Every single male migrant who crosses the Channel in small boats will allegedly be detained in a bid to contain the crisis under Boris Johnson’s crowd-pleasing border clampdown, it has emerged.
The Prime Minister has reportedly given Home Secretary Priti Patel the go-ahead to develop new powers that would allow male asylum seekers crossing the Narrow Sea to be held in immigration removal centres.
Though the Home Office has not published a breakdown of Channel migrants by age or gender, Miss Patel claims that seven in ten of all people who cross the Narrow Sea are single men under 40.
Mr Johnson’s new gung-ho attitude to border security is part of a series of populist policies which are intended to shore up his tottering premiership as the embattled Tory leader faces calls to quit over the ‘Partygate’ lockdown scandal enveloping Westminster.
Miss Patel is working closely with Attorney-General Suella Braverman to establish what current laws would allow on detention and what new powers would be needed to be approved by MPs, according to The Times.
Currently only migrants who land on the UK coast are breaking the law and can be detained, rather than those intercepted in the Channel.
A government official who was in a ministerial meeting to discuss the plans told the paper: ‘They’re (ministers) convinced this is the way to create a deterrent.
‘Their thinking is “you make it worse and worse, more draconian and it’ll stop people coming”. They’re absolutely convinced that tough deterrents are the way to fix it.’
child is carried by his father as migrant men, women and children are assisted by immigration officers after arriving at Dungeness in an inflatable dinghy from France on January 18, 2022
Border Force officials bring migrants ashore at Dover Harbour after arriving in Speedwell
The Prime Minister has reportedly given Home Secretary Priti Patel the go-ahead to develop new powers that would allow male asylum seekers crossing the Narrow Sea to be held in immigration removal centres
An announcement is due next month as part of wider plans for the Royal Navy to takeover operational control of Channel crossings.
These plans would be accompanied with powers to remove Channel migrants from the UK, including proposals to ‘outsource’ asylum claims to third countries.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The British public have had enough of seeing people die in the Channel while ruthless criminal gangs profit from their misery and our New Plan for Immigration will fix the broken system which encourages migrants to make this lethal journey.’
UK authorities have intercepted more than 800 migrants so far this year — more than three times the 223 who sailed across the Narrow Sea in January 2021. Last year, 28,381 people were intercepted in the Channel, compared to just 8,410 in 2020.
Home Office officials have warned Miss Patel that 65,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year – more than double last year’s 28,300 record number.
Conservative MPs last night questioned whether the plans to detain Channel migrants would be beneficial to UK taxpayers.
Tim Loughton, who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, told The Times: ‘The fear is that it’s substituting the current accommodation bill of a Holiday Inn with the higher bill of a prison facility or a secure facility.’
The Government’s proposed Nationality and Borders Bill would make it a criminal offence to be found in a vessel in the Channel without pre-authorisation to enter the UK. Offenders will face a maximum prison sentence of four years under the new law.
Ministers are said to be drawing up proposals which would see asylum seekers flown to Ghana and Rwanda to stop migrant crossings.
The arrangements would see the UK pay another nation to take on the responsibility — but no country has yet agreed to do so.
Tony Smith, the former director general of Border Force, said the UK ‘can expect more attempts’ of migrants trying to enter the country illegally as ‘air and ferry traffic return to pre-Covid levels’.
Speaking about internal estimates of migrant numbers, a Whitehall source told The Telegraph: ‘It is not an estimate or a forecast, it is a planning assumption.
‘In part, it demonstrates exactly why we are taking the measures that we are and looking at things like offshoring (the processing of Channel migrants) and outsourcing (operations in the Channel to the military).’
It was reported in November last year that Albania was being considered as one potential destination, but those talks are said to have collapsed.
Downing Street would not be drawn on the plans, with the PM’s Official Spokesman saying it was ‘not helpful’ to discuss negotiations with countries.
Ministers were accused of ‘cowardice’ after plans emerged to conceal the number of migrants arriving each day.
The Home Office currently issues the data after arrivals have been processed by the UK Border Force, typically on the following day, but this could stop when the Ministry of Defence takes over operations to intercept migrants, it has emerged. Instead, a running total will be published just four times a year.
A boat carrying dozens of migrants including children sailed past a P&O ferry while crossing the Channel on January 18, 2022
A group of migrants including young children sitting on the beach at Dungeness in Kent on January 18, 2022
It comes after the statistics watchdog raised concerns about the daily totals currently issued by the Government.
The Home Office is now set to release the figures every three months, but the move has drawn criticism from Tory MPs — with one saying it ‘seems more like burying bad news than being transparent about crossings’.
Another anonymous Conservative said: ‘It just looks like covering up, and no doubt journalists will come up with their own figures based on people arriving at Tughaven [the migrant processing centre in Dover] and Freedom of Information requests.’
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK which campaigns for tougher border controls, added: ‘This is a cowardly act. It just shows the Government is running scared.
‘I’m very surprised at Priti Patel, and the British people deserve better from her.
‘It would be a failure of responsibility if they stop issuing daily data. It’s an appalling idea and the sooner the Government ditch it, the better.
‘Do they really think they can hide the figures from the electorate when all this takes place in the open on our beaches and at our ports?’ He added: ‘This proposal reminds me of little children holding their hands in front of their faces and saying “I’m not here”. It’s totally crazy.
‘The Home Office can’t simply pretend this problem is not happening, and hope it will go away.’
Former UKIP leader and MEP Nigel Farage also described the proposal as ‘disgraceful’, saying it ‘must not be allowed to happen’ as people are ‘seething’.
On Twitter, he added: ‘This is a disgrace. The Home Office do not want us to know the truth.’