- By Doug Faulkner and Iain Watson
- BBC News
March 7, 2023 at 18:17 GMT
Updated 15 minutes ago
video caption,
Sunak: We tried all other methods but it didn’t work
Rishi Sunak has said he is “ready for the fight” to introduce new legislation aimed at preventing migrants on small boats from crossing the Channel to get to the UK.
The prime minister said he was confident the government would win any legal battles over the “tough but necessary and fair” measures.
Earlier, his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, announced the bill during a controversial debate in Parliament.
Labor said the Tories’ latest plans were like “groundhog day” and a “hoax”.
Not only members of the opposition criticize the plans. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said the proposed law would amount to an “asylum ban”.
Standing behind a lectern with the slogan ‘Stop the Boats’, Mr Sunak confirmed that proposed new law, which would see illegal migrants deported ‘within weeks’, would apply retrospectively to anyone arriving in the UK illegally from Tuesday.
He said he knew there would be a debate about the harshness of the law on illegal migration, but the government had tried “every other way” to prevent the crossings and they hadn’t worked.
While he admitted it was a “complicated problem” with no single “silver bullet” to fix it, he said he wouldn’t stand there unless he thought he could fix it.
More than 45,000 people crossed the Channel to Britain last year, up from around 300 in 2018.
The government believes stopping small boats is a key issue for voters and Mr Sunak has made it one of his top five priorities.
This is politically risky – as the outcome may not be entirely in his hands.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said serious action was needed to stop small boat crossings but said the Government’s plans risked “making the chaos worse”.
Opposition MPs took turns attacking the law, with some saying it was unlawful while others said it would not work in practice.
But Tory MPs backed their Home Secretary as they took turns to welcome the move, and Ms Braverman retorted that Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer “doesn’t want to stop the boats”.
Acknowledging the likelihood of litigation, Ms Braverman wrote to Conservative MPs that there was “more than a 50% chance” that the legislation would be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
That makes potential legal challenges – and a rough ride for the bill in the Lords – more likely.
But the political calculus could well be that the new law will bring clear blue water between the government and the opposition.
And if the bill is obstructed, the prime minister may be hoping he will gain political credit from voters for trying to find a solution.
Mr Sunak told a Downing Street conference he believed it was not necessary for the UK to leave the ECHR and said the government believed it was acting in accordance with it and “delivering on our international obligations”.
He said part of the problem is that people make a claim “then later they can make another claim, and then another claim,” and said the UK couldn’t have a system to exploit.
The deterrent effect of the new law “could be very strong pretty quickly,” he added.
- People who have been expelled from the UK will be prevented from returning or applying for British citizenship in the future
- Migrants are not given bail for the first 28 days of detention, nor can they apply for judicial review
- There will be a cap on the number of refugees the UK will settle by “safe and legal means” – set annually by Parliament
- A Home Secretary’s duty to arrest and deport those entering the UK illegally, to Rwanda or a ‘safe’ third country – this will take legal precedence over a person’s right to seek asylum
- Deportation may be delayed for those under 18, those who are medically unfit to fly, or those at risk of serious harm in the country to which they are being deported
- All other asylum applications are heard remotely after deportation
The UN refugee agency UNHCR was “deeply concerned” about the law and called it a “clear violation” of the Refugee Convention.
“Most people fleeing war and persecution simply do not have access to the necessary passports and visas,” it said.
“There are no safe and ‘legal’ ways available to them. Denying them access to asylum on this basis undermines the very purpose for which the Refugee Convention was created.”
The Refugee Council said it was “not the British way of doing things” and its chief executive, Enver Solomon, said the plans were “more like authoritarian nations”, while Amnesty International called it a “cynical attempt at fundamental moral and legal responsibilities.” to circumvent”.