Migrant crossings hit daily record for 2024
Peers signal further resistance to Sunak’s Bill as delay brings warning of ‘migration emergency’
A RECORD number of migrants crossed the Channel on Wednesday as Downing Street warned of a “migration emergency” amid a three-week delay in its Rwanda Bill.
More than 500 migrants made the journey – a daily high for this year – taking the total for 2024 past 4,000, with small boat arrivals reaching the UK at a rate 10 per cent greater than 2023.
The surge came as the Government tried to head off criticism for delaying the return of its Rwanda Bill to the Commons until April 15 rather than trying to force it through Parliament next week.
It followed Wednesday’s votes in the Lords in which peers reinstated seven amendments in a series of heavy defeats for Rishi Sunak’s flagship Bill, which last year he pledged to fast-track as “emergency” legislation.
The defeats mean deportation flights are unlikely to get off until June, rather than May, as the legal and logistical process to pave the way for them will take six to 10 weeks from the middle of April.
Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terror legislation and one of the leading opponents of the Bill in the upper house, warned the Government it faced being voted down again if it tried to bulldoze the legislation through the Lords unamended and without offering any concessions.
He suggested ministers should at least concede ground on an amendment by Lord Hope requiring assurances over the safety of Rwanda, the key criticism by the Supreme Court which blocked the scheme last year.
“If the Government doesn’t budge or doesn’t see reason and at least move to Lord Hope’s amendments, there will be a third round of ping pong and no one can predict what happens after that,” he said.
Parliamentary convention dictates that the unelected House of Lords does not block legislation but Lord Carlile said: “The conventions only apply to manifesto Bills and this is not a manifesto Bill. The Lords can stand in the way of this Bill particularly as many believe it is damaging Britain’s reputation on international law.”
Responding to questions over the three-week delay, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The legislation is dealing with a migration emergency and we are introducing that legislation as soon as we possibly can to reduce the number of people taking the perilous journey across the Channel.”
He said it was “frustrating” that the House of Lords had not passed the Bill, which is central to Mr Sunak’s pledge to stop the boats by getting deportation flights off to Rwanda this spring.
“It is exactly because we are still seeing people making this perilous journey across the Channel that the Prime Minister wants parliamentarians across the House to get behind this Bill and to stop the boats,” said the spokesman.
The 504 migrants who crossed on Wednesday bring the total for 2024 to date to 4,043, 10 per cent above the figure this time last year (3,683) and 25 per cent above the 3,229 at the same stage in 2022. If 2023 figures are replicated in the next three weeks, a further 1,400 migrants will arrive by the time the Bill returns to the Commons.
Tory MPS reacted angrily to the delay. “This has been an emergency consistently for the past 4 years or so. It hasn’t only just become one. I’d be happy to vote for measures to stop the boats at any point. At any time of the day or night. Recess or not,” said one backbench MP.
Sir John Hayes, chair of the Common Sense group of MPS, said: “If I could speak directly to the peers, I would say every day that they continue to consider this is a day of more dangerous crossings. And every crossing risks lives.”
A Right-wing Tory source said: “Privately, the Government knows [former immigration minister Robert] Jenrick and his supporters were right that this Bill won’t work so they’re delaying judgement day for as long as possible.”