LONDON
\nThe UK government Tuesday unveiled radical plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel illegally on small boats, acknowledging it is stretching international law amid an outcry from rights campaigners.
\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plan would \u201ctake back control of our borders once and for all\u201d \u2014 reprising a popular pledge from campaigners like him who backed Britain\u2019s Brexit divorce from the European Union (EU).
\n\u201cThis new law will send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you will be swiftly removed,\u201d he wrote in The Sun newspaper, ahead of a summit Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron.
\nUnder the draft law, anyone who is deported after making the dangerous journey from France would be banned from re-entering the United Kingdom and ever claiming British citizenship.
\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman would be given a new legal duty to deport illegal migrants, trumping their other rights in UK and European human rights law.
\n\u201cNo more sticking plasters or shying away from the difficult decisions,\u201d the interior minister wrote in the Telegraph newspaper, before introducing the legislation in parliament.
\n\u201cMyself and the prime minister have been working tirelessly to ensure we have a bill that works \u2014 we\u2019ve pushed the boundaries of international law to solve this crisis,\u201d Braverman added.
\nMigrants would be returned to their home country or on to a \u201csafe\u201d destination such as Rwanda, under a hotly contested partnership agreed by London, and their rights of legal redress dramatically curtailed.
\nSunak\u2019s Conservative government is trailing in the polls and the topic of illegal migrants is playing badly with voters and the right-wing press, particularly when they have crossed \u201csafe\u201d countries in Europe to reach Britain.
\nBut rights groups and opposition parties say the plan is unworkable and unfairly scapegoats vulnerable refugees.
\nChristina Marriott, executive director of strategy for the British Red Cross, said the UK would be in breach of its duties under international asylum conventions.
\n\u201cWe wonder if you are fleeing persecution or war, if you are running from Afghanistan or Syria and are in fear of your life, how are you going to be able to claim asylum in the UK?\u201d she told Sky News.
\n\u201cIf they don\u2019t have a valid asylum claim, then we are in support of people being returned to countries,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cBut what we need for that is a really fair and fast asylum system. And that\u2019s what we don\u2019t have at the minute.\u201d
\nMore than 45,000 migrants arrived on the shores of southeast England on small boats last year \u2014 a 60 percent annual increase on a route that has grown in popularity every year since 2018.
\nNearly 3,000 have arrived so far this year, often ending up in expensive hotels at taxpayer expense, and the backlog of asylum claims now exceeds 160,000.
\nThe new plan would transfer illegal migrants to disused military barracks and cap annual asylum claims to a level set by parliament.
\nThe perilous nature of the crossings has been underlined by several tragedies in recent years, including in November 2021 when at least 27 people died when their dinghy deflated.
\nThe government has been striving for years to get a grip on the issue.
\nIt had hoped the threat of a one-way ticket to Rwanda, where migrants would remain if accepted for asylum, would deter the cross-Channel journeys.
\nBut the plan was blocked at the last minute by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is separate to the EU.
\nIt was then upheld by Britain\u2019s High Court, but remains mired in appeals. No flights to Rwanda have yet taken place.
\nReports Tuesday said the government could withdraw from the ECHR if the Strasbourg-based court again intervenes in its latest legislation, following what Braverman called its \u201copaque\u201d ruling on Rwanda.
\nThe government cannot yet state whether its \u201crobust and novel\u201d plan meets Britain\u2019s own Human Rights Act, she said, while adding that UK officials were in discussion with the ECHR.
\nBut Braverman stressed: \u201cI am confident that this bill is compatible with international obligations.\u201d
\nIn Dover, the scene of an anti-migrant protest and counter-demonstration at the weekend, locals appeared uniformly skeptical about the draft law.
\nMatthew Stevens, 43, predicted that its stipulations \u201cwon\u2019t happen.\u201d
\n\u201cToo many people are profiting for it to stop,\u201d he said of the criminal gangs who manage the illegal cross-Channel operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The UK government Tuesday unveiled radical plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel illegally on small boats, acknowledging it is stretching international law amid an outcry from rights campaigners. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plan would \u201ctake back control of our borders once and for all\u201d \u2014 reprising a popular pledge from campaigners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n