UK Citizens Reject Giving Amnesty to Illegal Aliens
Majority of Britons against amnesty for illegals in country for over 15 years, poll shows
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The majority of UK citizens is against giving amnesty to illegal aliens already living in the county, a new poll has shown.
The study's findings come after the British government recently suggested granting residency to illegals after 15 years passes since they entered the country illegally.
An outright majority of Britons said they would not support a proposed amnesty for illegal aliens, at 51 percent, according to a Deltapoll study commissioned by the mass-immigration-skeptic Migration Watch UK think tank.
Of those surveyed, only 38 percent said they would support such a proposal, of which just 11 percent said they were “strongly” in favor.
“Those who enter the UK illegally make their first act in Britain a criminal one and should be returned from whence they came," a Migration Watch UK spokesman said of the results.
"While those who enter legally and stay on when their visas run out should not be able to run down the clock thinking they will eventually be granted residence."
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“Amnesties send out entirely the wrong signals, they are a slap in the face to all those who play by the book and simply don’t work – as the Italians, Spaniards, and French have all found out," the spokesman added.
"Most importantly, as our Delta polling has clearly shown, the bulk of the British people are also against them.”
The results follow a rise in illegal boat migrants landing on British shores in the past year.
Government officials have also suggested that illegals who have been in the country for at least 15 years could be granted amnesty, thus giving them full access to the country’s generous, taxpayer-funded welfare state.
Migration Watch UK’s Alp Mehmet said such a move would be “manna for traffickers.”
Pew Research Center estimates that there are between 800,000 and 1.2 million illegals in the United Kingdom as of 2017, while the then-home secretary Amber Rudd admitted there may be as many as one million.
Migration Watch UK said that such an amnesty “would be not only deeply unpopular, but deeply irresponsible,” adding: “We cannot afford this wrong, unpopular, and dangerous policy.”
In August, following a summer spike in migrants illegally crossing the English Channel to enter the UK, then-newly-elected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent out a warning to would-be illegal aliens.
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PM Johnson issued a stern warning to migrants attempting to enter the country illegally, threatening; "We will send you back."
The PM's comments followed a surge in attempts to cross the sea between Britain and France.
Boris told reporters: "Clearly the most important thing is to stop them coming across from France, so we are working very closely with the French authorities.
"The point I would just make to people thinking of making this journey - one, it is very hazardous, you may think the weather looks great but it's a very, very dangerous thing to do.
"The second thing is - we will send you back.
"The UK should not be regarded as a place where you could automatically come and break the law by seeking to arrive illegally.
"If you come illegally, you are an illegal migrant and I'm afraid the law will treat you as such."
