Migrant families to be deported if they enter Britain illegally

Families face detention and deportation if they enter the UK illegally under tough new measures to stop people smugglers from targeting women and children Channel migrants.

The move is expected to be announced on Tuesday as part of Rishi Sunak’s new Bill to deter illegal immigration.

The law will effectively bar any migrants who arrive through the Channel on small boats from claiming asylum in the UK. 

Those who do come to the UK illegally will be swiftly removed to their home country or a safe third country, such as Rwanda, to claim asylum from there. Families who enter the UK illegally will face the same regime.

The measures came amid fears that the UK could become a magnet for people smugglers focusing on women and children if they were excluded.

The Prime Minister has made “stopping the boats” one of his five priorities, and told the Mail on Sunday he is “determined to deliver” on his promise.

Other measures in the Bill will include restricting migrants’ use of appeals and judicial reviews to fight deportation on human rights grounds. 

Sources said that the right to appeal before deportation will be “exceptionally limited”. Once migrants are removed, they will have no right to return to the UK. 

As first revealed by The Telegraph, the Bill will also place a legal duty on the Home Secretary to detain and deport migrants who enter the UK illegally as soon as practicable.

It will also set out a new law extending and setting detention time limits, with migrants’ cases fast-tracked so they can be processed for removal while they are detained. 

European human rights case law requires that there must be a realistic prospect of removal of migrants for them to be held for any length of time.

There will be no route to settlement or citizenship in the UK for migrants who arrive illegally under the Bill.

However, the Government is proposing that there should be new safe and legal routes to claim asylum. The overall number of asylum seekers will be capped by Parliament, determined by an annual vote by both Houses.

Sources said that the new legislation will “pull no punches” and go further than any other previous government in pushing the boundaries of what is possible within the UK’s international obligations without breaching them.

If the legislative package is blocked by Strasbourg, it is understood that Mr Sunak is prepared to consider leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). 

“This is the best last bet on what can be done consistent with the ECHR,” said a source.

However, there will be measures in the Bill to prevent a repeat of the last-minute injunction by the ECHR in June 2022, which blocked the first deportation flight of Channel migrants to Rwanda.

Ministers have maintained the injunction, known as Rule 39, is not grounded in the ECHR but is part of the court’s “internal rules”, so is not binding on UK courts and can therefore be disregarded by them.

The late-night injunction by a single Strasbourg judge barred flights to Rwanda until all UK courts had ruled on the legality of the policy. Although the Home Office won in the High Court, it has been appealed and the legal process is unlikely to be completed until later this year.

All the asylum seekers on the flight were male. Since January 2018, 76 per cent of arrivals have been adult males aged 18 and over. But about one sixth, 16 per cent, have been children aged 17 and under with the remainder women.

Unaccompanied children are expected to be excluded from deportation. However, ministers believe that families should not be exempted, amid evidence of the way people smuggling gangs have already exploited them by offering cut-price deals to lure them into potentially deadly crossings.

The news came amid fears that as many as 85,000 migrants could reach the UK this year if the doubling trend of the first two months continues. A record 45,728 crossed in 2022, following 28,526 in 2021.

To counter appeals, it is thought that parts of the Human Rights Act will effectively be suspended for illegal migrants so they can be deported even if they have human rights claims. There will also be limits on what and when migrants can claim through judicial review.

During an appearance on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary, was shown a graph displaying a fall in asylum seeker returns since 2010 as he insisted that legislation is just one aspect of the Government’s “arsenal” on the issue.

“We need a full range of things in our arsenal to try and stop both people trafficking and illegal migration across the Channel,” he said.

“That involves proper conversations, that are ongoing, with our French counterparts – and indeed other European counterparts – to try and ensure that people are held in the first safe country that they come to. That also includes international development aid.”

Mr Heaton-Harris insisted that a tightening of the law was required “because the law has been challenged on pretty much all those occasions and equally when we announced the Rwanda scheme, it was challenged immediately”.

Later appearing on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday, he signalled that the Government may look at opening more “safe and legal routes” for asylum seekers in the future.

He said: “I’m quite sure there’ll be more safe and legal routes and that’s why we have them. They’ve been proven to work.”

Tory backbenchers have pressed the Prime Minister for firm action to tackle the crossings.

Kit Malthouse, a former Cabinet minister, told Times Radio he would “wait and see” what the legislation looks like, but added: “Will it actually be a bit of a marketing tool for the gangs?

“Will they say, ‘You know what, here’s this legislation coming, it’s going to make our lives more difficult, better get in quick’, and whether that will accelerate numbers a little bit in advance.”

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The Government’s flawed legislation will not stop the boats but result in tens of thousands locked up in detention at huge cost, permanently in limbo and being treated as criminals simply for seeking refuge. It’s unworkable, costly and won’t stop the boats.”

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary has been clear that if you arrive in the UK illegally, you should not be allowed to stay. We will shortly introduce legislation which will ensure that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly returned to their home country or a safe third country. 

"Our work with France is also vital to tackling the unacceptable rise in dangerous Channel crossings. We share a determination to tackle this issue together, head-on, to stop the boats.”