Dianne Abbot says UK must make it easier for people to come to Britain

DIANE Abbott said the Government needs to make it easier for migrants to come to the UK and to stop seeing them as a problem.

The Shadow Home Secretary told the BBC’s Andrew Marr this morning that people with “legal” claim to live in Britain should be helped to come after this week’s tragic discovery in Essex.

Ms Abbott used the Sunday morning interview to say that that “you are more likely to be helped by a nurse or a doctor from a migrant background than be behind them in the queue”.

At the same time Cabinet Minister Nicky Morgan suggested on Sky News that failures to tackle trafficking were partly as result of the amount of time dedicated to Brexit.

The bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in the refrigerated trailer of a lorry on an industrial estate in Grays early Wednesday morning.

Ms Abbott said security needed to be improved at the East Coast ports, before adding: “I think what you have to do is lose the assumption that immigrants are a threat and migrants are always a problem.

“You have to get the information from people who are seeking to come here. It’s a different type of process.

“It’s a different type of attitude but it’s making it easier for people to come where they may have a legal claim to come because they’ve got family here, it’s about safe and legal routes.”

ESSEX TRAGEDY

All of the victims have been moved from the vehicle in Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford where post-mortem examinations are expected to be carried out.

Essex Police are now working around the clock on the largest mass facility victim identification process in its history.

It was previously said all the victims were from China, but a number of them are now believed to have come from Vietnam.

Culture Secretary Mrs Morgan was asked about the tragedy this morning when she appeared on Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

She said: “It is incumbent on all of us to make sure that we are aware of the risks that people are running with their lives.

“But more than that, it is about cutting down obviously on those who engage in this awful trade, all the way through the chain, both here in the UK but also back in the countries where people are being trafficked from and making sure we’ve got agencies, both here in the UK but also working with agencies abroad and that obviously will continue always to cut down on this trade.

But how much more attention could we be giving it or climate change or any other major issues if we had not spent three and a half years arguing about the UK leaving the EU, if we had just got on and done it?

Nicky Morgan

“Going back to what we have just been discussing, this issue about people trafficking, modern slavery, is a big priority, and yes of course it is getting attention in government.

“But how much more attention could we be giving it or climate change or any other major issues if we had not spent three and a half years arguing about the UK leaving the EU, if we had just got on and done it?”

Yesterday, police charged Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, 25, with manslaughter after 39 migrants were discovered dead in the back of his lorry.

He was quizzed for more than 72 hours by cops after he picked up the trailer from Purfleet in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Essex Police have now confirmed Robinson, from Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic humans, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.

He was arrested shortly after the bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in the trailer attached to his Scania cab.

The 25-year-old will appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.