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Home Secretary Priti Patel has been warned by her own department that there is only limited evidence her tough new clampdown on cross-channel migrants will work.
An impact assessment of the Nationality and Borders Bill carried out by the Home Office found that it would encourage refugees to claim asylum in the first country they entered, rather than travelling through them to reach the UK.
But the document also warned that 'evidence supporting the effectiveness of this approach is limited'.
It also warned that the new law could force though desperate to enter Britain to find ever-more dangerous ways to cross the Channel.
In comments first reported by the Times, the assessment says: 'There is a risk that increased security and deterrence could encourage these cohorts to attempt riskier means of entering the UK.
'Deploying these measures does advance the legitimate aim of encouraging asylum seekers to claim in the first safe country they reach and not undertaking dangerous journeys facilitated by smugglers to get to the UK, though evidence supporting the effectiveness of this approach is limited.'
Around 13,000 people have already crossed the Channel to reach Britain so far this year – eclipsing the 8,417 who made the journey in the whole of 2020. It has put pressure on the Home Secretary to stem to flow.
