One question frequently asked by those who are sceptical of asylum seekers is “why don’t migrants stop in the first safe country that they get to.” / “Actually one of the reasons for that is because of the fact we left the European Union” - Anoosh Chakelian.
Rishi Sunak has made stopping the small boats one of his top five priorities, but is he trying to solve a problem of their own making? / A report out from Durham University could make some awkward reading for prime minister Rishi Sunak.
‘It would be Brexit part 2’: Why the Tories think another European referendum could save them
30/06/2023
The issue that is most worrying Tory MPs this week is small boats. “We’d be in the same club as Russia and Belarus,” says one minister. “It’s not a good idea.” It’s also the case that the ECHR is integral to the Good Friday Agreement. Such a move could lead to resignations.
Hungary will sign a trade and development deal between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific states after it was promised amendments it sought, the Central European country's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.
Rishi Sunak's triumphalism over solutions on Northern Ireland and migrant boats ignores the fact the issues only arose because of Johnson's flawed Brexit deal - which he endorsed.
Legal experts say Brussels has right to take retaliatory action, making cross-border law enforcement harder. / We have noted the reaction of the United Nations, and they are really concerned about what’s going on,” Anton Hofreiter, the chair of the committee, told reporters in London.
Brussels commissioner says bill breaches convention, as legal experts warn of risk to Brexit trade deal.
Some 45,756 people are thought to have made the crossing in 2022. There were no recorded small boat crossings until 2018.
The rise in small boat crossings is not because of losing Dublin III arrangements after Brexit
17/02/2023
It is wrong to argue that the UK’s inability to return asylum seekers to the EU is driving the increase in the number crossing the Channel. / While there is evidence that Brexit is having an impact on small boat crossings, the migration data does not support Brooks’ analysis. Rather, it suggests that Brexit-related labour shortages with the potential for exploitation, is more significant.
Thom Brooks’ report reveals the Government has created the Channel migration ‘small boats’ crisis through its hard Brexit policies.
Academic report says UK’s failure to negotiate post-Brexit returns agreement is main reason for increase in asylum seekers making small boat crossings
10/02/2023
Thom Brooks: Government is repeating same old lines about stopping boats, unable to acknowledge failure of Brexit deal.
Rishi Sunak should admit ‘main factor’ behind problem so he can fix it, says Durham University study.
Brexit has had little or no impact on the number of people seeking asylum in the UK or the government’s response.
How Brexit helped create the migrant crisis
03/11/2022
The migrant crisis has exposed a common fallacy about Brexit, that you can simply "pull up the drawbridge" and wish it away.
Just 1.3 per cent of asylum seekers have been sent back by a Home Office unit set up to assess claims following extra “bureaucracy” following Brexit, figures show.
Brexit after Boris
31/07/2022
Boris Johnson became prime minister on the promise that Brexit would bring prosperity and pride. Did it?
A European Court of Human Rights ruling stopped the flight. It is a totally separate institution from the EU.
Government’s post-Brexit failures – not Channel migrant crossings – broke UK asylum system, MPs say
18/07/2022
Ministers must stop trying to find ‘magical solutions’ like the Rwanda deal and fix administrative problems, report finds.
Tories will block courts from ruling on human rights violations in 'dangerous power grab'
22/06/2022
Boris Johnson was accused of “ransacking” Brits’ human rights tonight as he blocks fights against his government being heard in court.
"Happy Magna Carta day! Let's celebrate due process and equality before the law since 1215! Or, as the Tories would have it, meddling lefty lawyers."
A former top Rwanda diplomat forced into exile has attacked government claims that his country is safe to receive refugees from the UK – likening it to “a detention camp”.
Boris Johnson wrong to use Brexit to justify ‘morally delinquent’ Rwanda plan, says senior Tory
19/04/2022
‘We are better than this – or at least, we used to be’, says David Davis.
The government’s attack on the Human Rights Act is a betrayal of those Conservatives who helped create it.