People smugglers and the law

 

Why do immigrants want to flock to Britain?

According to a recent UK Government’s announcement, a British Taskforce has already “uncovered” a case linking an Immigration law firm to one of the most wanted human traffickers to UK. It has now been referred to the Police. But, it is not all.

With Britain using every method possible to rout out immigrants, the numbers coming to its shores is increasing year by year, in fact week by week, day by day. The fascination for immigrants to arrive in Britain is the image of Britain as a safe country for asylum, an easy way of making a fast buck and move on, one way to get a dole for producing more children, but most of all to live an easy life, without much money on handouts.

Home Secretary, Suella Braverman has said: “Crooked immigration lawyers are to blame. Illegal Immigration must be rooted out and brought to justice. While the majority of lawyers act with integrity – we know that some are lying to help illegal migrants game the system. It is not right or fair on those who play by the rules. The British people want us to put an end to illegal migration – I am determined to crack down on these immoral lawyers.” Is it any wonder that only she could be the mouthpiece?

Law enforcement officers have suspected connivance with Asylum Law firms over time. The most recent focus follows the newspaper, Daily Mail’s investigation into clients “appearing” to be coached by professional advisers to lie to support asylum claims. Following the press report, the Lord Chancellor wrote to the UK Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) asking what action was being taken in response. Within a week three firms had been closed down and three Solicitors prevented from practising law.

                                                                     

Small boat crossings, annual

Although all chart data is current, as of 10/08/2023, there have been 15% fewer crossings in 2023 than by the same point in 2022.

2018

299

2019

1,843

2020

8,466

2021

28,526

2022

45,755

2022 to 10 August

18,641

2023

16,581

2018 to Present

101,470

Source: Migration Watch UKGet the dataEmbedDownload imageCreated with Datawrapper 

The exodus from Afghanistan and Syria among others countries, was after the Taliban uprising in August 2022, the earthquake in Kurdistan caused many from this region to come as legitimate refugee. However, many other illegal immigrants have also infiltrated into UK first as “stowaways” in vans and trucks crossing the French coast. Then the “people smugglers” packed them like sardines in “dinghies” or inflatable rubber boats. It is claimed that they could not come in such numbers, without being aided and abetted by unscrupulous “Pashtun and Patan” language speaking cohorts living in UK and coaching them. There is a suspicion that particularly Pakistani lawyer-sympathisers from neighbouring Afghanistan practicing in London, were closely connected with this racket of “people smugglers”. This trade has been “thriving on “Legal Aid” for these Solicitor practices, particularly in the migrant communities in London.                 

 As Legal Aid became curtailed over time, and the immigrants were literally flooding into UK seeking refugee status, a coterie of unscrupulous lawyers, Psychariatists, Language Interpreters and others came to the aid of the people smugglers and coached immigrants with “stories” of torture, sexual bias etc. – all for very lucrative fees. 

The rest is due to the delay and the “slow process” of law enforcement, called the due process of law and of the powers to be in the Court system, to go after these “People Smugglers”. Need I say, the legal eloquence and arguments of Specialist Barristers’ Chambers in London, has helped this trade enormously, todate.

The Law has caught up at long last

We note today much of the processing of Asylum applications is performed in France.  The Home Office wants them also processed in faraway places, but deportation flights to Rwanda, Africa, are blocked by Courts. The most recent proposal to vet applicants in Ascension Island, and also to house over 500 asylum claimants in the big Barge “Bibby Stockholm” moored in Portsmouth, is all in the name of saving on costs. But, the latest we hear is that some Asylum claimants are complaining “about living in a barge”. It is strange that the asylum seekers are claiming hotel accommodation, instead, as the is fear of water poison on board. As many of these immigrants cannot converse in English, there are many charities among others to appeal on their behalf?

The Home Office having exhausted its patience, has at last now come up with what seems as a feasible and practical solution.

Britain and Turkey, we are now informed, have agreed to join forces to smash the “smuggler gangs” transporting migrants in death trap rubber dinghies across the busy English Channel.

Turkey has been identified as a key hub for smuggler gangs, more so with many of the “rubber boats “used to cross the Channel manufactured there.

A landmark deal has been struck between London and Ankara, perhaps bypassing the Pashtun-Patan  Pashto speaking London Lawyers, at least for the present?

National Crime Agency officers will be deployed to Turkey to work alongside their Turkish counterparts on “joint operations” targeting criminal gangs and dinghy factories. Officers may go after the network supply chains and seize items such as engines and life jackets to stop, thus hinder their trade in human trafficking?

Who knows where all this expense will end?

Victor Cherubim 

Just do it or just AI it?

Over the weeks, if not months or years, frustrations of ordinary people due to inaction or the incompetence of Governments to address the real issues closer to life’s problems, have meant a proliferation of Citizen Protest Groups. They have sprung up like mushroom, with law enforcement virtually, unable to pick them. 

From protest like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, even recently eco zealots like Greenpeace, have found the patience of the ordinary working people running thin? 

From ambushing former Chancellor. George Osborne’s wedding day, to storming major sporting events, including Grand National horse racing disruptions, Test Cricket matches, Wimbledon and other public entertainment events, have fuelled questions about whether public figures and gatherings are “fair game” for environmental and/or other fanatical spin-offs. 

Just Stop Oil recently claimed to have “shaped” Opposition Labour policy of “legitimisingthese stunts,” including a proposed ban on drilling for more oil and gas supplies in the North Sea. To add to these Labour has been accused of taking donations from Just Stop Oil bankroller, Dale Vince. 

When we heard of Greenpeace Women Director, Areeba Hamid, claim the scaling of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s constituency residence at North Yorkshire in his absence on holiday in South California, as justified, it literally was a message to reckon?                                                                      

Why is it that migrants and blacks, as if any, are the chosen few to rely unacceptable messages? 

The easy “scapegoat culture” in Britain? 

Although tougher new laws already exist, in fact stringent law enforcement, was recently rushed through Parliament before the Summer Recess for the Police to stop Just Stop Oil protests, such as slow walks by protestors down major roads or disrupting big events. 

Was there already an expectation or “intelligence”, which law enforcement would have to turn a blind eye against the real Greenpeace activists protesting against Prime Minister’s Richmond rural Yorkshire constituency residence? Conservative MP’s allege that “heads will roll”?  Are we to expect more legislation on the way? Who knows? 

There is a scapegoat culture prevailing which is entrenched called “Institutional Racism”. The meaning of Intuitional Racism in today’s environment is a tolerance of attitudes and working practices which disadvantage minorities of all sorts. 

It does not mean every Police Officer is prejudiced or that no minority person receives a good service record. Instead, it is what causes “systemic injustice,” that something is ignored or tolerated and is often linked to a “stereotype” that feeds into a group of people,or a group practice?  It easily fits into a disadvantaged minority ethnic people?. 

How does AI fit in to this scenario? 

I can recall what I studied in my Diploma of Person Centred Counselling course some years ago at Poplar College under my Tutor, Ms. Shanti Burgess, an Australian. It comprises “suspicions and stereotyping” which AI can easily perform. This assumption then becomes reinforced, and taken as gospel. 

They are patterns of behaviour, which now can easily be classed or rather categorised by Artificial Intelligence. 

What makes me to be concerned in my old age, or what makes these assumptions dangerous is the way they create information which is similar to the way AI creates information. They are patterns which fall easily categorised and racial stereotyping become easily deployed. 

Coming back to the stunt by Greenpeace activists who scaled Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s country house, has further ignited a debate in UK that has already become overheated. 

I sometimes wonder, would this have happened, if Boris Johnson, was Prime Minister?

Who knows? 

Victor Cherubim