Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 7
First Report - Channel crossings, migration and asylum
Published 18 Jul 2022
Paragraph 32
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee Channel crossings, migration and asylum-seeking routes through the EU All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The greatest deterrent to perilous crossings of the channel on unseaworthy vessels with actively dangerous ‘life-jackets’ would be to prevent such crossings ever leaving France. Alternatively the French authorities with or without British assistance could intercept the boats once in French territorial waters and return them to French land whence they started their journey, as international maritime lawyers advised us they were legally entitled to do. This would soon have the deterrent effect at preventing people risking a dangerous and expensive round trip to and from French beaches but the French Government refuses to countenance such a policy. We believe that discussions with the French as to what it would take for them to change this policy are essential. Creation of a safe and legal route for those who might successfully seek asylum in the UK having passed through the European continent could provide such a disincentive and deterrent, though that would not necessarily apply to those seeking to come to the UK with a very weak case for being accepted as an asylum seeker here.
From: Home Affairs Committee, First Report - Channel crossings, migration and asylum (HC 199), paragraph 32, 18 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 October 2022 (deadline 18 September 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government's overall position is that there is "no silver bullet" for illegal migration, that the Rwanda partnership is "just one part of the approach", and that it disagrees with the Committee's criticism that it has not paid sufficient attention to the problem.
- On the Committee's proposal for UK asylum assessment facilities in France, the Government says it "could not possibly consider protection claims from the very large numbers of individuals overseas who might like to come to the UK", and that this could "create a new pull factor".
- On the Rwanda partnership, the Government disputes that policies were announced without agreement across departments. It says full funding details would be "prejudicial to interests of the UK government", and that it will provide an updated Accounting Officer note "ahead of the next financial year".
- On the Committee's call for an independent end-to-end review of children's experience of the asylum system, the Government says it "will commit to looking at the current projects and research in progress to determine their suitability".
- On guardianship for young asylum seekers, the Government says there is "currently no intention to expand the scope" of the Independent Child Trafficking Guardian service to all young asylum-seeking children in England and Wales, citing its "specialist nature".