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Johnson’s Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Will Only Help the Traffickers

With all this talk of Boris Johnson offering an amnesty for illegal immigrants, this week’s guest on Shooting From the Lip could not be timelier. Alp Mehmet, the new chairman of Migration Watch, wastes no time in putting forward his views both on illegal and legal immigration in the post-Brexit and Boris world.
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On an amnesty for illegal immigrants, he says: “If you have an amnesty it will only act as a magnet for more illegals to come and it will only help the traffickers…. it is a bad idea”.

He is scathing about the Windrush scandal and says that, “People are trying to weaponise Windrush for their own agenda”.

“It is absurd to link the debacle of Windrush with illegal immigrants and the so called ‘Hostile Environment’ policy of Theresa May”.

He believes that, “The vast majority of people in this country are concerned about illegal immigration and want something done about it”.

Alp denies that protecting our borders and sending people straight back would be inhumane. He says that, “the scale and speed of immigration, both legal and illegal has to be halted”.

As an immigrant himself from Cyprus, he denies that he or Migration Watch is racist.

“It isn’t just white Anglo-Saxon Brits who are worried about immigration, it is also of concern to immigrant communities themselves like in the Midlands, where there are sizable communities of Asian-origin people who are worried”.

Alp believes that we do need net immigration targets and that the number should be around 40,000 to 50,000 net and that is feasible.

“We need a system that brings people in who we want and keeps out those, including criminals, who we do not want”.

He warns that, “At present rates we are letting in the equivalent of a city the size of Birmingham every three years”.

He does not believe that this is sustainable or desirable and says that, “We are alone in the percentage of overseas doctors and nurses we employ, we need to train more of our own people”.

Alp concludes the interview by stating, “I am optimistic about this country, it is the reason why my parents came here 65-70 years ago and it is the reason why I proudly want on to serve this country abroad, it is a fantastic wonderful country and I like Boris speaking up about it, but what I don’t like is his ideas on immigration, but that is a different story!"

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