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Keir Starmer’s planned people-smuggling laws risk “criminalising” hundreds of asylum seekers, refugee charities have said, after it emerged that people who refuse to be rescued by the French authorities could be jailed for five years.
Some parents who bring their children to the UK in small boats could also face prosecution, which could ultimately split their families, a human rights assessment of the border security, asylum and immigration bill has concluded.
The bill, introduced to parliament on Thursday, will also allow people smugglers to be jailed for up to 14 years for handling small boat parts, and will strengthen police powers to seize laptops, financial assets and mobile phones from suspected smugglers.
Campaigners have expressed concern that the bill maintains some of the draconian powers introduced by the Conservative government, including making it harder for people to claim they are victims of modern slavery, and powers to impose a cap on the number of people allowed into the UK on safe and legal routes.
Refugee groups have criticised the bill, saying it would criminalise legitimate asylum seekers who are forced to help gangs while en route to the UK and could make the cross-Channel route more dangerous.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “We are very concerned that by creating new offences, many refugees themselves could also be prosecuted, which has already been happening in some cases. This would be a gross miscarriage of justice.
“Criminalising men, women and children who have fled conflicts in countries such as Sudan does not disrupt the smuggling gangs’ business model. When a refugee is clambering into a boat with an armed criminal threatening them, they are not thinking about UK laws but are simply trying to stay alive.”
The failure to repeal Priti Patel’s Illegal Migration Act means that asylum and human rights claims from countries including Albania, Georgia and India are automatically inadmissible, a spokesperson for Asylum Aid said.
Alison Pickup, the organisation’s executive director, said: “Further criminalisation and measures blocking people from protection will do nothing to address the causes of forced displacement and unauthorised movement through Europe to the UK.”
Labour hopes the new legislation will help turn the tide against people-smuggling networks that have facilitated more than 150,000 small boat arrivals in the UK since 2018. More than 1,000 people have arrived in the UK since the start of this year.
It follows a record 78 deaths in the Channel last year, as people smugglers launch flimsy dinghies to sea with up to 120 passengers onboard.
The bill will make it an offence to “endanger another life during perilous sea crossing to the UK”. Anyone involved in coercive behaviour, “including preventing offers of rescue”, will face prosecution and an increased sentence of up to five years in prison.
This means anyone “rushing” vessels into the sea as they try to launch could also be prosecuted.
Home Office sources said some people on small boats had refused to allow the French authorities to board because they wished to enter UK waters and claim asylum.
As part of Starmer’s promise to “smash the gangs”, those caught selling or handling small boat parts could also be jailed for up to 14 years as the Home Office will make it “illegal to supply or handle items suspected of being for use by organised crime groups”.
Where someone is suspected of selling or handling small boat parts or sharing suspect information online, officials believe the bill will allow them to use these offences to make arrests.
In some circumstances, parents could be prosecuted for endangering the lives of their children if the bill becomes law, a human rights assessment of the bill found.
“Although it is very unlikely, there is no absolute bar to prosecuting parents who have taken their children on journeys which come within the ambit of the endangerment offence, which could result in the breakup of families,” the assessment said.
The Home Office hopes to use the new offences to extradite some of the suppliers and people smugglers responsible for Channel crossings who are caught abroad, as well as to prosecute any who enter the UK.
Existing rules mean law enforcement officers are unable to intervene until after a small boat crossing.
In an upgrade to serious crime prevention orders, the bill will give law enforcement new powers to impose interim serious crime prevention orders, allowing them to place instant restrictions on organised immigration criminals alongside other serious criminals. This could include bans on travel, internet and mobile phone use, with curbs also leading to social media blackouts, curfews and restricted access to finances.
Natasha Tsangarides, the associate director of advocacy at the charity Freedom from Torture, said: “This bill will do nothing to address the root causes of forced displacement. Instead, cracking down on the methods refugees use to escape war and persecution will only make their journeys more dangerous.
“We fear that the government’s current approach, directed through the frame of counter-terrorism, risks intensifying the vulnerability of those who are forced to rely on smugglers in the absence of safe routes.
“If the government truly wants to address the challenges posed by the movement of refugees across borders, then it would be better directed towards stopping the torture that pushes people from their homes in the first place.”
