Immigration was a major factor in the 2016 Brexit referendum, where the European Union policy of open borders had given rise to a rapid increase in migration to the United Kingdom from Eastern Europe, led by Poland. Brexit aside, there is continuing pressure on Britain’s southern border, the English Channel, from those wishing to enter Britain in order to claim asylum, or who just want to disappear off the radar. The preferred method – of smuggling themselves aboard incoming goods vehicles at Channel ports – has now been supplemented by organised trafficking, using small boats to make the hazardous crossing.

The ending of open borders on leaving the EU, and putting in place a new immigration regime to replace it, still leaves the country without a fair policy towards those migrants already in Britain whose legal status is uncertain. There are two conditions usually imposed on those given a temporary right to remain while their status is decided.