On Tuesday, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, presented a bill to the House to tackle irregular immigration. The proposal, of which the British newspapers had published various advances in recent days, was widely contested both by the opposition and by various human rights organizations, according to which would respect international standards on the right to asylum.
The proposed law especially affects migrants who try to arrive in the United Kingdom on makeshift boats through the English Channel, the one between France and the United Kingdom, the number of which has increased significantly in recent years: from 2018 to 2022 it went from about 300 to over 45 thousand people.
The proposed law requires anyone entering the UK unlawfully to be first detained and then deported, either to their home country or to a ‘safe third country’. In this regard, Braverman spoke of Rwanda, with which the United Kingdom had already signed an agreement in April 2022, which provided for the transfer to the African country of some of the asylum seekers who entered the United Kingdom illegally. The deal had been disputed with appeals in court and the first transfer had been blocked by a sentence of the European Court of Human Rights.
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The bill Braverman announced would allow detention for the first 28 days without the possibility of bail or appeal. It would also prevent those who enter illegally from appealing to British laws against slavery and human trafficking, which in certain circumstances allow for reception and which according to Braverman and other Conservative politicians are exploited by irregular migrants to stay in the country.
There are some exceptions for those under the age of 18, who are seriously ill or are considered “at risk of real and irreversible damage”. All other people, Braverman said, will be arrested, deported, and their asylum applications will only be examined later and in their absence. In Braverman’s plans, all of this would “radically” reduce the number of recourses and appeals that can suspend the expulsion.
In essence, the new law favors the “duty to remove” those who enter the United Kingdom irregularly, as Braverman said, over the right of asylum. Presenting the law, Braverman has said that its goal is “to stop the boats that bring tens of thousands of people to our shores”.
In recent times, British Conservative governments have made a name for themselves with tough, repressive and contested proposals against migrants. Referring to the agreement with Rwanda when she was still Interior Minister in the government of Liz Truss, preceding that of Sunak, Braverman herself had said at a Conservative party convention: «I would like to see a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off for Rwanda, this is my dream, it’s my obsession».