Modern slavery law ‘is the biggest loophole’ for migrants

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The Modern Slavery Act was introduced by Mrs May during her time as home secretary in order to protect vulnerable people from labor exploitation, domestic servitude or being trafficked for sex.

But Mr Philp said it had “inadvertently turned into one of the biggest loopholes in our immigration system, allowing illegal immigrants and foreign criminals to remain in the UK”.

He added: “Immigration lawyers know they don’t need to provide any real proof – just offer a vaguely plausible-sounding story that is roughly consistent with known modern slavery patterns and it will get accepted.

“In some cases they even submitted copy and paste claims for different clients without even bothering to change the details. It is making a mockery of our goodwill. I saw case after case where serious foreign criminals – including sadistic rapists and brutal murderers – used last-minute modern slavery claims to prevent deportation back to their home country.”

It comes after evidence of Albanians exploiting modern slavery laws emerged last week. They are the biggest nation claiming to be slavery victims, while record numbers from Albania are reaching the UK by illegal Channel crossings.

Mr Philp said the disclosure had prompted him to lift the lid on scams as someone who “saw this play out across thousands of cases” when an immigration minister.

“Unfortunately, successive governments have been persuaded by self-appointed campaigners to lower the threshold of proof to accept a modern slavery claim to an absurdly low level,” he added.

The numbers allowed to stay had risen from 3,000 in 2015 to 16,000 this year, of which 90 per cent were approved because of the “lax” criminal rules, he said, meaning foreigns could not be removed from the UK even if they had committed murder or rape.

He said modern slavery claims were “routinely” made by Channel migrants, despite them having told immigration officers on arrival that they were not slavery, adding: “The claim usually came shortly after meeting an immigration lawyer.”

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