Asylum seekers who commit child sex crimes ‘a border security issue'
The Conservative Party has claimed that grooming gangs are a 'border security issue' after a landmark report found that many suspects in live cases were foreign or claiming asylum.
Baroness Casey of Blackstock recorded the observation in her review on child sexual exploitation after seeing details from a dozen investigations. She said more effort was required to identify the nature of grooming and understand whether the profile of offenders was changing.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said the finding showed the issue of grooming gangs went 'beyond criminal justice' and 'into borders'.
The shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, added: 'It is a border security issue. This year so far has been the worst in history for illegal immigration across the English Channel. The government has no idea who the people coming are, what their previous records are … the vast majority are men. The lack of control of the border is fuelling the risk here.'
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