Refugee charities refuse to help Home Office with ‘immoral scare campaign’ against Channel crossings

Charities have rebuffed the Home Office’s attempts to use their expertise in communications campaigns aiming to deter asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel.

Several advocacy groups have refused to take part in what they labelled an “immoral scare campaign” and “sleazy PR exercise”, as the government seeks to criminalise migrants who arrive in small boats.

Under British law, people must be present in the UK to claim asylum but there is no asylum via to reach the country for that purpose and resettlement schemes are limited.

In an email seen by The Independent, the Home Office told charities it had started an “information campaign on social media in Northern France and Belgium, to reach potential irregular migrants warning them of the risks and dangers” of small boat crossings.

The email said posts in several languages were “encouraging them to seek safe and legal alternatives” or claim asylum in the countries they are currently in.

The Home Office asked groups to give 45-minute interviews to a consultancy, in exchange fo a £50 donation to a charity of their choice, “to help us understand migrant perceptions of migrating to the UK; their awareness of current and future migration policies; and related communications ... as part of this campaign”.

The government has not published evidence on the effectiveness of previous social media campaigns aiming to deter asylum seekers from travelling to the UK from Europe.

A total of 12,337 migrants have reached the UK by small boat so far this year, more than double the figure by the same point in 2021.

The Independent previously revealed that it has given at least £2.7m to a Hong Kong-based company that specialises in “migration behavioural change” campaigns, in a period where small boat crossings rocketed.

Refugee Action, which is one of several groups approached by the Home Office thi sweek, said it was alarmed by repeated moves “to keep people out, not keep people safe”.

Chief executive Tim Naor Hilton added: “This is yet another sleazy PR exercise dressed up as a consultation.

“The home secretary has shown time and again that she will press ahead with whatever cruelty she wants to unleash on refugees, regardless of what people think.”

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said it would not to take part in an “anti-refugee propaganda campaign”.

“We will not participate in this immoral scare campaign and we urge other orgs in our sector to refuse to participate,” a statement added.

“The government’s anti-refugee scare campaign is based on the total fiction that people have safe routes to asylum here. People fleeing danger need safe routes - the government knows this - but they still refuse to introduce them.”

The Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, Asylum Matters and the3million also announced that they had been approached by the Home Office and refused to participate, on the basis that there are insufficient safe and legal alternatives to Channel crossings.

New laws that came into force on Tuesday make entering British waters without permission a criminal offence, and increased the maximum penalty for facilitating illegal entry to life imprisonment.

The government has also changed its own immigration rules to mean that anyone who pauses in other countries on their way to the UK - even if they only “spent a couple of weeks in Brussels staying with friends while trying to find an agent to bring them to the UK” - can be declared “inadmissible” and considered for transfer to Rwanda.

The changes are part of the overarching “New Plan for Immigration”, which came into force last year.

Government relations with specialist legal and advocacy groups had soured when it gave them only six weeks to respond to an initial consultation on the wide-ranging proposals.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We want to listen to stakeholders’ views on how best to reach people with accurate information when they are considering life-threatening attempts to cross the Channel.

“It is disappointing that organisations are not engaging with our attempts to work together to improve communications to vulnerable people being sold a lie by inhumane smugglers.

“The UK has a proud history of supporting refugees in need of protection and, contrary to some of the commentary, we have welcomed hundreds of thousands of people to the UK through safe and legal routes.”

The Home Office defended its new communication campaign, saying it had a “duty to warn people of the risks of these journeys, and expose the lies sold to vulnerable people by inhumane smugglers”.