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The UK government offered concessions to opponents of its illegal migration bill on Monday in a bid to drive the legislation through parliament before MPs break for the summer.
The bill, which underpins one of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s five stated priorities — to stop record numbers of asylum seekers crossing the Channel to England by boat — goes back to the House of Commons on Tuesday after suffering a string of defeats in the House of Lords.
The Lords agreed 20 amendments to the legislation, stripping it of some of its more contentious aspects which the UN high commission for refugees says would put the UK in violation of the UN Refugee Convention. One of the amendments would ensure the government sticks to its obligations under international law.
MPs will now have a chance to reject those changes and send the legislation back to the upper house, before it bounces back and forth between the houses in what is known as legislative ping-pong.
The Home Office said in a statement on Monday that it was introducing changes to smooth passage and provide “reassurance to peers”.
The changes do not alter the overall intention of the bill: to bar from claiming asylum anyone entering the UK without permission, legally obliging the home secretary to detain and deport them either to their country of origin or to a safe third country.
But the Home Office said in a statement on Monday that one change would mean that unaccompanied children detained “for the purpose of removal” could now be released after eight days, instead of the proposed 28 days.
In another concession, it said the home secretary’s obligation to remove anyone entering by irregular routes would no longer apply retrospectively to when the bill was published on March 7. However, anyone who has entered by small boat since then would still be ineligible for asylum and settlement, it said.
More than 1,000 migrants crossed the Channel on Friday and Saturday, taking the total number for this year to 12,503.
“Today’s amendments will help this crucial legislation pass through parliament swiftly, whilst continuing to send a clear message that the exploitation of children and vulnerable people, used by criminals and ferried across the Channel, cannot continue,” home secretary Suella Braverman said.
A further amendment will ensure that pregnant women can only be detained for a maximum of 72 hours, unless further detention of up to seven days has been authorised by a minister.
Even if the bill goes through parliament in amended form, part of the government’s aim of deporting asylum seekers and deterring the people smugglers still faces legal challenges.
The Court of Appeal ruled last month that government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, under an agreement it has reached with Kigali, were unlawful because the country could not be trusted to process their claims fairly. The government has appealed to the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the case in the autumn.