If Britain is failing refugees it has promised asylum, can we blame people for crossing the Channel?

Editorial: The government’s claims about immigration seem questionable when refugees who have taken Britain at its word have been abandoned

Inflatable craft, used to cross the Channel, are stored at a facility in Dover (Getty)

One of the more questionable claims the government makes about its refugee policy is that there are lawful routes for people to flee persecution and war.

Thus, so the argument goes, there is no need for anyone to turn to people smugglers and make a dangerous crossing of the English Channel in order to exercise the right to claim asylum. Common sense suggests that no one would willingly put their lives or those of their families at risk if there was a simple matter of submitting a form to British officials, complete with the necessary evidence.

It is something of a myth. As our special report makes clear, there are many genuine Syrian refugees presently living in squalid conditions in camps and other temporary accommodation in Lebanon who were told they could have sanctuary in Britain – three years ago. Yet they are still waiting to hear about their safe route, and they are growing desperate.

Another, convenient, popular myth is that every refugee wants to come to the UK. Perhaps many do, but nations such as Turkey, Colombia, Uganda, Jordan, and Lebanon – among others – take in on far more. Even in Europe the UK takes relatively few, per capita, compared to, say, Sweden and Germany. In the case of the Syrians so obviously escaping civil war, there are some 460 refugees from the country in Lebanon who have been accepted by the UK’s resettlement programme but are still awaiting transfer years later, according to the United Nations. There are said to be more than 2,000 such refugees worldwide. As things stand, they are trapped in a deteriorating situation that human rights groups have called “disgraceful” and “potentially dangerous”.

The structured routes for Iranian asylum seekers have been shut down. So, as Lord Kerr, a former senior civil servant, pointed out in parliament recently, only one Iranian national has been granted asylum through regular channels. The Syrian scheme is closed; the second Afghan scheme not yet established. It should be no surprise that so many rescued from dinghies come from these parts of the world. Many are young men, but as the tragic loss of life last week showed, women and children are also being exploited. The Dubs scheme for unaccompanied children has also ended. Because of Brexit, the British can no longer lawfully try to “return” new refugees to EU nations under the Dublin III Regulation.

So the UK has no system for safe passage for refugees, and has no lawful or effective means to stopping arrivals. Under international law the UK cannot “turn back” vessels. If the UK wishes to do that it will need to rescind the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, the 1953 European Convention on Human Rights, and the 1982 UN Law of the Sea. Passing the Nationality and Borders Bill and repealing the 1998 Human Rights Act will not relieve the UK of its international commitments. Even if the UK did renounce all its international memberships, the chances are that people would still try and cross, again and again.

Ministers, presumably, fear the political consequences of honouring their obligations. Tough. They have made promises, and they should keep them.

This “crisis” is in any case greatly exaggerated. Overall, claims for asylum are down slightly. Many have merely diverted from the older routes, made much more difficult by a combination of Covid-19 and tighter security. The people in boats bobbing around in the English Channel are necessarily more visible, but there are no more of them, and indeed far fewer than during the last major crisis some two decades ago.

Besides, hardly a footnote, Britain currently suffers a shortage of virtually every kind of worker and those who arrive in the UK wish to work and make a life for themselves and their families.

Right now, there are too many refugees who’ve taken Britain at its word and been abandoned.