7 October 2021

Priti Patel took to the floor of the Conservative Party Conference on 5 October to announce new penalty and sentencing guidelines for people smugglers and those entering the UK illegally. The maximum penalty of entering the country illegally has been raised from 6 months to 4 years, whereas sentencing for people smugglers has been raised from 14 years to life.

This decision follows those crossing the channel in small boats from vast camps outside Calais which has been described by Patel to hinder the chances of those in genuine need of protection such as those coming through the legal resettlement scheme routes. For this reason, Patel has stated the route in which somebody arrives in the United Kingdom will impact on how their asylum claim is processed.

Boris Johnson upheld Patel’s views at the Conservative Party Conference by promising to reform the economic system and pledged to move away from the pre-Brexit system of “low wages, low growth, low skills and low productivity, all of it enabled and assisted by uncontrolled immigration”. Johnson is pleading for the removal of mass immigration to be replaced with higher wages in the hopes to encourage people into key sectors.

Although Patel and Johnson are striving to create a ‘controlled immigration system’, there is great controversy surrounding the next few months following a decrease in food and gas supplies which could lead to price rises and economic disruption.

Get in touch
To learn more about forthcoming changes to UK immigration law, see our website, contact your assigned LDI lawyer or email enquiries@lauradevine.com.