Home Office won't say how many migrants arrive illegally

Picked up at sea: Legal status entirely unclear

It is a phrase we hear almost every day from government ministers: "Illegal migrants."

These are the words they use to describe the people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

But if you are going to say someone has committed a crime, you need to be able to prove that in court. That's how the law works.

So I have been trying to find out how many of the 40,000 channel-crossers this year could be said, to a legal standard, to have arrived illegally.

And it's been impossible so far to get any figures - despite it being a fairly simple question to answer.

New crime for our times

Since 28 June 2022, it has been a specific crime to knowingly arrive in the United Kingdom without proper permission. The penalty is up to four years in jail.

So if we can find out how many have been arrested, charged or convicted of this offence, we can measure the number of people who are definitely suspected of, or have committed, a crime.

This offence of illegal arrival was created by the Nationality and Borders Act - measures steered through Parliament's choppy waters earlier this year by the then Home Secretary, Priti Patel.

Just over a year ago, Tom Pursglove, the then junior ministers for tackling illegal immigration, explained to MPs that the proposed new offence aimed to tackle small boat migrants.

"They arrive in, but may not technically enter, the UK," he said, referring to the complicated procedures of borders and immigration law.

"We need to deter migrants from risking their lives and those of their families by taking such dangerous routes to the UK, and to take back control of our borders.

"The clause introduces new arrival offences to deal with the issue."

Parliament was reassured that the new crime would not target people who were "genuine refugees". Different law says they should not be penalised for seeking protection.

Today, there is wide-spread and credible reporting that the English Channel is being used by smuggling gangs as well as refugees.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman: Clear that migrants are arriving illegally

So how many of the 27,000 people who have arrived since the law changed in June have been arrested or charged with illegal arrival?

Who could know the answer?

I began by asking Kent Police. Its officers may be called to deal with migrants.

Unsurprisingly, the force explained that it tries to pass them on to the UK Border Force, part of the Home Office. Kent officers have not arrested anyone at all for illegal arrival.

I'll come back to the Home office in a moment - but in the meantime, I asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for help.

Its prosecutors prepare the criminal cases against suspected immigration offenders that would go to court. The CPS would know if anyone had been charged with illegal arrival.

It initially told me to ask the Ministry of Justice - but that department said its statisticians would only have information later on, after cases have been in court.

So I went back to the CPS - and it initially said I would need to make a Freedom of Information request. I was then told I would need to ask the Home Office for the data. That implied that it existed.

The Home Office in all probability should have the answer because of the central role of UK Border Force officers in patrolling the coast and detaining people as they arrive.

So what happened when I asked the Home Office how many people had been arrested or charged with illegal arrival?

It wouldn't tell me.

It wouldn't even tell me if it had numbers that could be disclosable.

Now, to be fair, the Home Office has said that 244 people had been arrested "since the Nationality and Borders Act became law in June". But it won't say whether they were held for crimes under that Act - including the new offence.

What's more, while we can report that 72 of that 244 were arrested for "facilitating" illegal immigration, that's a crime dating back 50 years.

So this is what we are left with.

The Home Secretary has told Parliament the English Channel arrivals are an "invasion on our southern coast".

She has said the number of people "reaching the UK illegally in small boats" is at an all-time high. She also has a press office unit that's called "Illegal Migration - Small boats and Criminality".

But as for actual arrests or charges under the newly-created crime to target small boat migrants?

We'll have to see if Freedom of Information requests will give us the answer - a process that can take months.