Suella Braverman sounded defiant today as the UN condemned plans to stop Channel migrants from seeking asylum in the UK.
The Home Secretary insisted that drastic action is needed to address the crisis and the ‘simple truth is that we cannot accept everyone who wants to come’.
Despite an avalanche of criticism from human rights bodies, with the UNHCR calling it a “clear violation” of the refugee convention, Ms Braverman said the measures had been approved by the “army of lawyers” in the government. “We strongly believe that our proposals are legal,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Rishi Sunak will go head-to-head with Keir Starmer at PMQ later, after presenting the tough plan to “stop the ships” yesterday.
The prime minister is likely to be questioned about how the legislation will work in practice and how he might deal with anticipated legal challenges.
Suella Braverman sounded defiant today as the UN condemned plans to stop Channel migrants from seeking asylum in the UK.
A group landed at Dover after crossing the English Channel earlier this week.
Mr Sunak declared last night that he was “ready to fight” against opponents of the Illegal Migration Bill, designed to detain people seeking asylum in the UK if they arrive by unauthorized means.
He added that he was “sure” that the government would win the legal battles over the “harsh” but “necessary and just” measures.
In a round of interviews this morning, Ms Braverman said the policy would have a deterrent effect and that the number of crossings would “drop dramatically”.
“We will see, based on the experiences of other countries, that once we can relocate people who have come here illegally from the UK to another safe country, like Rwanda, or back to their own country of origin, then, in reality, the number of people making the trip in the first place will be drastically reduced,” he said.
Asked how the government was going to build the detention spaces needed to house the tens of thousands of people crossing the canal, the Home Secretary told the BBC: ‘We don’t need to build 50,000 new detention places.
“We are going to increase our detention capacity, that is absolutely certain.”
Ms Braverman also stood by her claim yesterday that “there are 100 million people around the world who could qualify for protection under our current laws” and “they are coming here.”
She said this morning: ‘I see my role as honest… I’m not going to shy away from showing the enormity of the problem we face.
‘The UN itself has confirmed that there are over 100 million people displaced around the world, due to all kinds of factors such as conflict or persecution… and these are a lot of people who would like to come to the UK.
“The simple truth is that we cannot accept everyone who wants to come to the UK.”
Ms Braverman admitted to MPs yesterday that there is a “more than 50 per cent chance” that the legislation is not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Announcing the plans in the House of Commons, Ms Braverman said illegally arriving asylum seekers will be held without bail or judicial review for 28 days before being “expeditiously removed” to their country of origin or to a “safe third country” such as Rwanda.
They face a lifetime ban on returning once deported and will never be allowed to settle in the country or obtain citizenship.
The feasibility of the bill has been called into question as plans such as the forced removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda are embroiled in legal challenges.
The number of asylum applications skyrocketed last year to 74,751, out of 89,398 people, the highest since 2002.
The number of small boat arrivals peaked at almost 9,000 a month in summer
The figures from the Ministry of the Interior show how the number of illegal immigration attempts detected has increased, dominated by the arrivals of Canal ships.
But Conservative MP Richard Graham expressed optimism about the court rulings on UK refugee policy, telling BBC Newsnight that “there are interesting signs that our case is actually being heard in Strasbourg.”
Sunak told a Downing Street news conference that migrants arriving in the UK illegally will be deported “within a few weeks” and the bill will apply “retrospectively” if it passes.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was “deeply concerned” by the bill and that, if passed, it would amount to an “asylum ban”.
Vicky Tennant, UNHCR UK representative, told Newsnight: “We believe this is a clear violation of the Refugee Convention. And remember, even people with very compelling claims simply won’t get a chance to make them.’
Critics also included BBC presenter Gary Lineker, who faced censorship from the broadcaster after writing on Twitter: “This is just an immeasurably cruel policy targeting the most vulnerable people in language no dissimilar to that used through Germany in the 1930s.
In an email to Conservative members, the Home Secretary claimed that previous attempts to end Channel crossings without resorting to changing the law had been blocked by “an activist mass of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Party Labour”.
Sunak will meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to discuss further cooperation that will be required to reduce ship crossings.