This week Professor Thom Brooks, Professor of Law and Government, launched the most comprehensive report into the issue of asylum seekers using small boats to cross the Channel to Britain. A key finding of the 55 page report is that the Government's Brexit deal is a primary factor.
No small boat arrivals are recorded prior to 2018 when the UK was a part of a returns arrangement with the EU whereby anyone making the crossing could be returned. But the Government's Brexit deal did not include any agreement on a new returns arrangement and so returning migrants became far more difficult - and small boat crossings grew quickly. Other findings of the report are that the Government requires a new returns arrangement if it wants to make substantial progress in reducing numbers. The report calls on the Government to announce an independent investigation into missing children awaiting asylum decisions, provides evidence from the Home Office that it does not expect the Government's plans to work, that small boats are not the cause of the growing asylum application backlog and the plans for sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to have applications decided there lacks evidence of any deterrent effect or value for money.
Professor Brooks' report can be found here.
