More than 900 Afghans have crossed the Channel this year - the majority of all small boat crossings - but many would be abandoned by the Home Office under the Illegal Migration Bill, a think tank has said.
The majority (24 per cent) of 3,793 small boat crossings recorded by the Home Office between January and March 2023 were made by Afghan nationals, statistics revealed on Monday.
But under the Government’s new proposed bill - which is entering the Commons report stage on Tuesday - any arriving by small boat on or after March 7 will be refused asylum and the Home Secretary will have a duty to remove them, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said.
“Today’s migration statistics expose the muddled thinking at the heart of the Government’s new migration bill,” IPPR associate director for migration, trade and communities Marley Morris said.
“Afghans left stranded after the disastrously executed withdrawal in 2021 will almost always have a well-founded protection claim, but under the Government’s migration bill any arriving by small boat on or after 7 March will be refused asylum and the Home Secretary will have a duty to remove them.
“And without countries to send people to, thousands will be trapped in limbo in the UK – unable to be removed and unable to claim asylum.
“While the Government claims there are safe routes for Afghans, these have been plagued by delays and difficulties. Only 22 people were resettled under one of the key Afghan pathways in 2022.”
The Afghan citizens resettlement scheme (ACRS) was launched in January 2022. But under pathway 2 of the scheme, just 22 people have been resettled in the UK via referral from the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR.
Pathway 2 is currently the only open route for resettlement for Afghans who are not already in the UK.
Under Pathway 1, for Afghans who were evacuated to the UK as part of Operation Pitting in 2021, around 6,300 places have been used so far.
Others have been attempting to cross the Channel and seek asylum.
But the proposed bill aims to ban anyone arriving in the UK illegally from claiming asylum, and is key to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to stop people arriving in the UK on small boats.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned that the legislation risks breaching international human rights obligations.
The Commission said: “Provisions providing for the detention of children and pregnant women and removing protections for victims of trafficking and modern slavery are particularly worrying.
“Effective, rights-compliant action is needed to ensure that more lives are not lost on dangerous Channel crossings.
“We welcome the Government’s commitment to increase safe, regular routes to the UK for those in need of asylum and recommend these are brought forward alongside the Bill.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said earlier this month: “The British public are rightly fed up with people coming to the UK through dangerous small boat crossings, and myself and the Prime Minister are absolutely committed to stopping the boats once and for all.”
Asylum claims backlog remains
Despite the number of asylum decision makers more than doubling in the past two years, the asylum backlog is still more than 138,000, Home Office statistics released on Monday revealed.
The “legacy” backlog has fallen from around 100,000 at the end of June 2022 to around 80,000 at the end of March 2023, according to the IPPR.
“The migration bill will simply create a new backlog of people trapped outside the asylum system and with no right to work or access mainstream benefits,” Ms Morris said.
Of the 112,294 asylum seekers receiving Government support, 49,606 or 44 per cent are still living in hotels and other contingency accommodation.
