Since the start of this year, more than 40,000 people have crossed the channel, on over 1,000 dinghies claiming they need asylum in the UK. These numbers are astronomical and are growing all the time, writes Shipley MP Philip Davies.

I wrote last year about how bad things were and they have actually got much worse. It has got to stop.

A clear starting point would be correctly defining the people who are arriving on dinghies. The term “asylum seeker” in this case is just plain wrong. Anyone fleeing persecution and fearing for their life is an asylum seeker. Yet many of those arriving on dinghies from the northern coast of France are more likely to be illegal migrants.

If people are fleeing genuine persecution, they should be seeking refuge in the first safe country they arrive at which is most certainly not Britain via a dinghy. The last time I checked France is not a warzone. Additionally, over 25% of those who have arrived on dinghies this year are from Albania and - like France - Albania is not a warzone nor are people likely to be fleeing for their life from Albania.

We British have a long tradition of helping those in need and this is now just being ruthlessly abused.

We are providing free accommodation, free healthcare and free schooling and these people are not paying any utility bills, council tax or anything to support themselves.

An ever increasing £5.6 million is being spent per day on hotels across the country and not just any hotels in some cases - four and five-star hotels no less. This is a luxury which is also likely to encourage people to risk their lives to reach this country.

The British taxpayer also forks out an additional £40.85 per person per week – regardless of whether the person is granted asylum in this country or not. This is absolutely outrageous.

Not only are these people not “asylum seekers”, but there is also a good chance some of them are criminals – and nobody can say for sure whether they are or are not because we do not often know who they are. Allowing potential criminals to enter our shores unchecked is something that would make any sane person’s blood boil.

We need to sort out the mess of Human Rights legislation and modern day slavery loopholes which assist lawyers in frustrating the human rights of the majority. Failing that we should just send these people back and ignore the objections they and the courts will inevitably have. If the boats were stopped in the sea and turned around, the criminal gangs and the migrants themselves would soon realise that their illegal activities will not be successful.

If people then enter illegally, they should automatically be deported because entering illegally should be a bar on claiming anything which is paid for by the taxpayer.

If not that, they should be very quickly processed, found not to be genuine asylum seekers and removed.

However, to add insult to injury, operations at the Home Office are incredibly slow. It transpires that currently each caseworker makes only 1.5 asylum decisions per week. If a caseworker was making 1.5 decisions per day this would still be a shockingly low number but 1.5 decisions a week is off the scale in terms of acceptability. If we have to assess these claims until we have a more permanent solution then, at the very least, they must be fast tracked so that we are sending unsuccessful asylum claimants back straight away.

We should also ensure we are fully using existing legislation to ensure claims from people from certain countries - such as those not at war - are certified as “clearly unfounded”. This prevents the person from appealing against refusal of their claim. This at least saves British taxpayers from funding costly pointless appeals, thanks to our very generous legal system, and stops these people from benefiting from free accommodation for prolonged periods of time.

I find it extremely insulting and completely unacceptable that, whilst my constituents are facing higher prices on their bills, mortgages and their weekly shop, the British government is going out of its way to give everything free to those who arrive on our shores illegally and without justification at a yearly cost of billions to the taxpayer.

The public perception is that these people are being treated the same or even more favourably than those who have worked hard and paid their taxes all their life in this country and this is simply not on. I believe our new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, understands this and will do all that he can to fix it. He definitely needs to because it is an absolute disgrace and things simply cannot carry on as they are.