The UK government has unveiled plans for new laws to crack down on illegal immigration in the English Channel, which will ban anyone who arrives illegally from claiming asylum.
Announcing the new legislation in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said it would “betray” British voters not to tackle illegal Channel crossings.
She said the new legislation will remove asylum seekers and ban them from reentry if they arrive in the UK through illegal means.
Swift Removal
The home secretary told MPs, “For a government not to respond to waves of illegal migrants breaching our borders would be to betray the will of the people we were elected to serve.”Braverman said: “They will not stop coming here until the world knows that, if you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed—removed back to your country if it is safe, or to a safe third country like Rwanda. And that is precisely what this bill will do. That is how we will stop the boats.”
Braverman said that the new bill allows the detention of illegal arrivals without bail or judicial review within the first 28 days of detention, until they can be removed.
It also places a duty on the home secretary to remove illegal entrants and it will “radically narrow the number of challenges and appeals that can suspend removal.”
Only children under the age of 18 and those who are “unfit to fly or at a real risk of serious and irreversible harm—an exceedingly high bar—in the country we are removing them to will be able to delay their removal,” she said.
Any other claims will be heard “remotely” after removal.
The bill will also introduce an annual cap, to be decided by Parliament, on the number of refugees the UK will offer sanctuary to through safe and legal routes, Braverman said.
She also made a direct plea to immigrants not to fall prey to people smugglers and cross the Channel.
1-Way Ticket to Rwanda
At the centre of the government’s plan is its agreement with Rwanda—signed by then-Home Secretary Priti Patel in April 2022—under which people who have arrived in the UK illegally would be sent to the East African country on a one-way ticket for processing and potential settlement.The Rwanda scheme has been mired in legal challenges, and so far, no flights carrying illegal immigrants to Rwanda have departed.
In a victory for the government, the High Court in London ruled on Dec. 19 in favour of the Rwanda plan, saying it was “lawful.”
‘Unsustainable’
The home secretary said the need for reform of the asylum system is “obvious and urgent,” as the problem is already “unsustainable.”Braverman told MPs: “The small boats problem is part of a larger global migration crisis. In the coming years, developed countries will face unprecedented levels with pressures from ever greater numbers of people leaving the developing world for places like the United Kingdom. Unless we act today, the problem will be worse tomorrow and the problem is already unsustainable.”
She said the asylum system is costing the British taxpayer £3 billion a year.
Some 85,000 people have illegally entered the UK by small boat since 2018, “the vast majority” being adult males under 40 “rich enough to pay criminal gangs thousands of pounds for passage,” she said.
“Upon arrival, most are accommodated in hotels across the country, costing the British taxpayer around £6 million a day. The risk remains that these individuals just disappear. And when we try to remove them, they turn our generous asylum laws against us to prevent removal.”
‘Groundhog Day’
The new bill is facing resistance from opposition MPs and peers as it goes through Parliament.The main opposition Labour Party dismissed the government’s new plan as a “con that risks making the chaos worse.”
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We need serious action to stop dangerous boat crossings, which are putting lives at risk and undermining border security. Instead, today’s statement is groundhog day.”
She accused the Conservative government of failing to go after people smugglers and to negotiate new return agreements with other countries.
The Scottish National Party said it will fight the bill “every step of the way.”
But campaign group Migration Watch UK warned lawmakers not to “neuter” the legislation.
The group’s chairman Alp Mehmet said: “As it stands, the small boats bill has many of the right ingredients to solve the Channel crisis. However, it is vital that it is not neutered as it makes its way through Parliament.”
“Enshrining in statute a requirement to detain and remove illegal arrivals is a vital first step. Furthermore, establishing the precedent that illegal entrants will be unable to claim asylum or other forms of refuge will serve as a powerful deterrent,” he said.
