28 Conservative MPs and four peers have written to the Prime Minister calling for 'root-and-branch reform' of the asylum system which would prohibit claims from people who have passed through 'safe countries'.
The Conservative MP Peter Bone has called for new legislation allowing deportations to Rwanda to be brought to the Commons immediately if current plans are stopped in the courts.
The Home Secretary has told a Lords Committee that 70% of people arriving by small boats are single men who are effectively economic migrants and not genuine asylum seekers.
Britain stands to lose the £120 million it has paid to Rwanda if the plan to deport migrants is ruled unlawful. Rwandan officials confirmed the country has received the entire initial payment for the agreement signed in April and that the funds are already ‘committed’.
Dover MP on today’s Rwanda court action: ‘It's disappointing to see the courts being misused by political activists who support uncontrolled immigration. There is no need for anyone to get on a small boat. People are safe in France and many other places before France.’
Green MP Caroline Lucas describes the government's latest policy on tackling migrant crossings as 'one of the most sickening crackdowns on people fleeing war, terror and climate chaos in living memory.'
Immigration Minister Chris Philp has refused to apologise for using Napier Barracks to house asylum speakers, telling the House of Commons the accommodation was previously ‘good enough for our armed services’. Via
@amandaakass
The BBC has contacted the Home Office to object to its use of BBC footage in a video posted on Twitter announcing the new Illegal Migration Bill. The video begins with clips of presenters from BBC News and 5 News reporting the number of migrants who have crossed the Channel.
Despite some windy conditions at sea, seven migrants attempted to cross the Channel this morning. They got into difficulty off Dunkirk, and have been taken back to France.
The Albanian Ambassador to the UK tells MPs his country is safe. He says some Albanians arriving in the UK are pretending to be victims of modern slavery.
Real anger from MPs in the Commons today about the Home Office commandeering hotels to house migrants - without properly informing politicians or the local community.
The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has appointed former National Crime Agency executive Dan O'Mahoney as the UK's Clandestine Channel Threat Commander. He will work to make the Channel route 'unviable' for small boat crossings.
The Home Office says anyone caught piloting a boat carrying migrants in the Channel could face life behind bars from today, as part of the Nationality and Borders Act takes effect.
Kent’s Council leaders: Secondary schools in Canterbury and Ashford currently have no year 7 and year 9 places for local children due to the ‘unexpected and therefore unplanned for arrivals of refugee children disproportionately placed by the Home Office in these two areas’.
The Home Secretary has authorised the Border Force to turn boats carrying migrants back at sea to prevent them from reaching the UK. The move is set to be opposed by the French authorities, who describe the technique as dangerous.
A report by a former adviser to Theresa May, Nick Timothy, proposes anyone coming to the country illegally would never be allowed to settle in the UK. They would be given the choice to go home or to Rwanda.
A protest will be held on the Kent coast this morning – calling for more safe and legal routes to be established for asylum seekers, following the death of four migrants this week. The organiser said: ‘We are sick of this avoidable and unnecessary waste of life.’
Hippo stolen (words you don’t often type): a huge bronze hippopotamus has been taken from a garden-ornament business near Tunbridge Wells. It weighs in at almost three quarters of a tonne!
20 migrants have crossed the Channel from France this morning in two boats. A third incident is ongoing. Yesterday, 103 people made the crossing - that’s more than in the whole of January last year.
Plans to return 10 migrants who’d reached the UK by boat to Italy were abandoned yesterday following several legal claims. The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said: ‘Once again, our efforts to facilitate entirely legitimate and legal returns were frustrated by legal claims.’
For those asking, there haven’t been any Channel crossings since last Tuesday. This is likely to be due to the windy weather, rather than the ‘Rwanda deterrent’.
The Home Secretary has ordered the first review of Border Force in more than a decade. Priti Patel has called in Alexander Downer, the ex-Australian High Commissioner to the UK, to scrutinise all areas of the agency's work including illegal migration, customs and security.
