Plans to tackle the Channel migrants crisis today ran into opposition from the Whitehall establishment ‘Blob’.
The Government is preparing a major immigration bill to deliver on Rishi Sunak‘s pledge to ‘stop the boats’.
But it has been attacked by senior civil service figures even before details have even been unveiled.
A former mandarin said it was ‘highly doubtful’ the proposals would lead to a fall in crossings. Charities also criticised the plans.
The new legislation is expected to strengthen measures that allow asylum applications to be declared ‘inadmissible’.
A group of migrants are brought in to Dover on a Border Force vessel today
Migrants housed at Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent on March 6
It is also expected to restrict the ability of individuals to use human rights laws to avoid being sent home.
The Mail revealed this morning that the Illegal Migration Bill will contain lifetime bans for those arriving by ‘irregular routes’, such as by small boat.
Mr Sunak is expected to speak to French president Emmanuel Macron later today and lay the ground for a summit on Friday when the Channel crisis is due to be top of the agenda. He has pledged to ‘detain and swiftly remove’ Channel migrants – nearly 46,000 of whom arrived last year.
However former Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Normington today predicted the Government’s plan would face ‘very great’ problems.
‘These are people many of whom are desperate, they have fled from persecution, and being told that there’s been a change in legislation in the British Parliament, I don’t think is going to make a big difference to them,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘And then the Government has to do something with them. It says it’s going to detain them for 28 days, and then deport them.
‘But where is it going to detain them, because it doesn’t have the space?
‘And where’s it going to deport them to, because it doesn’t have agreements with enough countries that are safe?’
Lucy Moreton of the Immigration Services Union also cast doubt on the proposals.
‘The plans as they’ve been announced really are quite confusing,’ she told Today programme.
‘We can’t move anyone to Rwanda right now – it’s subject to legal challenge. We can’t remove anyone back into Europe because there are no returns agreements and we lost access to the database that allows us to prove that individuals have claimed asylum in Europe – Eurodac – when we left with Brexit.
‘So, unless we have a safe third country that isn’t Rwanda to send people to, this just doesn’t seem to be possible.’
Ms Moreton, who represents immigration officers, said the Government’s announcements could ‘fuel’ people-smuggling, with gangs telling would-be migrants ‘quick, cross now before anything changes’.
Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council described the plans as ‘flawed’, adding: ‘It’s unworkable, costly and won’t stop the boats.’
He suggested the proposals would ‘shatter the UK’s long-standing commitment under the UN Convention to give people a fair hearing regardless of the path they have taken to reach our shores’.
The Government is preparing a major immigration bill to deliver on Rishi Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’
Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK condemned the measures as ‘disgraceful posturing and scaremongering’.
Downing Street insisted action was vital to prevent further lives being lost on the dangerous crossing from northern France.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘We firstly need people to wait for the actual policy details to be published before giving their views.
‘We’ve seen too many lives lost attempting this dangerous and unnecessary journey, and the number of people entering the country is simply unsustainable.
‘As we’ve always said, we recognise there will likely be challenges in many forms to this sort of legislation.’
He said Mr Sunak believed there was no need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Cabinet minister Michelle Donelan said: ‘This week we will be bringing forward additional legislation, which is based on the principle that if people travel here via illegal routes they shouldn’t be allowed to stay, which I think is common sense and right.
‘Those boats are not filled with people coming from countries that desperately need help.
‘Many times they’re filled with people that are actually economic migrants and have also been exploited by criminal gangs who take their money on a very perilous journey.’
Asked whether the plan was legally feasible, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer replied: ‘I don’t know that it is and I think we’ve got to be very careful with international law here.’
