A report endorsed by UK home secretary Suella Braverman, calling for a radical crackdown on those seeking asylum has been criticised by a UN body for factual and legal errors. Braverman wrote in the foreword to the report by the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies that Britain should change human rights laws and withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to tackle Channel crossings by small boat.
The report, co-authored by Theresa May's former adviser Nick Timothy, recommended indefinite detention of all asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally and that ministers should legislate to make it impossible to claim asylum in the UK after travelling from a safe country.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR questioned the report's description of illegal for people seeking asylum, a term that is also used by Braverman and the Home Office in official documents.
There is no such thing as an illegal asylum seeker. The indefinite detention of those seeking asylum based solely on their mode of arrival would punish people in need of help and protection and constitute a clear breach of the United Kingdom's obligations under the 1951 refugee convention, a statement from the UNHCR said.
A blanket ban on claiming asylum in the UK for those arriving on small boats would breach the refugee convention, if refugees have no means to establish their status and put them at risk of forced return to their own countries.
Access to asylum should never be conditioned on the mode of arrival or nationality. The only way to determine whether people are refugees is through a fair and efficient determination of their claims. Braverman pledged to do whatever it takes to deal with the migrant crisis in the Channel, and welcomed the report in a foreword. She said the number of people making the perilous crossing was unacceptable and unsustainable and that ministers would tackle the small boats problem. We had enough of the persistent abuse of human rights laws to thwart the removal of those with no right to be in the UK. Saying so is not xenophobic or anti-immigration. The vast majority of the British public are aware of it. She wrote that to pretend otherwise is to insult them.
Timothy said that tackling the issue would require a completely different approach from the government, addressing a series of interconnected public problems. If we want to stop the crossings, we need to take immediate and bold action," he said. It is not something that can be fixed through gradual change. A former Home Office minister said that the government's rhetoric on tackling illegal migrant crossings was not working.
The Conservative MP Kit Malthouse told BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour on Sunday night: "I worry slightly that the rhetoric of let s be tough, let s just get tougher and tougher is not getting us anywhere and that I would rather hear smart solutions than tough ones." The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, said on the weekend that barring people from countries regarded as safe such as Albania from claiming asylum was one of the measures being considered.
He said the government was looking into tightening the rules on student visas, particularly in relation to bringing family members while studying in the UK.