Send back all asylum seekers who are modern slavery ‘victims’, Tory MPs tell Rishi Sunak

All asylum seekers who have been trafficked or are “victims” of modern slavery would be sent back to the countries they left, under hardline plans put forward by 50 Tory MPs.

The group – led by former cabinet ministers David Davis, Liam Fox and Esther McVey – claims the move would be “a common sense” solution to the crisis of small boats crossing the Channel.

Mr Davis rejected an argument that the Home Office would have adopted the policy already, if it was that “simple” – claiming it is “overly kindly” to asylum seekers.

“If your claim is you’ve been trafficked involuntarily, then surely the simplest, common sense solution is to correct that and take you back to your own home?” the former Brexit secretary argued.

The group, which has written to Rishi Sunak, is proposing a second change to introduce “summary rejection” of asylum claims by applicants from safe countries, arguing that is the policy in Sweden.

Mr Davis pointed to 12,000 Albanians who have crossed the Channel this year, telling BBC Radio 4: “They apply for asylum under the human trafficking, modern slavery laws and they’re here for years.

“It takes 420 days at the last count to even get an initial decision for them, so that’s paralysing the whole system. And it’s unnecessary – because Albania is a safe country.”

The former cabinet minister acknowledged 85 per cent of asylum claims by Albanian women and children are successful, but blamed overuse of Theresa May’s modern slavery laws.

“Unusually, the Home Office is being overly kindly and insufficiently legislative – probably the only time in history it has been,” Mr Davis claimed.

National Crime Agency officials have said that many Albanians crossing the Channel are held in “debt bondage”, and made to work off the cost of their journey in drugs factories or other illegal and unregulated jobs.

In response to the proposals, a government spokeswoman said: “We have made clear that there is no one single solution to stop the increase in dangerous crossings.”

Many Tory MPs are approaching panic over the failure to curb small boat crossings and Nigel Farage’s latest threat to make a comeback and woo right-wing voters at the next election.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has admitted the government has “failed to control our borders”, using the language of the far right to condemn an “invasion” across the Channel.

Any move to treat asylum or modern slavery claims differently on the basis of nationality alone would be certain to face legal challenge on human rights and discrimination grounds, as each application must be treated on an individual basis.

Claims are considered according to a person’s circumstances based on the evidence they provide, rather than if they have come from what is broadly considered a “safe country”.

It would also violate the Refugee Convention to send people back to the place where they say they were persecuted or at risk, because of the principle of refoulement.

But Mr Davis claimed: “I talked to some past home secretaries and they all say the same thing, ‘Oh, it’s much more complicated than that’

“Actually, I don’t think it is. I think we have lived under the misapprehension that the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] would stop us doing the first of them – which is having summary decision on asylum.

“And people haven’t really looked carefully at the consequence of very recent legislation. Remember, we put in place that legislation, that is the modern slavery legislation.”

Ms Braverman has repeatedly hinted at a change to modern slavery laws, but the former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner has questioned the evidence behind allegations of widespread abuse by migrants.

Dame Sara Thornton previously told The Independent: “There has been a lot of work done by police forces, local authorities, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement to know what the signs [of modern slavery and trafficking] are.

“I don’t know where the evidence for claiming the rise is because of abuse has come from.”

Her former post has been empty since April, and although the government’s public says final interviews took place that month no successor has been announced - meaning no anti-slavery watchdog has been in place to advise the government for eight months.