by Rishi Sunak seeks to ban people arriving in the UK on small boats from appealing against deportation.
According to reports, under proposals drawn up by his Home Secretary Suella Braverman, all people arriving in Britain without permission could face a ban on applying for asylum.
The prime minister has made the detention of small boats one of his five key promises in office, recently declaring his intention to “make sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are quickly detained and removed.”
A new immigration bill is expected within weeks, and is expected to attempt to permanently bar illegal arrivals from the asylum system, which under the 2022 Nationality and Borders Act now applies to anyone without visa or special permit.
The United Nations has warned that such plans would violate international law, and Home Office lawyers are said to be concerned that many of those affected will simply challenge their exclusion from the asylum system with judicial review, further congesting the courts.
As a result, Ms Braverman has reportedly crafted two options to avoid this: proposals that critics immediately warned would “put the government out of the reach of the law” and, as such, could lead to a “difficult clash” with power. judicial.
According The timesThe first would seek to eliminate the right of people who arrive illegally to appeal against their automatic exclusion from the asylum system, through the creation of the so-called “removal clause”: mechanisms that keep certain matters out of court and that are generally viewed with hostility by judges
The second would only allow people to appeal after they have been deported, regardless of whether or not they come from somewhere on the Home Office’s “safe countries” list.
A separate proposal would bar illegal arrivals from using parts of the Human Rights Act, which Justice Clerk Dominic Raab controversially hopes to strike down, to avoid deportation, such as claiming a violation of their right to family life or liberty. .
A former Tory minister told the newspaper that Ms Braverman and Mr Sunak “have to be very careful”, warning that the proposals risk “setting up a tough showdown if they don’t get it absolutely right”.
They said: “No 10 is assuring Conservative MPs that they are not going to break international obligations, but this will create difficulties and they will start having problems from day one. They will have the mother of all rows about it and ultimately how the courts interpret the legislation is another matter.”
Former Labor Chancellor Lord Falconer of Thoroton said he hoped the courts would reject the plans, which would “put the government outside the reach of the law”, describing the second proposal to only allow post-deportation appeals as “pure political ”. window dressing”.
Tasmin Baxter of the Refugee Council condemned the alleged plans as “wrong, impractical and costly” and warned that they would “break the UK’s long-standing commitment to support refugees”.
“Currently, the only way most refugees can ask for our help is to get on a flimsy boat to cross the world’s busiest shipping lane,” said Ms Baxter. sky news. “We need to stop that, but the way to do it is by replacing the chaos of the government’s proposals with a plan that is fair, orderly, compassionate and humane.”
The Home Office said it would not comment on the leaked information about the policy discussions, but said in a statement: “The unacceptable number of people risking their lives making these dangerous crossings is putting unprecedented pressure on our asylum system.” .
“Our priority is to stop this and prevent these illegal crossings, and our new Small Craft Operational Command, bolstered by hundreds of additional employees, is working hard to disrupt the business model of human smugglers.
“We are also going further by introducing legislation that will ensure that people arriving in the UK illegally are immediately apprehended and transferred to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
