'Will Be Sent To Rwanda, No Bail For 28 Days': UK's Hard Stance Against Illegal Immigrants

In 2022, 45,755 men, women and children crossed the ocean in small boats to reach the UK, most of whom then claimed asylum. Nearly 3,000 people have already made the crossing this year, with official estimates expecting more than 80,000 this year.

Stringer/Iraq/Reuters

What is the government's new plan?

Now, Rishi Sunak has vowed to crack down on those crossing the English Channel (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France) in small boats by introducing the illegal immigration bill. Powers under the Illegal Migration Bill include:

• A duty on the home secretary to detain and remove those arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda or a "safe" third country.
• Migrants would not be granted bail or able to seek judicial review for the first 28 days of detention.
• Under-18s, those medically unfit to fly or at risk of serious harm in the country, they are being removed to would be able to delay removal.
• A cap on the number of refugees the UK will settle through "safe and legal routes".
• People removed from the UK would be blocked from returning, or seeking British citizenship in future.
• The law would apply retrospectively, with anyone arriving illegally from Tuesday at risk of deportation.

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Issuing a warning, Sunak said that those who enter UK illegally will not be allowed to claim asylum. "If you come here illegally, you can't claim asylum. You can't benefit from our modern slavery protections. You can't make spurious human rights claims and you can't stay," Rishi Sunak said in a tweet.

¡ª Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) March 7, 2023

What are the routes to claim asylum in the UK?

The Home Office says there are a number of "safe and legal" routes to the UK. However, some are only available to people from specific countries such as Afghanistan and Ukraine or British National status holders in Hong Kong. Other asylum routes only accept a limited number of refugees:

• UK Resettlement Scheme - prioritises those from regions in conflict. It planned to resettle 5,000 in its first year but resettled 1,125
• Community Sponsorship Scheme - for local community groups to provide refugee accommodation and support. In 2021, 144 people used this route
• Refugee Family Reunion - for partners and children under 18 of those already granted protection in the UK. In 2021, 6,134 visas were granted
• Mandate Resettlement Scheme - to resettle refugees with a close family member in the UK who can offer a home. The scheme has resettled about 430 refugees since 2004, but just two people in 2021

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Organisations, including the Refugee Council and Amnesty International, says there are no safe and legal routes for most people to seek asylum in the UK.

Rights groups and opposition parties have criticised the new law and say that the plan is unworkable and unfairly scapegoats vulnerable refugees. The UK has already tried to implement deportations, last year introducing a program to relocate some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

However, no flights to Rwanda have left the UK yet after the plan was grounded in June last year by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.

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