Suella Braverman has vowed to make it harder for migrants "claiming" to be victims of modern slavery to come to the UK in an apparent attempt to curb illegal channel crossings.
The Home Secretary has claimed Albanians are “abusing” the system and “claiming” to be victims in order to reach Britain’s shores.
Government officials believe around 60% of migrants making Channel crossings each day now are Albanian, even though figures constantly change.
Ms Braverman believes reforming the Modern Slavery Act will allow officials to boot people out of the country who have “paid tens of thousands of pounds for the privilege of being a so-called modern slave”.
She told the Sun on Sunday: “What’s happened is that the aims and the structure of that legislation have been completely distorted.
“Now what we are seeing is a majority of people coming here from Albania — some 80 per cent — of the people coming across on small boats are claiming to be victims of modern slavery.
“That’s regardless of the fact that they may have paid tens of thousands of pounds for the privilege of being a so called modern slave.
“That’s also regardless of the fact that they will have actively sought to come to the UK through an illegal, illicit and dangerous method. So it’s being abused.”
Theresa May rolled out the 2015 Modern Slavery Act as Home Secretary which created new powers to protect victims and prosecute offenders.
Police obtained more powers to stop boats if trafficking was suspected and courts had more power to dish out maximum life sentences for offenders or to place restrictions on people they believe may commit a human trafficking or slavery offence.
Last week figures showed almost 500 migrants arrived in the UK in one day as the total number of Channel crossings for the year so far edged closer to 33,000.
The Ministry of Defence recorded 499 people making the journey on Thursday in 10 boats, taking the number of channel crossings this year to 32,807.
Children wrapped in blankets were seen being carried to safety while other people clutching their belongings in bin bags were pictured being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, to be processed.
Crossings continued on Friday for the second day this week after a period of poor weather prevented attempts across the Channel for five days.
She vowed to cut immigration numbers despite moves by new PM Liz Truss to let more high-skilled foreigners into Britain to boost growth.
At Labour conference, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper hit out at the Tory’s “laissez-faire” approach to crime and said under the current Government “there is no justice”.
She said Labour would provide 13,000 additional police and PCSOs, work with France to prevent small boats crossing the Channel , and crack down on “criminals who lure young people into violence”.
