LONDON: The UK government on Tuesday unveiled controversial plans to stop migrants crossing the Channel illegally on small boats, acknowledging it is stretching international law amid an outcry from rights campaigners.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the plan would “take back control of our borders once and for all” — reprising a popular pledge from campaigners like him who backed Britain’s Brexit divorce from the European Union (EU).

“This new law will send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you will be swiftly removed,” he wrote in The Sun newspaper. Under the draft law, interior minister Suella Braverman will be given a new legal duty to deport all migrants entering illegally, such as across the Channel, trumping their other rights in UK and European human rights law.

Those deported would be banned from re-entering Britain and ever claiming citizenship there, and must seek asylum in a so-called “safe third country”, such as Rwanda under a hotly contested partnership agreed by London last year.

“This Conservative government... will act now to stop the boats,” Braverman said as she introduced the legislation in parliament.

The right-winger added she was “confident that this bill is compatible with international obligations” — despite conceding in an overnight Daily Telegraph article that it “pushed the boundaries of international law”.

Rights groups and opposition parties say the plan is unworkable and unfairly scapegoats vulnerable refugees.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023