Small boats bill ‘could lead to more dangerous routes and increase trafficking’

Parliamentary committee says government has provided no evidence claims bill will deter small boat crossings

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have pledged the bill will ‘stop the boats’ (Phil Noble/PA) (PA Wire)

The government’s new small boats bill could lead to asylum seekers taking “more dangerous routes” to the UK, benefit people smugglers and worsen trafficking, a parliamentary report has found.

An inquiry by the cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights said the government had not provided any evidence backing its claim that the Illegal Migration Bill would deter Channel crossings.

Its damning 152-page report also found that many of the bill’s provisions were unlawful, and its central aim to see small boat migrants detained and deported without considering their claims would deny refugees and modern slaves protection.

Committee chair Joanna Cherry KC said it was “overwhelmingly clear” that the plans breach the European Convention on Human Rights, Refugee Convention and other international obligations.

“Most people fleeing persecution or conflict have no safe and legal way of getting here,” she added.

“By treating victims of modern slavery as ‘illegal migrants’ subject to detention and removal, this bill would breach our legal obligations to such victims and would risk increasing trafficking of vulnerable people.”

When the law was introduced to parliament, Suella Braverman made an unusual statutory declaration that she was unable to say it was compatible with the Human Rights Act, but she stated elsewhere that it was compatible with international law.

The committee disagreed, and censured the home secretary for failing to appear before its inquiry, and for an unexplained six-week delay answering questions in writing.

“The joint committee finds that the scope of this duty is so broad that in practice it would remove the right to asylum for the vast majority of refugees coming to the UK,” it said.

“The committee found that this would breach numerous legal obligations under the Refugee Convention, which guarantees the rights of refugees irrespective of how they arrived in the country, and would see the UK fail to play its part in the global system of refugee protection.”

The government has not yet published an official assessment of the bill, which has already been approved by the House of Commons and is being considered by the Lords.

During a debate on Wednesday, peers accused ministers of pressuring them to pass laws that have “no practical operability” because the UK has insufficient detention capacity to hold all small boat migrants and returns agreements with only two countries.

Government minister Lord Bellamy said people can only be deported to countries where Britain has struck “an agreement to take them back”, adding: “That is not at present the case, except in relation to Rwanda, but it may in future be the case in relation to other countries.”

The Joint Committee on Human Rights said the majority of experts who provided evidence to its inquiry believed the bill would fail to achieve Rishi Sunak’s stated aim of “stopping the boats”.

“Instead, they said it could lead to people attempting to come to the UK through more dangerous routes, which could both benefit people smugglers (who could charge more for their services) and lead to more people tragically losing their lives on those routes,” the report added.

“We are concerned that the modern slavery provisions of the bill not only breach the UK’s legal obligations towards victims, but may also result in the increase in trafficking and slavery.”

Rishi Sunak has claimed the bill will achieve his aim of ‘stopping the boats’ (SBOC) Duncan Capps (PA)

The bill would bar trafficking victims who arrive irregularly from receiving support and allow them to be deported while officials are still investigating potential abuse.

It was introduced weeks after Ms Braverman delayed the appointment of an anti-slavery watchdog, and in the same month that the home secretary expanded the scope of the Rwanda deal to include modern slaves as well as asylum seekers.

The committee also warned of the impact the law would have on children, pregnant women and vulnerable people, because of its creation of a legal duty to detain and deport all small boat migrants regardless of their need for protection.

It called for 40 amendments to the bill, including stripping out the core removal duty or creating exemptions, stopping ministers from overriding the European Court of Human Rights, preventing the deportation of unaccompanied children, limiting detention and removing the power to seize all small boat migrants’ phones.