Rishi Sunak’s government has this week announced their new “Illegal Migration Bill”, which aims to tackle the small boats crisis currently engulfing UK politics. It has become instantly controversial due to the callous way it treats migrants arriving on small boats, and the Home Secretary herself has admitted that the bill probably breaks international asylum laws.
The bill ensures that anyone arriving in the UK by irregular means such as crossing the channel in a small boat will not, and will never be able to claim asylum in the UK. Migrants will also not benefit from the UK’s anti-slavery legislation. It stipulates that those migrants will be immediately detained, and quickly deported either back to their own country if it is safe to do so, or to a safe third country, like Rwanda.
Exceptions will be made for children, the seriously ill, and those who can prove serious harm in their home or “safe” third country, but apart from that, this bill effectively outlaws arriving in the UK on a small boat. There has obviously been significant backlash from international human rights organisations, NGOs, and activists, and the Refugee Council has also stated that the bill is a clear breach to the UK’s commitment to the UN Human Rights Convention.
The bill is also expected to come into conflict with the European Court of Human Rights. Whilst the government hasn’t yet announced its intention to leave the ECHR, large elements of the Conservative party, including the Home Secretary, are pushing for the UK to leave, despite the UK being one of the authors of existing European human rights law. If this bill is blocked by the ECHR, that debate will only gain momentum.
On a simple practical level, the bill is unworkable. Thousands of refugees cross the channel in small boats each year, and we are already running out of places to put them. If every single one is now to be detained and held until they are deported (the Rwanda scheme has yet to deport a single refugee, and has already cost £140 million of public money), where does the government plan to keep them? They haven’t yet produced and answer, and none seems to be forthcoming.
This government claims to be acting with humanity and compassion whenever they talk about their migration policy, but the Home Secretary has also announced that once the bill is made law (expected to happen after 6 months), the government plans to introduce legislation that puts a cap on the amount of refugees the UK can accept by safe an legal means.
The UK already accepts far fewer refugees than any other comparable European country, and plans to decrease that number further still. There is increasing acknowledgement that the UK is taking far fewer refugees than its fair share, which will inevitably lead to increased friction with our international neighbours and partners. Whether refugees arrive by legal or illegal means, this government will always be hostile to them.
The government talks a lot about “safe and legal” asylum routes into the UK, and that refugees should stay in the first safe country they arrive in. According to a report from Amnesty International, “There is no rule or principle of international law that requires someone to make his, her or their asylum claim in such a country.”
The safe and legal routes to the UK are, according to immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal, “often inaccessible” to the majority of asylum seekers, and that there are only a handful of countries with a dedicated resettlement scheme. It is also not possible to enter the UK by legal means (such as on a plane) without a Visa, severely limiting legal routes into the UK for the vast majority of refugees.
The UK has long enjoyed a reputation as a generous refugee-accepting nation, solidified by positive schemes such as the 2015 Syrian refugee scheme. Recent administrations have progressively besmirched this reputation, with this bill the latest in a long list of human rights backsliding.
I think this bill is utterly disgraceful and shameful. Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, and the rest of the pack of xenophobes that the modern Conservative Party has turned into are using the small minority of those who come to the UK to take advantage of our system as an excuse to turn away whoever they want, simply because a hard line on immigration panders to their base. Most illegal migrants in the UK do not cross the channel in a dinghy; they arrive via legal routes and overstay their Visas. This bill does precisely nothing to resolve that.
This bill is the UK equivalent of Trump’s border wall; a grand show of populist anti-immigrant bravado and drivel that makes a lot of noise, achieves little, and comes from a place of xenophobia and anti-foreigner sentiment, no matter what type of foreigner you are. But just like the border wall, this bill will fail. Sunak and the Tories have pledged to “stop the boats”, and see this bill as their way to do it. It is impossible to end small boat crossings over the channel. If this legislation, and all the other anti-immigrant legislation passed by the Tories have shown us anything, it is that refugees will not be deterred from crossing the channel. They will keep coming, and this, or any government cannot stop that. They will break their promise, and the electorate will not forget it.
The government’s new mantra of “stop the boats” is already proving popular with the Tory base, and will undoubtably become a massive sticking point in the next General Election. The success of this slogan will, however, rely upon the success of this new migration bill. With the amount of practical and legal challenges ahead of it, not to mention the scrutiny it will endure in the House of Lords, if it even passes the Commons, it is unlikely to be a success. All the better for those seeking asylum here, and for the UK’s already damaged reputation as a generous, compassionate nation.
stay safe
/e