Migrants on small boats to be barred from Britain

People will be sent to Rwanda or another ‘safe third country’ and face a lifetime ban from returning to UK or claiming citizenship.

A record 45,756 migrants crossed the English Channel last year, a 60 per cent rise from the year before. Picture: AFP

Asylum-seekers who arrive on small boats will be removed from Britain and prohibited from returning or claiming citizenship under laws to be announced on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman will bring forward legislation to make all such asylum claims inadmissable.

The government of Boris Johnson last April announced a plan under which people who came to the UK without a visa or other permission to enter the country sent to Rwanda to have their asylum claim processed and decided there. Last December the High Court ruled that the plan was lawful.

The government will seek to introduce powers to detain tens of thousands of people and place the home secretary under a legal duty to remove them “as soon as reasonably practicable”.

People will be sent to Rwanda or another “safe third country” and face a lifetime ban from returning to the UK or claiming British citizenship.

The government says it will open new “safe and legal” routes for asylum- seekers but has not said what these will be.

The Times has been told that official estimates put the overall cost of the policy — including dealing with the record backlog in processing claims and detaining migrants — at about £3bn ($5.3bn). The government is already spending about £3bn a year on the asylum system.

The Refugee Council said that tens of thousands of genuine refugees who would previously have been granted asylum would be “locked up like criminals” under the plans, which would “shatter” Britain’s commitments under the UN refugee convention.

A government source said: “It is bad enough that illegal migrants abuse our asylum system to frustrate their removal. But it is far worse that they can settle here permanently and apply to become a citizen.

“The ability to settle in this country and become a British citizen is not a human right, it is a privilege, which is why we will ban illegal migrants from ever coming back to the UK after we have removed them.”

Mr Sunak has made a pledge to “stop the boats” one of his five priorities amid anger among voters at the government’s failure to tackle the issue.

He is likely to face pressure from some Tory MPs to go further and threaten to pull Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights. He is said to be reluctant to do so and believes that the plans are “legally watertight”.

Ministers are likely to face significant legal and practical obstacles on the issue, however, amid concerns that they will be in breach of the convention.

Analysis by the Refugee Council found that two thirds of those who crossed the Channel last year would be granted asylum because they were from countries whose refugees have a high likelihood of success.

Nearly every migrant who crosses the Channel from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria is granted asylum.

Allies of former home secretary Priti Patel have described the plans as “window dressing” that would do little to combat the problem.

A record 45,756 migrants crossed the Channel last year, a 60 per cent rise from the year ­before. The asylum backlog has hit a record high, with more than 160,000 migrants waiting for decisions on their applications.

The Home Office said that 97 per cent of those who had come to Britain in small boats last year – equivalent to 34,793 people – were still waiting for a decision on their application.

About 83 per cent of asylum applications since 2018 are awaiting a decision.

Home Office forecasts suggest that 65,000 migrants are expected to cross the Channel in small boats this year.

Polling by YouGov in November found that 87 per cent of the public thought the government was doing badly on immigration in general, including 62 per cent who thought it was doing very badly.

It was regarded as one of the most important issues facing the country by 37 per cent.

The Times