UK Refuses to Set Target on Small Boats as New Laws Introduced

(Bloomberg) -- The UK government refused to commit to reducing the number of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel in small boats even as ministers put forward new legislation designed to do just that.

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The government on Thursday introduced the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to Parliament, which when passed will bring in new counter terror-style measures designed to tackle the people-smuggling gangs responsible for the surge of cross-channel arrivals in recent years. But asked when it would start bearing results — and what those results might look like — Home Secretary Yvette Cooper avoided putting a number or time line on the desired reductions.

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“We have to tackle these dangerous boat crossings and the criminal gangs that are profiting from them,” she said.

The legislation is the centerpiece of the Labour government’s efforts to reduce migration by unsanctioned routes to the UK. While people arriving on small boats make up less than 10% of all migrants — just under 37,000 arrived last year — they have become a lightning rod for anti-migrant sentiment as their numbers have risen.

Two people with knowledge of the government’s thinking said the Home Office would not target a specific reduction in crossings, while one said the success of the new legislation should be judged by a rise in the number of people arrested for offenses relating to people-smuggling. One person said Labour wants to avoid a similar vow made by former Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel in 2019 to halve the number of small boat crossings, which backfired when they later ballooned.

Polling indicates that voters think the people arriving illegally are far more common than they actually are, and protests against migration which escalated into far-right violence last summer saw hotels housing asylum seekers attacked.

Along with the rising popularity of the right-wing Reform UK party since July’s general election, that has piled pressure on Starmer to bring down the number of small boat crossings, which often involve fatalities. He has scrapped the Conservatives’ controversial plan to send migrants to Rwanda, which was designed to be a deterrent, and is instead focusing on arresting smugglers who make money from helping migrants reach the UK illegally.

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The new laws will give police and border force officials greater powers to seize phones and laptops from migrants without having to arrest them, and will allow them to arrest those involved in organized immigration crime at an earlier stage — without having to prove a link to a migrant who has arrived.

It will create an offense of endangering another life while at sea in order to punish smugglers who force large numbers of people onto unsuitable boats or try to prevent rescues, and give further authority to the Border Security Commander by putting that role on a legal footing.

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