When it comes to immigration, we all need to choose our words more carefully

Editorial: The government of a civilised country like the UK should be producing practical solutions rather than pre-election gimmicks designed to wrongfoot the opposition

9 March 2023 (Dave Brown)

The problem of people crossing the English Channel in small boats is real, and one that no UK government could afford to ignore. Public concern is genuine, and with reason: the number increased from 299 in 2018 to 45,756 in 2022, and could rise to 80,000 this year.

So Rishi Sunak was wise to make tackling the issue a priority when he issued his five pledges in January. However, he was unwise to reduce a very complex issue to a soundbite promise to “stop the boats”.

The apparently compulsory three-word slogans might help our politicians to communicate with the electorate, but they can easily boomerang. Few voters will think the Conservatives have honoured their post-Brexit promise to “take back control” of the UK’s borders.

There seems little prospect that the government’s Illegal Immigration Bill will achieve much more than its previous attempts to deal with the matter; a measure introduced last year, also designed to stop people who enter the UK from illegally claiming asylum, has resulted in just 21 deportations.

Ministers say that the latest “novel” and “creative” approach will now “test the boundaries” of international law. In a remarkable and rare admission, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, conceded that the bill might not meet the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Yet ministers also express confidence that the measure does not breach international law. That is not the view of the UN high commissioner for refugees, who argues that the bill breaks the 1951 Geneva Convention by imposing a ban on asylum claims “no matter how genuine and compelling” a person’s case.

Mr Sunak declares himself “up for the fight”, but he is taking the UK down a dangerous path. He deservedly won plaudits for the deal he brokered with the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, in which he rightly abandoned Boris Johnson’s proposal to rip up an international agreement by passing a law to overturn parts of the protocol.

But it will be a case of one step forward, one step back if the prime minister stretches international law to breaking point on asylum. It would needlessly harm the UK’s image on the world stage, just when Mr Sunak – a more trusted figure than Mr Johnson – has started to rebuild bridges with our natural allies, including the EU and the US.

Eyebrows have already been raised in the French government over the bill, just as Mr Sunak prepares for the first Anglo-French summit since 2018, in which he will meet with Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday. Although they will probably agree closer cooperation between the two countries in monitoring the French coast, any hopes of securing a vital agreement with the EU to return asylum seekers to the continent will be off the agenda while the UK entertains the idea of breaching its international obligations.

The Tories’ rhetoric is an obstacle to the practical solutions this complicated global problem requires. Similarly, the government is refusing to open up more safe, legal routes to asylum until the small-boats crisis is resolved. That is the wrong way round, and will not help it to win the cooperation it needs from other countries.

The stalled plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – even if it eventually clears the legal hurdles – will at best deliver a few thousand places. Even after the recent agreement with Albania, it is hard to see how the numbers add up. Nor has the government announced where it would detain the people arriving in small boats before they are processed within 28 days under the new regime.

Language matters, and the intemperate words used in recent days risk further poisoning the debate. Ms Braverman claimed that a “law-abiding patriotic majority” has had enough of people arriving in small boats. Yet there is nothing unpatriotic about wanting the UK, a co-architect of the Geneva Convention after the Second World War, to maintain its fine tradition of compassion, fair play, and support for the world’s neediest.

The home secretary claimed that the government’s efforts to reform the asylum system have been blocked by “an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party”. Mr Sunak echoed the line at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, telling Sir Keir Starmer that he is “just another lefty lawyer standing in our way”. It is a familiar blame game, as the Tories run out of excuses after 13 years in power.

Gary Lineker, the footballer turned presenter of the BBC’s Match of the Day programme, should also choose his words more carefully. He is entitled to his view of the government’s proposals, but accusing it of “language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s” will only make the heated debate even more polarised.

Indeed, our politicians should be seeking common ground both at home and abroad to tackle the global migration crisis – one that will get worse thanks to the impact of climate change on poorer countries. The government of a civilised country like the UK should be producing practical solutions rather than pre-election gimmicks designed to wrongfoot the opposition. And it should be working more closely with its partners abroad, rather than advertising that it might be about to break international law – a move that would tarnish the UK’s reputation.