Dodgy lawyers who help illegal migrants game the system to stay in UK face legal crackdown
DODGY lawyers who help illegal migrants game the system to stay in Britain face a legal crackdown.
Sham briefs with no qualifications who dole out phoney immigration advice will also be targeted.
It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unveils her new Asylum And Immigration Bill this week.
But there are fears inside Government that Labour’s own Attorney General Richard Hermer’s rigid support for international laws could cripple plans to tackle the boats crisis.
Lord Hermer told the Council of Europe earlier this week that the Government would “never withdraw from the European Convention rights or refuse to comply with judgments of the court”.
But these are the same laws small boat migrants use to stay in Britain.
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A government insider said: “The Attorney General is always a block — slowing down projects and not helping us get things done.”
Ms Cooper’s Borders Bill includes anti-terror style powers to target people- smuggling gangs.
Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, she said: “For years, [they] have been allowed to take an ever-deepening hold along the Channel . . . they can’t be allowed to get away with these terrible crimes any longer.”
We can reveal ministers are working on an amendment to the Bill to beef up powers to take on boat-chasing lawyers giving dodgy legal advice.
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A Labour source said: “We will look at ways to strengthen the law to stop these small-boat-chasers in their tracks.”
The move is designed to tackle real and fake lawyers who tell illegal immigrants how to stay in Britain — for example, by telling them to falsely claim they are Christian or LGBT and fleeing persecution.
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