Suella Braverman was today urged to be ready to scrap the Government’s controversial Rwanda migrant scheme as a right-of-centre think tank warned that it risks becoming an expensive failure.
Bright Blue, which says it champions liberal conservative reforms supported by evidence rather than ideology, said that the new Home Secretary needed to “get a grip over the rising number of asylum seekers making dangerous journeys to get to the UK”.
But it warned that if the number of arrivals across the Channel continued to rise then Ms Braverman should abandon efforts to remove people to Rwanda and look for alternative ways of stopping people risking their lives at sea.
It said these should include allowing asylum seekers to make their claims in British embassies overseas.
Both Ms Braverman and the new Prime Minister Liz Truss have vowed to continue the Government’s policy of trying to remove migrants arriving unlawfully across the Channel to Rwanda.
A High Court challenge to the policy is continuing this week and no migrants have been sent to Rwanda so far because of an earlier ruling by the European Court of Human Rights putting a temporary block on removals.
Ministers have insisted that the policy will act as a deterrent if removals start taking place. But Ryan Shorthouse, Bright Blue’s chief executive, said that the Government should be ready to change tack, and risked damaging its reputation.
“If Rwanda fails to act as a deterrent, and the numbers continue to rise, it will be deemed an expensive failure by the public,” he said.
“It is crucial, therefore, that the new Home Secretary considers — even trials — practical alternatives to Rwanda, such as enabling migrants to have asylum claims processed in UK embassies or high commissions in some friendly third countries. It is no good just sounding tough; the public expect delivery”.
Although there is no indication so far from Ms Truss’s new administration of any willingness to abandon the Rwanda policy, another flagship reform has already been ditched following the disclosure that the planned Bill of Rights is to be shelved.
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The legislation was intended to assert the primacy of British courts and limit the ability of foreign offenders and illegal migrants to use the Article 8 right to a family life to stay in this country. It also aimed to bolster media rights, but ministers are now understood to have decided that it is “a mess” and could have been counterproductive.
Meanwhile, Ms Braverman was urged by Policy Exchange, another right-of-centre think tank, to “overhaul police leadership” and help forces recruit more programmers and data scientists into policing.
