Our duty to refugees

It is hard to deny that the government must take tough action on the issue of migrants arriving in Britain by small boats. A large proportion of those entering the country are not refugees fleeing danger but young men in search of better economic opportunities. Indeed, the largest increase in arrivals comes from Albania, an EU accession state that is neither at war nor under malign dictatorship. Ferrying such people to Britain is a criminal racket that should not be tolerated.

But under Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s plan, the Illegal Migration Bill will deport every person who enters the country by what the Home Office used to call ‘irregular’ methods. The bill is intended to target the small boat arrivals but would, in effect, apply to everyone. Anyone arriving illegally in Britain would lose their right of appeal for 28 days, giving the government four weeks to remove them to the country they came from or a third country, like Rwanda.