Dover Council leader urging government to speed up processing of migrants
Kent politicians and organisations are urging for a rethink in how the UK government processes migrants and some have fears more will lose their lives.
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00:00 After six migrants died crossing the English Channel this weekend, local charities and
00:05 politicians are urging the government to find safe routes and rethink how they process migrants.
00:12 It comes after a boat carrying 65 people capsized at 4am on Saturday morning off the coast of
00:19 France.
00:20 With this, the leader of Dover District Council is calling on the government to focus on processing
00:26 the backlog of migrants, as since 2018 we've had 100,000 coming to the UK.
00:33 We need to sit down and actually look at some safe routes. So there's the ability for individuals
00:37 to apply. If they've got the right, then fine. If they haven't, then you deal with them accordingly.
00:43 You also need to speed up the process of dealing with the backlog. I think we've got the worst
00:49 backlog in Europe, possibly after Germany.
00:52 You say the processing needs to speed up. We've just seen 100,000 people have crossed
00:58 since 2018. So is there a way of doing this quicker? How can they be processed quicker?
01:05 You need to employ the right number of staff to do it. The resource just isn't there. So
01:11 you have to actually increase the number of processors. That's the only way you can do
01:14 it.
01:15 And amongst all this, politicians aren't the only ones urging for safer routes.
01:20 There are options to look into that aren't being looked into. With the Ukrainian situation,
01:27 humanitarian visas were used very successfully. No Ukrainian person ever had to get into a
01:32 small boat or navigate the asylum system at all. They were brought here safely and legally.
01:39 We have resettlement programmes. The criteria are very narrow. There's a lot of people,
01:43 as I say, who have a legitimate claim to be here. And there is no safer legal route for
01:48 them to do that.
01:50 The Home Office has said the deaths are devastating and that their thoughts are with the victims'
01:54 families and friends. They said this incident is another reminder of the extreme dangers
01:59 of crossing the Channel in small boats and how vital it is we break the people smugglers'
02:04 business model and stop the boats.
02:07 With news almost 16,000 have made the crossing to Kent this year alone, the Chaplain for
02:12 the Port of Dover said we need to be careful with how we're processing migrants.
02:17 Dover and Kent have been receiving refugees for centuries. It's important that we welcome
02:25 them and support them. On the other hand, those who are coming purely for financial
02:30 motives, we have to work out what they are expecting, demanding, wanting, which, particularly
02:41 when we aren't in a position to give that to our own people.
02:44 Sophia Akin for KMTV.