Sunak firm on ‘Stop the Boats’ campaign to resolve migrants’ problem

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has begun sending migrants on a floating vessel in southern England, even as their claims of asylum are being processed. It is part of a wider policy of its “Stop the Boats” campaign to discourage people arriving on British shores to flee persecution in their own countries or simply to seek better life.

The other day, a small group of 15 migrants was moved from a hotel to Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset. Twenty others were helped by a charity to stop their removal on safety grounds. But the government plans to house up to 500 men in the 222-room, three-storey vessel.

The barge has a TV room, a multi-faith prayer room and gym. The inmates will be allowed to go out during the day and inevitably return by night.

The government says it is spending six million pounds a day to accommodate about 51,000 migrants in hotels. It is planning two more barges and three former military bases in various parts of the country to cut on hotel costs.

There has been a lot of criticism of the plan from charities and human rights groups, who have described it as an ‘imprisonment’ of migrants. Britain’s main opposition Labour Party is also critical of the plan, though it is not ruling out using barges to house migrants. The government argues that sending migrants to live in a vessel is safe, as was done to accommodate the homeless and asylum seekers in Germany and the Netherlands.

The Sunak government’s policy is similar to the one adopted by Australia 10 years back. Under that policy people arriving by boat were sent to detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Island of Nauru. The move drastically reduced the number of migrant boats to Australia. Tony Abbot also won the 2013 election as the policy became immensely popular with the Australian voters. Ironically, his election plank was “Stop the Boats”.

Undoubtedly migrants coming in small boats have been a major political issue in Britain. Last year, more than 45,000 migrants crossed the English Channel in that manner to reach the UK. Tackling this issue is one of the top priorities of Sunak.

The government has also tried to send those migrants to Rwanda following an agreement with the African country, but it has not been able to send even one so far because of legal challenges. The matter is now before Britain’s Supreme Court. Despite a lot of criticism for its Rwanda policy at home and abroad, Sunak’s government insists it is committed to it. Last month it managed to have a new bill passed in parliament, which gives Britain’s home minister the power to detain and remove anyone entering the UK illegally.Under this law anyone deemed to have tried to enter the UK through irregular means will be permanently barred from coming back.

The British government is also considering transferring illegal migrants to Ascension Island, the British overseas territory in the South Atlantic. It announced tripling of fines on businesses and landlords, who knowingly employ or provide accommodation to illegal migrants. However, similar such measures taken earlier were futile efforts considering it is hard to detect such businesses and landlords. The main reason for the British government to move migrants to floating vessels or to a third country is because it is overloaded with the number of asylum applications. Unless it formally rejects an application, it cannot legally deport a migrant.

Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman has warned that lawyers who coach small boat migrants to lie in order to claim asylum could face life imprisonment. But her tough words are unlikely to reduce the lengthy legal process. More than 170,000 people are currently waiting in Britain for a decision on their asylum applications.

India, Bangladesh and Pakistan feature in the top 10 countries from where these migrants have come from, while Albania and Afghanistan top the list.