Sunak toughens curbs on migrants coming to Britain in small boats

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday pledged to speed up the expulsion of Albanians and toughen UK laws as part of plans to curb the record number of migrants coming to Britain in small boats over the English Channel.

The prime minister said it was “unfair” that so many people were crossing into the UK from or through countries that are “perfectly safe”. Britons were “right to be angry”, he added.

In a House of Commons statement, Sunak also said he would eliminate a backlog of asylum claims by the end of 2023 by doubling the number of government caseworkers and streamlining the processing of applications.

The backlog of claims by asylum seekers has ballooned, with 143,377 people awaiting an initial decision on their applications and unable to work. Downing Street said its target related only to 92,601 asylum claims made before June 28 2022, when new immigration laws took effect.

Sunak said a “small boats operational command” bringing together military and civilian capabilities to intercept cross-Channel migrants would be set up, and funding and staffing for the National Crime Agency would be increased to pursue people smugglers who exploit asylum seekers.

He added the government would introduce new laws early next year to “make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally, you should not be able to remain here”.

The prime minister is under intense pressure from Tory MPs to tackle the small boats problem. Immigration and asylum have risen up voters’ priorities to become the third most important issue facing the country after the economy and health, according to a recent YouGov survey.

Some Conservative MPs fear Reform UK, which has evolved from the Brexit party, could steal Tory votes at the next election. Nigel Farage, former Brexit party leader, has hinted he might make a comeback.

The government has identified “disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites” to house 10,000 asylum seekers with a view to halving the £5.5mn a week spent by the government on hotels, according to Sunak.

There will also be a revised approach to the thousands of people coming to Britain from Albania.

The UK will place Border Force officers at Tirana airport, issue new guidance making clear Albania is a “safe country”, and there will be a unit expediting Albanian migrant cases involving 400 officials.

“Over the coming months, thousands of Albanians will be returned home,” said Sunak.

He also indicated that once legal hurdles are overcome, the government would proceed with its stalled policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda in central Africa.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister had come up with another round of “unworkable gimmicks”.

Some immigration lawyers welcomed measures to tackle the backlog of asylum claims, although they expressed scepticism about the ability of the government to complete this next year given that there are still more applications than decisions being made.

“There wasn’t much in the way of eye-catching bold announcements,” said Colin Yeo, an immigration barrister at Garden Street Chambers. “That’s perhaps what’s actually needed. Raising the number of caseworkers, streamlining the system: that is what has been lacking in recent years.”

Non-governmental organisations seized on Sunak’s promise to toughen up laws distinguishing who has a right to claim asylum based on how they enter the UK as more of the same hostile political rhetoric that has proved ineffectual.

Britain has offered sanctuary to hundreds of thousands of people from Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Ukraine in the past two years.

But for most other refugees there is no “safe and legal” route into the UK. Sunak said more routes could only be created once the country had curbed the number of people entering illegally.

“It is simply wrong to say all those crossing the Channel do so without good cause,” said Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, a charity. “Without safe routes they have no choice but to take dangerous journeys.”