UK Lawmakers Could Set Annual Cap on Refugee Numbers, Says Home Office Minister

Minister of State Robert Jenrick leaves a Cabinet Meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on Nov. 1, 2022. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Parliament could be given powers to set an annual cap on the number of asylum-seekers or refugees allowed to enter the UK, a Home Office minister has revealed.

In an interview with The Telegraph newspaper, Robert Jenrick, the Minister of State for Immigration, set out his ambition for a new asylum system that would offer “safe and legal” routes for genuine refugees—while barring asylum claims from those arriving in the UK illegally by crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Jenrick said the number of asylum seekers or refugees entitled to enter the UK would be subject to a cap annually agreed upon by Parliament in view of the country’s “finite resources.”

An inflatable craft carrying illegal immigrants crosses the English Channel through a shipping lane off the coast of Dover, England on Aug. 4, 2022. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

“Many, probably most local authorities are at breaking point in terms of the amount of housing and support they’re able to devote to humanitarian schemes like this,” he said. “So it will be for Parliament to have an honest debate each year, about the number of people we’re able to take and devote resources to.”

The cap would be set after consultations with local authorities on the amount of housing and school places available, as well on as the capacity of civil society and sponsors to play their part, the minister said.

The government would then work with international organisations like the United Nations to “design very targeted schemes,” he added.

No ‘Open Door’

Jenrick dismissed the notion that the UK should adopt an “open door” policy towards asylum seekers.

“We don’t have an equal obligation to everyone in every conflict in every part of the world,” he said.

When considering refugee resettlement schemes, Jenrick said he believes the UK should be “thinking carefully about those parts of the world, or peoples to whom we have the strongest geographical, historical, moral obligation.”

The minister said he doesn’t agree with the argument that “we should open our doors to anyone from anywhere who is seeking a better life or refuge from the many conflicts that exist.”

Detainees inside the Manston short-term holding centre for illegal immigrants wave to members of the media outside the facility near Ramsgate, Kent, southeast England on Nov. 3, 2022. Daniel Leal /AFP via Getty Images

But he said there will be “occasions where we feel a very particular historical or moral obligation” toward certain immigrant groups, citing the resettlement schemes for Hong Kong residents, Afghan interpreters, and Ukrainians.

However, Jenrick warned that the British public will not tolerate abuse of either the system or their “generosity.”

He said the government is in the “final stages” of preparing legislation that will set out a “Conservative vision of asylum based on the simple principle that if you come here illegally, whether in a small boat or otherwise, you should have no path to a life in the UK and you will be removed either to your home country or to a safe third country.”

New Plan

The plan for new legislation was unveiled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak late last year.

He told the House of Commons on Dec. 13 that the government was planning to change the legal framework for immigration, and vowed to introduce new legislation to “make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addresses participants at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany on Feb. 18, 2023. Ben Stansall-WPA Pool/Getty Images

The prime minister argued that many of the small-boat arrivals come from “fundamentally safe countries” and that all of them travel through safe countries to get to the UK.

Illegal arrivals will be “detained and swiftly returned” to their home country or a safe country where their asylum cases will be considered, and will have “no right to reentry, settlement, or citizenship,” Sunak said.

He also announced a “permanent” and “unified” Small Boats Operational Command, which he said will consolidate the military and civilian capabilities to take a coordinated approach to policing the English Channel.

The National Crime Agency, which is promised 700 new recruits and a doubling of its funding, will also be part of the unit.

Citing the £5.5 million ($6.8 million) daily cost of housing illegal immigrants in hotels, the prime minister said the government is eyeing alternative sites such as “disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites” to halve the bill.

Asylum Hotel Clashes

Earlier this month, a protest at a hotel housing asylum seekers in the Knowsley area of Merseyside descended into chaos, resulting in 15 arrests.

Merseyside police said the protest on Feb. 10 was “initially peaceful” before a separate group of people turned up to make trouble. A police van was burnt out and three people received minor injuries.

A burnt-out police van after a demonstration outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, Merseyside, England on Feb. 10, 2023. Peter Powell/PA Media

Jenrick repeated the government’s condemnation of the violence, stressing that it was wrong and without justification.

“When you look at the events in Knowsley, everyone has an obligation to obey the law but we also have a right to see the law enforced. And people coming illegally in small boats are breaking the law,” he said.

“That’s why we’ve made it one of our key priorities as a government to secure our borders. We understand how angry the public are at the numbers of people coming across in small boats.”

According to government figures, a record 45,756 illegal immigrants crossed the English Channel to reach the UK in 2022.

Lily Zhou and PA Media contributed to this report.