Suella Braverman writes foreword to new Centre for Policy Studies report; UNHCR says report has factual and legal errors
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued a statement expressing concern over the proposals presented in a new report published today by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) which calls for hard-line reforms of the UK asylum system.
Notably, today's new report by the CPS has a foreword written by Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
The CPS report was authored by Nick Timothy, a former Downing Street chief of staff during Theresa May's premiership and a former Home Office adviser. You can download the 115-page report here.
"The report contains critical factual and legal errors regarding the international legal status of refugees and asylum-seekers," UNHCR's representative to the UK, Vicky Tennant, said.
Suella Braverman wrote in the foreword to the CPS report: "While I do not agree with everything in this report, I welcome it as a vital and necessary contribution to the policy debate about what can be done to tackle the crossings. It is correct to recognise the complexity of the problem, and the intersection of several policy challenges: human rights laws, international conventions, diplomatic relationships with third countries, operational effectiveness, and the various push and pull factors that cause people to want to come to live here."
In a press release, the CPS summed up the report's hard-line proposals as including the following (note that the use of 'illegally' is verbatim from the CPS):
- Indefinite detention of all asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally.
- Rapid offshoring to Rwanda for all asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally, plus further agreements with other countries to supplement the Rwanda deal.
- New laws making it impossible to claim asylum in the UK after travelling from a safe country, and barring migrants who enter the country illegally from ever settling in Britain.
- Changes to human rights laws to allow detention and offshoring – including, if necessary, Britain's withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights.
- All future grants of asylum to be made through resettlement routes and a statutory cap – no more than 20,000 per year – on the numbers coming to Britain through resettlement routes.
- A reformed Modern Slavery Act, tightening criteria and evidential thresholds, limiting appeals, and allowing exclusions for whole nationalities where there is widespread abuse.
Nick Timothy said a "completely different" approach was needed to the asylum system in order to tackle the growing numbers of people crossing the Channel by small boat. "If human rights laws prevent us from taking that approach and securing our border, we must be prepared to change those laws and if necessary leave the ECHR altogether", he said.
UNHCR's Vicky Tennant noted with concern in response to the report: "Everybody has the right to seek asylum from persecution in another country, and there is no such thing as an 'illegal asylum-seeker'. The indefinite detention of those seeking asylum, based solely on their mode of arrival, would punish people in need of help and protection and constitute a clear breach of the United Kingdom's obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention. A blanket ban on claiming asylum in the UK for those arriving on small boats would also breach the Refugee Convention, if this results in refugees having no means to establish their status and places them at risk of enforced return to their own countries. Resettlement is a complementary system. It cannot replace obligations under International Law to provide access to asylum."
Tennant added that asylum should never be contingent on mode of arrival or nationality, and the only way to establish whether people are refugees is through a fair and efficient determination of their claims.
UNCHR called on the UK to strengthen and expedite decision-making procedures to tackle the growing backlog of asylum claims, including returning people without well-founded claims to their country of origin.
The Refugee Council said on Twitter in response to the CPS report: "A new report endorsed by Home Secretary which is being widely reported today which see the UK quitting the human rights convention and sitting alongside Russia and Belarus in its approach to human rights."
Enver Solomon, the Refugee Council's CEO, gave a fuller response in a comment piece for the Express, writing: "The asylum system isn't operating effectively, but the answers don't lie in floating more punitive, impracticable and inhumane measures. The Home Office's own analysis has shown that the creation of a hostile environment simply doesn't work. The Government must show that it is possible to combine compassion, competence and control by creating a fair and humane asylum system. This means rapidly reducing the backlog of more than 100,000 asylum cases through a dedicated task force, making decisions in a timely manner, and treating people who arrive to the UK with dignity and respect – not warehousing them in appalling conditions in centres like Manston."
Meanwhile, The Times reported on Saturday that the Government is considering a 'two-tier' asylum system to clear the backlog, which would see asylum claims from countries with high grant rates, such as Afghanistan and Syria, fast-tracked. As a result, the Home Office would free resources to take a tougher approach to asylum seekers from countries with lower grant rates, with the examples given by The Times being Albania and India.
According to The Times, the plan has the backing of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
One unnamed Conservative source told The Times that the Prime Minister had "completely taken control of the policy" from the Home Secretary: "He's got teams of Home Office officials working directly to him and Suella has been sidelined … It's basically him and Jenrick running the policy."