Send back all asylum seekers who are ‘victims’ of modern slavery, 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.

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 attempt to deport all trafficking and slavery victims would be challenged in court on the grounds that international human rights laws require each application to be considered on an individual basis.

It would also violate the Refugee Convention to send asylum seekers back automatically to the place where they say they were persecuted or at risk.

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.”