- By Christy Cooney
- BBC news
A new law set before Parliament on Tuesday will introduce new measures aimed at preventing migrants entering the UK in small boats.
It is expected that the Illegal Migration Bill will place a duty on the home secretary to detain and deport anyone who enters the country illegally.
It also prevents illegal arrivals from claiming asylum or returning to the UK in the future.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer described the plans as “unfeasible”.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the bill would push “the boundaries of international law” without breaking them, telling the Express it was needed to “solve this crisis”.
Writing in the Sun, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plans were “fair for those at home and those with legitimate asylum claims”.
More than 45,000 people entered the UK through Channel crossings last year, up from around 300 in 2018, leading to pressure on the government to tackle the issue.
Under the new plans, the home secretary’s “removal duty” will take precedence over a person’s right to claim asylum – although there are exceptions for under-18s and those have a serious medical condition.
Anyone who is removed will also not be allowed to return to the UK or seek British citizenship in the future.
While the bill will not become law for several months it will apply retrospectively, meaning anyone arriving in the UK illegally from Tuesday will be at risk of deportation under the laws.
The new laws are expected to undermine the UK’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN’s Refugee Convention – which currently gives rights to asylum seekers arriving in the UK.
A refugee is a person who is forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster, where a migrant more broadly refers to anyone who moves from one place to another.
Under the new law, the home secretary has a duty to remove all those arriving illegally in Rwanda or a “safe” third country “as soon as possible” – regardless of where they come from.
The government has a policy in place aimed at deporting some asylum seekers to Rwanda – but so far no one has been sent there and any plans to do so are currently being held up by legal challenges.
Mr Sunak spoke to Rwandan President Paul Kagame ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, and said they would continue to work to ensure the new proposals go ahead.
In an opinion piece for the Sun, Mr Sunak said the UK had a “proud history of welcoming those most in need” and the new measures were “fair for those at home and those with legitimate claim to asylum”.
“Those arriving in small boats are not directly fleeing a war-torn country or facing an imminent threat to life,” he said.
“Instead, they traveled to safe, European countries before crossing the Channel. The fact that they can do this is unfair to those who came here legally and that’s enough.”
He added that the plans “will send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you will be easily removed” – and it will “help break the business model of people smugglers”.
Ms Braverman said she and the prime minister were “working tirelessly” to ensure the bill worked.
“It’s about fairness and making sure thousands of migrants every year don’t jump the queue,” he said.
The prime minister will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to discuss further cooperation needed to reduce boat crossings.
Mr Sunak admitted voters had “heard the promises before” without seeing the results, but insisted his law “will mean that those who come here in small boats cannot get asylum here”.
The plans have been met with criticism from opposition figures and refugee groups, with Labor saying the new legislation rehashes previous plans that didn’t work.
A new offense of arriving in the UK illegally was introduced in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, but has hardly been used.
Ministers expect this bill to cause a row.
This is probably the first row they know has been chosen since Rishi Sunak became prime minister, rather than by accident.
This, remember, is one of the five key promises of the PM. Three are related to the economy, one to the NHS and the last is to “stop the boats”.
It’s the “last chance for the Conservatives to sort it out,” one insider acknowledged – and Tory MPs say it’s important to many voters they want to move on.
Speaking on LBC radio, the Labor leader said the issue of Channel crossings “needs to be dealt with” but “the only way to solve it is to break up the criminal gangs that drive it”.
Sir Keir Starmer said the National Crime Agency should be given the resources to set up a specialist unit to tackle the issue and more should be done to speed up the processing of asylum applications.
Asked if the plan would be legal, Sir Keir – who is a former director of public prosecutions – said: “I don’t know that it is and I think we have to be very careful with international law here .”
Many critics also argue that, apart from schemes for people from specific countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine, there are currently no safe and legal routes for the majority of people seeking asylum in the UK. .
The Liberal Democrats said the new law was “immoral, ineffective and extremely expensive for taxpayers while doing nothing to stop small boat crossings”.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said it would “undermine the UK’s long-standing commitment under the UN Convention to give people a fair hearing regardless of the route they took to reach our shores “.
Freedom from Torture, a charity that provides therapy to asylum seekers, described the measures as “vindictive and unsavory”.
