Janice R. Andrews
Reform UK made the controversial claim again before the party’s annual meeting that the UK can send refugees caught crossing the English Channel straight to France. Reform’s main goal with its immigration policy is to “stop the boats,” and this is one part of their four-point plan to do that. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, and Richard Tice, the head of the party, have both said that the UK has the legal right to do this under international law. However, their claims are not backed up by the laws that rule immigration and marine rescue.
In what words did Reform UK speak?
Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, was challenged by Richard Tice in a tweet earlier this month: “Starmer needs to explain why he does not have the leadership & courage to use [the] 1982 UN Convention of Law at Sea to pick up and take back” refugees crossing the Channel. Similarly, Nigel Farage, during an interview with BBC Radio Kent on September 19, stressed that under Reform’s plan, refugees in small boats would be taken back to France. Farage even said that if necessary, the Royal Marines could be used to make sure this happened.
Reform UK has said many times that sending refugees back to France is the right thing to do, but it’s not clear how this would be legal under international law, especially if France doesn’t help.
What does the law say about this?
The UNCLOS and SAR Conventions say that countries must help people in danger at sea. However, these rules don’t let states send rescued people to the shores of another country without that country’s formal permission.
If a “foreign ship” goes into the national seas of another country to “engage in the loading or unloading of any… person contrary to the immigration laws” of that country, that is against the country’s sovereignty, according to Article 19 of UNCLOS.
To put it simply, the UK can save people in trouble at sea, but it can’t send them back to France unless France lets it. At the moment, there is no deal between the UK and France that lets these kinds of returns happen.
Experts Say What They Think
BBC Verify talked to two marine law experts to find out if Reform UK’s plan was legal. A shipping lawyer at Quadrant Chambers named James M. Turner KC said, “The French would have to give express permission for UK vessels to carry rescued people through their territorial waters and leave them ashore in France.”
An expert in marine law from the University of Southampton, Ainhoa Campàs Velasco, stated that France would have to agree to the return of any people who were saved in the Channel. If the UK tried to send refugees back on its own without a deal in place, it would be breaking international law.
Past Deals Between the UK and France
The UK and France have worked together on border security and managing migration through a number of joint action plans, including the 2019 deal. However, none of these plans allow one country to send people who were saved in the English Channel back to the other country’s ports. Even when a British Border Force ship helped a French ship near Gravelines in July 2023 as part of a planned rescue mission, both ships took the migrants they saved to Calais, France. The prime minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, said that this was just a choice made for practical reasons at the time and did not mean that policy was changing.
Has Anyone Tried This Before?
The UK government thought about a plan to send small boats back when they were caught in the Channel in 2021. But this plan never came together, most likely because of the big legal and political problems that were involved. Even though Reform UK says they can, it is very unlikely that the UK could apply such a policy right now because they do not have a return deal with France.
Does Belgium send migrants back to France?
Richard Tice said that Belgium is a good example of a country that has done something close to what Reform UK wants to do. On September 3, he said that refugees caught in small boats by Belgian police were sent straight to France. However, when BBC Verify called, Belgian cops denied this claim. Authorities in Belgium do stop boats that are trying to cross from the coast of Belgium to the UK, but they see these stops as rescue missions instead of returns to France. Also, these trips don’t happen very often because the currents in that part of the Channel are dangerous.
Change things There are many legal problems with the UK’s plan to send refugees caught in the Channel straight to France. International law, especially UNCLOS and the SAR Convention, says that France has to agree to these kinds of measures, but there isn’t one right now. Some people, like Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, say that this plan is legal, but experts in sea law and recent events say that it is not. This idea is likely to stay a political promise as long as France doesn’t help.
