Woolas says Afghan war prevents asylum seekers moving to UK
November 05 2009 by Liam Clifford
Ongoing war in Afghanistan is preventing immigration says UK immigration minister.
The UK
immigration minister Phil Woolas has been criticised for suggesting that one
‘benefit’ to the war in Afghanistan is that it prevents an influx of asylum
seekers from the country coming to live in the UK.
He said that the
presence of the UK armed forces in the war-torn country benefits the UK because
it helps it to “control UK immigration”.
The minister went on to tell the
Commons home affairs committee: "An argument that is not aired strongly enough
in my view is the benefit of the presence of our armed forces and other
countries' is to help us control immigration."
Woolas’s comments come in
response to calls from some MPs for the withdrawal of all or most of the UK
troops in Afghanistan. Woolas says that keeping the troops in place helps to
prevent huge numbers of people moving to the UK seeking asylum from countries
like Afghanistan. He explained, “if this country and others were to withdraw
their troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to take control of
Afghanistan, our evidence is that the number of asylum seekers coming to the EU
would significantly increase."
The UK immigration minister’s comments were met with
criticism from opposition MPs, one of whom called his comments “tasteless and
disrespectful".
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