Sunak asylum plan violates international law, UN says

‘If you enter the UK illegally, you should not be able to remain here,’ prime minister vows

Rishi Sunak’s plan to deny asylum to migrants arriving in small boats violates international law and undermines Britain’s “humanitarian tradition”, the United Nations has said.

The prime minister on Tuesday promised to return thousands of Albanians to their home country, speed up asylum processing, make it harder to claim modern slavery, open reception centres to get 10,000 migrants out of hotels and prosecute more people for steering dinghies.

Critics condemned the measures as “cruel, ineffective and unlawful” while the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) appealed to Britain “uphold its legal obligations”.