The most popular way to stay in the UK is to apply for political asylum. It is no secret that not only those who are truly fleeing persecution at home do this, but also simply seekers of a better life. Moreover, they often come to the country with their whole families. While the application is being considered, people, not yet having a work permit, live at the expense of the state.
After some time, a decision comes. If asylum is refused, then the foreign visitor, in theory, must return to where they came from, since the government says that nothing threatens them there. But few do this, as Deputy Interior Minister Beverley Hughes admitted: 'From the moment they are refused refugee status, these people are in the country illegally. But they continue to occupy free housing and receive financial allowances. But we cannot pay for their stay indefinitely.'
According to her, in extreme cases, immigration service officers will make night visits, lift people out of bed, take them to repatriation centers and forcibly put them on a plane. But it is clear that on a mass scale you cannot get rid of fake refugees that way. Therefore, the draft law under consideration in parliament has another option - to cut off immigrants' benefits, since they are no longer entitled to them.
So by law you can treat adults. But if a minor is left without means of subsistence, local authorities are obliged to take custody of them, that is, the child will be sent to a shelter. Many human rights activists believe that the government is deliberately taking such tough measures, understanding how difficult it will be for immigrants to leave their own children as orphans. This opinion is shared by Jackie MacLusky, a representative of the Refugee Children's Association. 'In my opinion, it is completely wrong that social services workers will be sent to take children from families for care and upbringing. It is immoral to even propose to cripple young destinies in such a way,' she says.
But law enforcement agencies suspect that under the threat of deportation or losing their children, families will themselves refuse state assistance and simply dissolve into the crowd, working and living in England illegally. Then street children will appear on the streets, themselves having run away from shelters and troubled families. They, as often happened before, will be drawn into the criminal world.