The British government plans to offer itself powers to show asylum-seekers back stumped or send them abroad while their applications for cover are processed, a move intended to discourage migrants from making perilous journeys across English Channel in small boats.
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Legislation introduced in Parliament on Tuesday could pave the way for migrants to be held outside the U.K., a highly contentious idea modeled on Australia’s island detention centers.
If passed, the Nationality and Borders Bill would allow the U.K. to send asylum-seekers to a “safe third country” while their claims are considered. No country has yet agreed to host U.K.-bound migrants, however.
The bill also would make “knowingly” arriving in Britain without permission a criminal offense punishable by up to four years in prison and provides people that arrived by approved routes a plus in having their applications reviewed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said the “fair but firm” legislation would help fix an ineffectual asylum system. Britain’s Conservative government is seeking ways to discourage growing numbers of individuals — 6,000 thus far this year — from reaching the U.K. by boat, sometimes with the assistance of individuals smugglers.
“For too long, our broken asylum system has lined the pockets of the vile criminal gangs who cheat the system,” Patel said. “This isn’t fair to the vulnerable people that need protection or British public who buy it. It’s time to act.”
But activists who work on behalf of refugees said the proposed law would penalize people fleeing violence and persecution.
Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said the legislation was “built on a deep lack of understanding of the truth of refugee migration.”
“We cannot divide refugees between good and bad counting on how they arrive, and go searching for where to deport those we would like to stay out,” he said.
The government says Britain gave refugee status or other humanitarian protection to twenty ,000 people within the year to March 2020. The U.K. receives fewer asylum applications than continental European countries like Germany, Spain and France.
Many refugees arrive through approved routes, but migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to succeed in Britain, traveling either in trucks through the chunnel or on ferries.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K.’s strong economy and wish for farm and restaurant workers drew migrants from round the world who could speak some English. When the pandemic struck, many turned to small boats organized by smugglers after lockdowns reduced opportunities to hide on ferries and trucks.
To stop people from arriving, the govt previously appointed a former Royal Marine commando as “clandestine Channel threat commander.” Critics say such efforts are at the best ineffective and at the worst inhumane.
Britain’s supreme court ruled earlier this month that officials broke the law once they housed asylum-seekers in overcrowded, rundown conditions during a disused army barracks during the pandemic.
To become law, the new bill must be approved by lawmakers in Parliament, where the governing Conservatives have an outsized majority.