PM faces civil war over migrant curbs

Fears that Whitehall and judges will unite to foil Rishi’s asylum rights ‘revolution’

THE Prime Minister is heading for a ‘civil war’ with the country’s most senior law officer over plans to hold migrants without a hearing into their claim and strip them of their right to claim asylum, senior Home Office sources say.

With Tory MPs increasingly fearful that the Government’s failure to tackle the small boats crisis will cost them the next election, Rishi Sunak is planning to write the revolutionary measures into the forthcoming Illegal Migration Bill to overturn decades of asylum law.

However, the sources say that Attorney General Victoria Prentis has warned No 10 that moves to allow migrants to be detained without having their case heard for three months – when the maximum permitted for terrorism suspects is 28 days – would ‘never get through the courts’.

Separately, Home Office officials are understood to have argued that plans to disapply the right of migrants to claim asylum when they have arrived here illegally would break international laws established with the 1951 Refugee Convention. This defined ‘refugee’ as someone unable or unwilling to return to their country of nationality ‘owing to a wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’.

‘Rishi’s determined to push this through, but with judges and civil servants so opposed it could turn into civil war,’ the Home Office source added.

The Government argues that the majority of those using small boats on the Channel to enter the UK are economic migrants.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that officials have warned that as many as 80,000 could illegally enter the UK on small boats this year, nearly double last year’s tally.

This comes as measures are being introduced to stop criminal migrants from using the legal protections awarded by modern slavery rules to block their removal from the UK.

Under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, Home Secretary Suella Braverman will be able to deny the modern slavery protections to foreign criminals who have committed a serious offence or been sentenced to 12 months or more, as well as individuals who pose a national security risk.

The move comes after Mr Sunak held a ‘migrants summit’ with his predecessor Theresa May in a bid to secure her support for his plan to tackle the Channel migrants crisis – which involves rewriting the modern slavery laws she introduced.

As Home Secretary, Mrs May brought in the Modern Slavery Act in 2015 to help the 10,000 in Britain living in domestic servitude or who had been trafficked for sex.

Mr Sunak declared at the end of last year that tackling the migrant problem was a priority, pledging to clear the backlog of asylum claims by the end of 2023, create a new dedicated small boats operational command and embed Border Force officers at Tirana airport under an agreement with Albania.

From Monday, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – the UK’s framework for identifying and protecting victims of modern slavery – will be strengthened to make it tougher for people to exploit the system. The Home Office will then take over the lead responsibility for tackling the crossings, following the creation of the Small Boats Operational Command (SBOC) which brings together the Government’s response to small boats.

Ms Braverman said: ‘I am determined to crack down on those abusing the generosity of the British public and taking our country for a ride.

‘The Nationality and Borders Act laid the foundation for tougher action, including against those who do everything they can to prevent removal from the UK by pretending to be victims of modern slavery.

‘It is totally unfair that genuine victims of this horrific crime may be left waiting longer to receive the protections they need due to the flagrant abuse of the system. We have seen cases of foreign criminals go on to commit abhorrent crimes including rape, while they are claiming to be victims of modern slavery.’

A source close to Ms Braverman added: ‘She is 100 per cent clear that we must stop the boats. The British people won’t tolerate sticking plasters or forgive failed plans. She is determined to drive through reforms which will have a real impact on illegal migration and bring a stop to this patently unfair asylum system.’