Here's why the Illegal Migration Bill won't solve the Channel crossings
The home secretary talks tough, like her predecessors, but the crisis was made on the Tories' watch - and their watch alone. They should own it.
It is now clear that what is happening in the English Channel is nothing short of a crisis, and it is one that needs solving quickly. As each day passes, we see more people - young and old - making the treacherous, risky journey from Calais to Dover in search of something better.
Let’s be clear first of all: these people are desperate. They are desperate to begin a new life, to start another chapter. Many, but not all, are fleeing war, persecution and inhumane forms of treatment, hence why they are crossing the Channel. But it is clear this situation, which is putting lives so mercilessly at risk, cannot go on.
Politicians from all sides recognise it cannot continue, but the question is how to prevent it, what steps can be taken, and to learn lessons from the past also. The government’s new Illegal Migration Bill, presented to the House of Commons on Tuesday [March 7] by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, aims to crack down on these hazardous practices, with the intention thereafter of stopping all Channel crossings between France and the UK.
It is now clear that what is happening in the English Channel is nothing short of a crisis, and it is one that needs solving quickly. As each day passes, we see more people - young and old - making the treacherous, risky journey from Calais to Dover in search of something better.
Let’s be clear first of all: these people are desperate. They are desperate to begin a new life, to start another chapter. Many, but not all, are fleeing war, persecution and inhumane forms of treatment, hence why they are crossing the Channel. But it is clear this situation, which is putting lives so mercilessly at risk, cannot go on.
Politicians from all sides recognise it cannot continue, but the question is how to prevent it, what steps can be taken, and to learn lessons from the past as well. The government’s new Illegal Migration Bill, presented to the House of Commons on Tuesday [March 7] by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, aims to crack down on these hazardous practices, with the intention thereafter of stopping all Channel crossings between France and the UK.
More than 45,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats in 2022, emphasising what a serious problem this is. But the government’s new bill will not fix the problem; it is instead yet another piece of paper.
First, the idea that this new piece of legislation will be able to stop all Channel crossings - which, remember, is Braverman’s aim - is deluded. It is as such because it was Priti Patel’s Nationality and Borders Bill, introduced when she was Home Secretary, that promised exactly the same thing. Just what is different between these two bills? What remains the same is the ongoing journeys of individuals across the Channel.
How will this piece of legislation differ from the one Patel passed? Understandably, many said that act wouldn’t work - and it didn’t - and those people are saying the same now because they’re correct. The Illegal Migration Bill won’t stop the Channel crossings.
Second, within the bill is a further denigration of the UK’s world-leading protections on modern slavery. If there was something, just something, the Tories could be proud of over these last 13 years, it is the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015. Designed to protect victims from one of the most heinous crimes imagined, the flagship legislation has allowed many perpetrators to face the rightful justice they deserve.
Yet here we are. With the government’s Illegal Migration Bill, those who have entered our country on small boats will not be permitted access to the UK’s modern slavery protections. Or as the prime minister labelled it, “you will be DENIED access”.
This is not a gross undermining of the Modern Slavery Act alone, it is a diminishing of the rightful reputation Britain has earned globally because of our country’s approach to this issue. In essence, the government is saying to any victim of trafficking or modern slavery that, whether your arrival was on a small boat or not, that matters more than ensuring both the victim and perpetrator are brought to justice. That is a shameful state of affairs.
Third, the Home Secretary’s claims this week have proven to be lacking credibility, in particular bogus predictions. In a piece for the Daily Mail earlier this week, Braverman wrote: “There are 100 million people displaced around the world, and likely billions more eager to come here if possible”. There are not billions of people who are eager to come to Britain, despite how great our country may be. To make such an assertion is misleading and deceitful.
There are many, many people crossing the Channel who wish to arrive on British shores - and it is clear that we cannot allow everyone to enter our country willy-nilly. But to state that billions of people are preparing to come to Britain is plain wrong. Braverman’s argument was correctly scrutinised by ITV’s Susanna Reid.
Finally, fourth: the legality of the bill is questionable. Britain remains a member of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and we thus have obligations to meet. In recent times, the Tories have had very few qualms in relation to shunning treaties and agreements signed. So why should we believe them now? It is inevitable that, once parliamentary scrutiny has concluded - and the bill therefore passes, due to the majority the Conservatives still have - legal obstacles will lie ahead.
All in all, the government’s new piece of legislation won’t, as it claims, ‘stop the boats’. This is simply a smokescreen: to distract from the woeful record over which they have presided since 2010, including immigration. Home Secretaries have come and gone, talked tough on securing Britain’s borders; but the truth of the matter remains that the problem across the Channel has gotten worse under their watch. Only by shared cooperation, strong patrols and a crackdown on people smuggling and financial exploitation can the spectacle of Channel crossings truly be unravelled.