Defeats for small boats bill in the Lords as Channel crossings set new record | Immigration and asylum

The government’s small boats bill has suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords, as Channel crossings in June by people seeking asylum set a new record.

Peers voted on Monday to limit the time that children and pregnant women who claim asylum after arriving by irregular means can be detained, and backed preventing LGBTQ+ people from being deported to a country where they would have a well-founded fear of persecution.

Ministers are seeking to ensure that the illegal migration bill will enable the detention and deportation of asylum seekers who arrive via irregular means to a third country such as Rwanda.

The vote followed four defeats last week by the upper chamber including on modern slavery safeguards, a bar on backdating deportations and asylum help for unaccompanied children.

On Monday, the Lords backed a move to force Suella Braverman, the home secretary, to consider an asylum claim from people arriving by unauthorised routes if they have not been removed from the UK within six months, by 204 votes to 168. A short time later, peers voted by 216 to 147 for restrictions on removal destinations for LGBTQ+ people.

Then, peers voted to retain the existing 24-hour limit on the detention of unaccompanied migrant children; a short time later, they voted to maintain limits on detention of accompanied children to 72 hours or one week with ministerial approval.

In another government defeat, the Lords backed by 226 votes to 152 a move to retain a 72-hour limit on the detention of pregnant women who cross via small boats or by another “irregular” route.

Backing the cross-party amendment, Liz Sugg, a former Conservative foreign minister, said: “It impacts just a small number of women, but will have a big impact on those women’s health and their futures.”

Mike German, a Liberal Democrat peer, said: “Detention is no place for pregnant women.”

Lords also backed the courts’ role in deciding what amounts to a reasonable period of immigration detention. The bill would have shifted powers to the home secretary to determine what constitutes a reasonable period, with the government insisting it would have retained judicial oversight.

The House of Lords voted by 216 to 163 to amend the bill.

Peers further voted to lower the threshold of harm a person must be expected to suffer on removal to a third country in order to successfully appeal against their deportation.

In an 11th defeat for the day, they also backed cutting a section of the bill that would stop a court of tribunal from granting interim orders to prevent or delay a person’s removal from the UK.

Crossings by people seeking asylum have set a new record for the month of June, pushing the total for the year so far to more than 11,000. In the first six months of 2023, 11,434 people were detected making the journey from France, according to provisional government figures.

This includes 155 people arriving in three boats on Friday, taking the total for June alone to 3,824. This is the highest total for the month of June since records began five years ago, an analysis of the Home Office data by the PA news agency found.

The figures come almost six months after Rishi Sunak vowed to “stop the boats” and made this one of his five most prominent pledges as prime minister.

In June last year, 3,140 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel.

The court of appeal last week ruled that it was unlawful to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda – a ruling that is being challenged by the government.