The Home Office says 16 Albanians who entered the UK illegally were removed on a flight to Tirana this morning. It's thought to be the largest number on a single flight since the government tried to increase removals under a series of agreements with Albania.
Care4Calais: ‘The Rwanda plan won’t end small-boat crossings and it won’t keep refugees safe. There is a kinder and more effective way: giving safe passage to refugees in Calais.’
More than 50 Conservative MPs have written to the Prime Minister urging him to change the law to reject immediately asylum claims by applicants from ‘safe’ countries such as Albania, and to return people who say they are victims of modern slavery to their home countries.
A man who steered himself and 25 other migrants across the Channel in a small boat has been jailed for two and a half years. Hammad Al Shamari, a Kuwaiti Bidoon national, was found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration into the UK.
The Leader of Gravesham Council has written a furious letter to the Home Secretary, saying people at a hotel in the area are being made homeless so the hotel can be used for asylum accommodation. John Burden says the authority’s concerns are being ignored.
An e-petition calling on the government to do more to stop illegal immigration will be debated by MPs on Monday. It attracted more than 120,000 signatures.
More than 100 refugee charities have signed an open letter to the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, calling for a ‘kind and effective’ system for those seeking asylum in the UK.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke on Rwanda ruling: ‘Left-wing organisations need to stop using endless appeals to overturn democracy and waste taxpayers’ money. It’s time they accepted the determination of UK Courts.’
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke on Channel crossings: ‘It’s clear that the attempts to tackle the Channel crisis are failing at every level. The situation is now out of control. Restoring order at the border is vital.’
A group of 12 migrants is believed to have been dropped off by a boat on Slapton Sands beach in Dartmouth this morning. They were taken to two waiting vehicles, which then left the area.
Refugee charities say a number of asylum seekers have disappeared from Home Office accommodation since the government announced plans to send some of them to Rwanda.
Migration Watch on today's boat figures: 'No wonder those who voted for the government believing immigration would be controlled and reduced feel betrayed.'
The Prime Minister says he want to detain and remove everybody who comes to the UK illegally: ‘I think it’s a common-sense system that the vast majority of people will think is reasonable.’
12 people have been arrested, including three in the UK, following a joint investigation involving Belgium, France and the Netherlands into people smuggling across the Channel. 10 boats, 152 life jackets, and about €48,000 in cash were seized.
The French authorities say police have broken up a major people-smuggling gang that had been sending migrants to Britain in dinghies, with more than a dozen boats and 700 life jackets seized.
The Dover MP Natalie Elphicke says the town is becoming almost as famous for its traffic jams as for its White Cliffs - following a third day of travel problems.
The Home Office has clarified it’s spending £4.7 million per day on hotels to accommodate asylum seekers and people resettled from Afghanistan. It told MPs yesterday the figure was £1.2 million - which it has put down to a ‘drafting error’.
Migration Watch UK is calling on the government to continue releasing daily data on the number of people reaching the UK by boat. In future, the figures may only be released four times a year, which critics say would be a ‘huge affront to transparency and democracy.’
14 migrants who had previously claimed asylum in other European countries have been returned to mainland Europe this morning. The Immigration Minister, Chris Philp, says this was 'despite last-minute vexatious legal claims designed to frustrate the process.'
Priti Patel on Rwanda flight cancellation: ‘We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans to control our nation’s borders. Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.’
A man has been charged with criminal damage after the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square was defaced. Benjamin Clark of Wilton Crescent in Hertford is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
442 migrants in 10 boats reached the UK yesterday - the highest daily figure this year. A further 53 migrants in a single boat were returned to France after they got into difficulty in the Channel.
The Immigration Minister says there were ‘unacceptable levels of violence and disorder’ overnight at the Harmondsworth immigration-removal centre following a power cut. He says the perpetrators will - where appropriate - be removed from the country ‘as swiftly as is practicable’.
669 migrants reached the UK yesterday on 22 boats. It brings the total number for this year to more than 17,000 people - double the number for the whole of last year.