At 9.46am on Wednesday, the Home Office cancelled a background briefing on the latest in a long line of policy announcements that have so far made no impact whatsoever in tackling small boat numbers.
This time it concerned the finer details surrounding its new small boats operational command (SBOC); an “ongoing incident in UK waters” was cited as the cause of cancellation.
That ongoing incident involved a black rubber dinghy holding 39 people that had begun leaking in the English Channel 60 miles south from Home Office HQ seven hours previously. A passing trawler saved a potential death toll from running into the dozens. Fishermen yanked people from the icy water. Four died, four remain missing. A police investigation is ongoing.
Shocking scenes, but for those studying human migration in the context of the government’s asylum policies, zero surprise.
The previous day, Rishi Sunak had staked his political credibility on sorting the small boats crisis, hoping his major speech on migration would reset the debate. Yet, fundamentally, there was no new approach, no new safe passage for asylum seekers. Many more boats are guaranteed to arrive.
Sunak’s rehashing of previous policy failings was particularly painful for some. Little over a year has passed since a pale blue dinghy deflated close to last week’s tragedy, drowning at least 27 people. Among those on board was teenager Twana Mamand, desperate to reach his sister in the UK. His body has never been found.
That the worst maritime disaster in the Channel for 30 years has provoked so little change from the UK government has prompted both disbelief and despair in Twana’s brother, Zana. Speaking from Iraqi Kurdistan, Zana told the Observer: “I don’t think any lessons have been learned from the tragedy that happened to Twana and his friends. The UK is still treating refugees with the same policy as before the incident. It has not changed plans to welcome them.”
The truth is that the UK is less welcoming since the 18-year-old drowned in the frigid, black waters of the world’s busiest shipping lane. Five months after Twana disappeared, the Home Office announced it would start sending asylum seekers who arrive by small boat to Rwanda. On Monday the policy faces its acid test when the High Court is due to rule on it.
The policy was unveiled 248 days ago and has already cost £140m, but not a single asylum seeker has ended up in Rwanda. Officials now argue that its merit lies in deterrence. Yet crossings have since increased to record levels. An internal Home Office report questions if deterrents work.
Handa Majed of the charity Kurdish Umbrella said the threat of Rwanda has not cut through to those in northern France. Having interviewed countless smugglers while investigating Channel drownings for last month’s ITV documentary The Crossing, her conclusion is that the Rwanda threat has failed to repel.
“The smugglers lie to the migrants, saying that it’s very safe, that it’s not far. People coming over don’t know that it’s dangerous because the smugglers are their only real source of knowledge,” said Majed.
Most would assume that during the hours after last week’s tragedy, small boat crossings would have halted as terror spread among those about to sail. Yet on that same day, eight boats carrying 401 people made it across.
Much of Sunak’s speech on Tuesday centred on tackling the massive backlog of 100,000 asylum cases, promising to eliminate it by the end of next year. Critics remain unconvinced. Yet the Observer has learnt the Home Office has secretly introduced an undeclared policy to reduce numbers. Immigration lawyers report that officials have begun giving “second-class refugee protection” to recent small boat arrivals, rather than full asylum rights, because it is quicker and easier to process.
Under the new approach, small boat arrivals are granted periods of stay of 30 months that can be revoked down the line. Devoid of refugee family reunion rights, refugees have to reapply to stay in the UK every 30 months, with the risk of being rejected each time.
The measures apply to people who have arrived by small boats since June when changes under the controversial borders bill came into force.
Zehrah Hasan, advocacy director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said: “People who’ve been waiting years to have their voices heard are now being told their cases are lower priority, as this government wants to prioritise more recent arrivals. This appears to be a sinister attempt from government to prioritise grants of second-class refugee protection.”
The upshot, said Hasan, will be more small boat crossings and increased asylum bureaucracy.
“This cruelty will only increase the chances that people’s loved ones take perilous routes here.” The Home Office said the borders bill allowed it for the first time to “differentiate refugees based on how they arrived.”
Monday’s High Court verdict on Rwanda focuses attention on the UK’s global approach to migration. Instead of accepting the mass movement of humans, the UK is currently involved in preventing people crossing borders more than 1,000 miles away, the Observer has been told
The UK, say human rights groups, is also accused of being potentially complicit in border abuses of refugees in mainland Europe. UK troops sent to beef up border security in Poland and Lithuania have, charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said, been involved in helping build fences to prevent refugees crossing over.
The support was agreed despite well-documented abuses of refugees by the authorities in the border areas, including pushbacks when border guards force people back through the fence, leaving them stranded in forests without shelter or sufficient food and water. However, when pressed on the issue, Sunak’s government claims to have no information of abuses or refuses to release its internal evaluation on the issue.
New documents released under Freedom of Information reveal that the MoD conducted a human rights assessment of Lithuania’s use of pushbacks, yet still decided to go ahead with providing support.
The response also reveals that the UK refuses to release its assessment.
MSF described UK claims of having no evidence of abuses as “bewildering” and accused it of “deliberately turning a blind eye” to reality.
New evidence emerged on Thursday of dozens of people being violently pushed back at the Lithuanian and Latvian borders with Belarus, left in the freezing forest for weeks. “It is deeply worrying that the UK has provided support to Lithuanian border enforcement, despite being aware of the use of illegal, dangerous pushbacks,” said Sophie McCann, advocacy officer at MSF UK.
“There is now a clear risk that the UK is complicit in these abuses.”
The MoD responded by saying it had no information regarding abuses at the Polish border, yet did not address queries relating to Lithuania.
Back at the UK border, the coastguard has asked ships in the Channel to look out for the missing bodies from last week’s tragedy. Zana Mamand wonders if they will ever be found. The grieving process, he knows too well, will be gruelling for the families affected.
In the meantime, he asks for greater compassion in the UK’s asylum debate. More common sense, too. “They [the UK] cannot prevent illegal immigration except by opening the legal path. This also has many financial, moral and security benefits for the country to do so.”
Zana urged the world not to forget those who died trying to “achieve a peaceful life”. “Pay attention to their dreams,” he said.
In the end, the Home Office’s SBOC briefing was delayed by two days. At 12.30pm on Friday – four bodies from the latest tragedy still unaccounted for – it went ahead. Another announcement promised tough action. Fresh pledges to stop the crossings. Yet this week will start and end with one absolute certainty: the small boats will keep arriving.
