According to documents that were leaked, more than 3,000 asylum applicants might be arrested and deported from the United Kingdom each month in order to implement Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s signature asylum law.
The government has prepared plans to deport 3,163 asylum seekers per month starting in January 2024, according to briefing materials, which were made public as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced criticism from Conservative MPs over record net migration levels.
The documents, which center on the implementation of the illegal immigration bill, also make it plain that ministers could be subject to financially debilitating legal action if there is not a significant increase in legal aid fees for attorneys who represent refugees, according to the Guardian UK.
It is the first in-depth look at the size of the work Whitehall will face if it is to put Braverman’s bill, which is currently before the Lords, into effect. The Home Office has so far declined to make the impact analysis of the bill public.
The information was released as net migration and the backlog of asylum applications both hit new highs.
After data from the Office for National Statistics revealed that overall migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000, which represents a 24% rise over the previous high of 488,000 in 2021, Sunak was forced to admit that numbers should decline.
According to the most recent statistics, over 100,000 asylum seekers have waited longer than six months for an initial decision on their case, and more than 75% of all small-boat asylum petitions submitted since 2018 are still pending.
The “urgent” documents that were leaked this week were made for Alex Chalk, the lord chancellor, Lord Bellamy, the junior justice minister, and Antonia Romeo, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice.
If the bill becomes law, it was intended to guarantee that there will be enough attorneys on standby to offer guidance at immigration detention facilities.
According to the proposed legislation, anyone who enter the UK without authorization won’t be allowed to stay to request asylum but will be arrested and sent back home or to a third country like Rwanda.
According to the documents, which were created using data from the Home Office, the government should get ready for 1,600 people to be held under the bill in detention centers starting in September, and for 3,163 people to be held every month starting in January.
In one document, it was stated that “Steers are required as soon as possible to engage legal aid provider and – if you agree it is necessary – start implementing fee increases in time for September 2023 when we are expecting to provide access to legal aid to 1,600 individuals (scenario B) and scale to 3,163 individuals per month (scenario C) from January 2024.”
The government is preparing for mass deportations, despite its denials, according to the records, according to Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council.
Despite the government’s steadfast adherence to the claim that its new bill will ‘serve as a deterrent,’ he continued, “this evidence reveals that it is fully aware that vulnerable people will keep arriving in the UK in quest of safety.
It is horrifying that the government is getting ready to imprison and expulse thousands of men, women, and children, the majority of whom would be determined to be refugees if their claims were examined on UK soil.
The government should raise legal aid fees by at least 15%, according to the recommendations made in the documents, so that lawyers will be willing to take on the representation of thousands of asylum seekers. However, the text also suggests a 200% possible growth, which is not advised.
Civil workers tell Chalk that if he doesn’t give legal counsel to detainees, a court review may be instituted.
“You (Lord Chancellor) will have a statutory duty to ensure that legal aid is available to this cohort,” the briefing stated. If capacity difficulties are not addressed, there may not be enough legal aid professionals to complete this work. A court review could be used to contest this.
One document states that immigration attorneys currently charge between £53 and £74 per hour. In a meeting with specialized companies in the field, civil employees “were clear that unless legal aid rates are substantially increased they would not be able to justify allocation of IMB work in any volume over privately paid casework,” according to the document.
In the event that ministers authorized an increase in fees, the document suggested a 15% rise to up to £86 per hour, which would raise annual fee spending from £53 million to £61 million.
