EU home affairs chief warns UK asylum plan may be illegal

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to "take back control of our borders once and for all" by detaining and deporting any migrants caught crossing the Channel from France or Belgium in small boats.

Britain's plan to refuse to allow migrants arriving in small boats the right to claim asylum may breach its international obligations, the EU's home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson warned on Thursday.

Arriving at a meeting of European Union interior ministers in Brussels, Johansson said she had spoken to UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman to discuss the planned legislation, which may breach European and UN conventions.

"My immediate reaction is I question whether this is in line with international obligations. She promised me it is, so let's hope she's right, but we have to examine it a little bit further," Johansson said.

On Wednesday, Braverman told ITV News that she had invited Johansson to study the UK proposal in more detail but stressed: "We are no longer members of the European Union and so we are free to determine our own borders and migration policy."

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to "take back control of our borders once and for all" by detaining and deporting any migrants caught crossing the Channel from France or Belgium in small boats.

More than 3,000 migrants have arrived in this way so far this year, and the backlog of asylum claims now exceeds 160,000.

The crossings, many organised by criminal smuggling gangs, are dangerous. In November 2021, at least 27 people drowned in a single incident.