will be banned from returning for life. In addition, there will be a cap on the number of refugees the UK will settle through safe and legal routes.

The UK has identified Rwanda as a “safe” third country for deportation.

Last month, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman visited Rwanda to advance the country’s plans to outsource asylum procedures to the central African country.

Braverman described Rwanda as “one of the world’s safest countries” and promised protection and support to those who would be resettled in Rwanda.

Critics have slammed this claim, citing Rwanda’s human rights record and political instability as tensions rise between Rwanda and its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made stopping the boats one of his five promises to the British people. The “Stop the Boats” – or Illegal Migration Bill will fulfill that promise by ending illegal entry as a route to asylum in the UK,” reads a statement on the UK government website.

Serbia, along with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro comprise the “Balkan route”, the most active pathway for migrants to move around Europe to seek asylum.

Last February, Deutsche Welle reported that about 100 Indian migrants who were denied entry into the European Union were living in a reception area located in the Serbian border city of Kikinda, close to Hungary and Romania.

“It’s a new trend. Indians have been coming here since the last few months,” said Andreja Marcenko, the camp’s admissions officer.

Statistics show that more than 11,500 Indians applied for asylum worldwide last year. The top five countries where Indian nationals sought protection were the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Cyprus, and Austria.

In the United Kingdom, of the 1,125 asylum applications filed in 2021, only 5 were approved, translating to an acceptance rate of about 1.7%.

Reports indicate that a conflation of factors including a climate of discrimination is compelling Indians to escape persecution.

The BBC featured Jashan Preet Singh, an openly gay man, who fled India in 2021 by first entering Turkey and then France before finally entering the United States.

Singh had suffered regular harassment and violence from his neighbors in Punjab where he had been living. He finally decided to run away when a group of about 15-20 people attacked him, leaving Singh, 24, with a mutilated arm and severed thumb.

In 2018, India’s Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized same-sex relationships. However, one year after the landmark legislative move, Human Rights Watch reported that LGBTQ persons in India continue to face gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence when it came to access to schools, housing, and employment. – Agencies