Migration Watch UK has launched an official petition against Johnson’s proposal, but as former Mayor of London, the Tory leader had “courted popularity with pledging an amnesty for illegal immigrants”.
Labour MP Rupa Huq reminded Johnson of his promise saying he should be “a man of his word” and deliver on it. Huq was born in Britain, but her parents immigrated from Bangladesh.
Johnson conceded that it was “absolutely true that I have raised it several times”. He notably called migrants who have entered or stayed in the UK illegally, “people who don’t have the correct papers”.
In 2017, Home Secretary Aber Rudd admitted that there could be as many as one million illegal migrants in the UK, but did not know for sure, showing that the Tory the government has not been in control of immigration.
Johnson tried however to soften the blow for his fellow Tories. He told the House of Commons on Thursday that the new government will study “the economic advantages and disadvantages” before granting amnesty.
“I do think that our arrangements in theoretically being committed to the expulsion of perhaps half a million people who don’t have the correct papers and who may have been living and working here for many, many years without being involved in any criminal activity at all… I think that the legal position is anomalous,” Johnson said this week.
“[W]e need to look at our arrangements for people who have lived and worked here for a long time unable to enter the economy, unable to participate properly or pay taxes without documents,” he added.
“We should look at it and, the truth is, the law already basically allows them an effective amnesty, that’s basically where we have settled now. But we should look at the economic advantages and disadvantages of going ahead with the policy that [Rupa Huq] described, and which I think she and I share,” he concluded.
But loud murmurs of discontent were heard from the Tory backbenches.
The chairman of the Migration Watch UK meanwhile told Breitbart London that “an amnesty would simply reward illegality and encourage more illegal immigration in the future.” He said a petition against Johnson’s plan would be launched.
Alp Mehmet said that the petition “carries the clear signal that amnesties for illegal immigration don’t work, as has been seen in Spain and Italy.”
“Amnesties are also unpopular,” he explained. “Over three-quarters of the public — 77 percent — see illegal immigration as a serious problem.”
According to research conducted by Migration Watch UK, official estimates for the number of illegal migrants in Britain may well below the actual figures, resulting in serious issues with social housing with costs running into the billions of pounds.