Lawyers and campaigners have criticised Sajid Javid after the home secretary appeared to suggest asylum seekers should be deterred from crossing the Channel in small boats by making it harder to gain asylum, a right enshrined in international law.
The Refugee Council called the comments “deeply concerning” and said the suggestion of denying asylum was unlawful. The criticism was echoed by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, who called the comments “a disgrace”.
Speaking on a visit to Dover, Javid questioned why people making the journey had not sought asylum in the first safe country they entered.
“A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?” he said. “Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?”
“Also, if you do somehow make it to the UK, we will do everything we can to make sure that you are often not successful because we need to break that link, and to break that link means we can save more lives,” he added.
Colin Yeo, a leading immigration and asylum barrister at Garden Court chambers, said the home secretary’s apparent threat was illegal. “Sending genuine refugees to face persecution in order to dissuade others from seeking to come here is plainly illegal,” he told the Guardian.
“I imagine the home secretary knows this, but if so it is depressing that he is still saying it as a way of trying to make himself sound tough. The latest asylum statistics show that around three-quarters of Iranian asylum claims succeed, so we are talking here about genuine refugees.”
Dr Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said it would be unlawful for the UK to deny someone asylum as a way of deterring others from making a claim.
“The 1951 refugee convention acknowledges that refugees may enter countries through irregular routes and should not be penalised for this,” she said.
“The outcome of an asylum application cannot be pre-judged, irrespective of how that person reached the country. It’s a shame that the home secretary seems to need reminding that seeking asylum is a right and the UK has an obligation to assess claims fairly and grant protection to those who need it.”
Abbott said that the comments were part of a Conservative “obsession with maintaining a hostile environment” for refugees and migrants. “Suggesting that the British government would deny legitimate asylum claims is not only a disgrace but a breach of the 1951 refugee convention,” she said.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs select committee, also said the comments were unwise. “Asylum claims have to be determined according to the law and the circumstances of every individual case, not as an arbitrary political decision supposedly to deter others,” she said. “The home secretary knows this so to suggest otherwise is completely wrong.”
In recent days, Javid has also been criticised after he repeatedly referred to people making the Channel crossing as “illegal” migrants, though it is not against the law to seek asylum.
Earlier this week, Javid told Sky News: “Our job here is to make sure this doesn’t turn into a new route for ever-increased illegal migration, so I want to stop it now as much as I possibly can.” Asked about his use of the term “illegal migration”, Javid skirted the question.
Paul Hook, the head of campaigns at Refugee Action, said the home secretary’s words needed to be more compassionate.
“These are people first and foremost and they deserve a humanitarian response,” he said. “We hope the home secretary will demonstrate that in his words and actions in the coming days and weeks.”
On Wednesday, Javid said 539 people had made the crossing in 2018, though 80% had been in the last three months of the year. In “almost every case” they went on to seek asylum, he said.
Javid said the government was doing everything it could to ensure boats found crossing the Channel were returned to France but acknowledged if Border Force vessels picked up people in UK waters, they would be taken to a port in the UK.
The UK announced earlier this week it would deploy two extra Border Force ships to the Channel to try to disrupt the crossings in small and often unseaworthy boats across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The numbers crossing the Channel are still small. About 100 have made the crossing since Christmas Day, though Javid cut short a family holiday and designated the increase in the number of crossings a “major incident”.
The home secretary said two Border Force cutters would be redeployed as part of wider efforts to ensure the route did not become more popular and said it was a priority to prevent deaths.
On Monday, a group of 12 Iranians, including a 10-year-old child, were interviewed by immigration officials after they came ashore near Lydd-on-Sea, in Kent. Six Iranian men were also found on a beach near Deal in Kent on Sunday morning.
The Red Cross, which provides refugee support services across Kent including food parcels and clothing, said Iranian asylum seekers were often some of the most destitute.
Iranians have made up the highest number of asylum applications to the UK every year for the past three years, although numbers have fallen, according to Home Office figures.
The majority of Iranian asylum seekers were successful. In 2017, 45% were given asylum in their first application and almost half of those who appealed against a refusal decision were also allowed to remain.
