Suella Braverman’s ‘blanket ban’ on Channel migrants claiming asylum would be barbaric and unlawful, charities say
A potential “ban” on asylum for migrants crossing the English Channel would be “barbaric” and unlawful, charities have said.
Suella Braverman is expected to use her first major speech as home secretary to announce a new bill that would go further than a huge raft of immigration laws passed just five months ago.
Sources told The Times the legislation would be designed to create a “blanket ban” on anyone who enters the UK illegally, including by small boats, from claiming refuge.
It is not yet clear how the new home secretary’s plans would be implemented or deviate from measures previously brought in by Priti Patel.
Ahead of Ms Braverman’s address to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, the Refugee Action charity hailed a “day of shame for the government”.
Chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said: “It is now clear that this home secretary cares only for keeping people out, not keeping them safe.
“Banning those crossing the Channel from claiming asylum is a blatant breach of the international refugee laws that the UK proudly helped create in the first place.
“These plans wilfully ignore the fact that it is a lack of safe routes into the country that pushes people into the hands of smugglers.
“The government cannot continue to run roughshod over its international responsibilities and threaten refugees with deportation or jail simply for asking for help.”
So far this year more than 33,500 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey from France, with the number surging to new records despite measures the Home Office claimed would act as deterrents – including the Rwanda deal and a £100,000 online communications campaign.
Home Office figures show that between January 2018 and June 2022, 94 per cent of migrants crossing the Channel on small boats claimed asylum.
Record numbers are stuck in a decisions backlog but of the applications considered, only 8 per cent were refused. Half were granted and the British government refused to assess the remainder by declaring them “inadmissible” under internal immigration rules.
Parliamentary committees, experts and charities have long called for the government to tackle Channel crossings by creating alternatives.
There is no visa for those travelling to the UK to seek asylum, and resettlement schemes do not apply to refugees who have already reached Europe on their journeys.
Clare Mosley, the founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, called the reported proposals “barbaric, untruthful and unnecessary”.
“There is a mountain of evidence that the vast majority crossing the Channel are genuine refugees, this criminalisation of them is blatant victim blaming of incredibly vulnerable people, simply for the purpose of grabbing headlines,” she said.
“Those who have escaped from the worst horrors in this world should not be risking their lives once again simply to claim asylum in the UK. The obvious answer is to give them safe passage. This would break the model of people smugglers and save lives.”
Ms Braverman is also expected to announce measures to increase the number of migrant boats intercepted by French authorities and support operations against smuggling gangs on the European mainland.
A spokesperson for the Conservative Party said the home secretary would “commit to looking at” new laws to deport people who arrive in Britain illegally, and set out her intention to ensure that government policies “cannot be derailed by abuse of modern slavery laws, the Human Rights Act or the European Court of Human Rights”.
