A group of UN human rights experts has condemned the UK Government's disparagement of migrants and individuals seeking protection under the Modern Slavery Act.
In a forceful statement published on Monday, experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council are "alarmed by the rise in unsubstantiated claims by public officials and Government departments regarding persons seeking protection under the Modern Slavery Act and the National Referral Mechanism in the past days and weeks".
The experts further stated that such "misleading" statements "exaggerate the level of fraud and abuse in the system to protect victims of trafficking and slavery", and suggested that "there is little evidence to support these claims and generalising them is dangerous and regressive".
Last month, 50 Conservative MEPs signed an open letter to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in which they exhorted the Prime Minister to implement a "simple" policy to deal with the UK's migrant crisis and make it easier to return "bogus asylum seekers" to their countries of origin.
"The quirks in our modern slavery laws that prevent this are clearly in defiance of the aims of that law and should be removed," the MEPs wrote. The letter was arranged by former Brexit Secretary David Davis and signed by a number of other influential MPs, including former Cabinet ministers Liam Fox and Esther McVey.
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Upon receiving the letter, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister refused to offer "any specific response to [the] proposal", but did claim that Downing Street "recognises that there are a number of countries which are deemed safe and people should not be travelling illegally from safe countries to make their way here".
Passed in 2015, the Modern Slavery Act aims to combat modern slavery in the UK and consolidate the UK's existing laws pertaining to human trafficking. The National Referral Mechanism was introduced in 2009, and provides an overarching framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery.
So far this year more than 40,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel from France to the UK, a figure significantly greater than the 28,000 last year. Several dozen are believed to have died in the attempt, including four just last week.
