How Rishi Sunak’s ‘small boats week’ ended in disaster

By all accounts, Rishi Sunak’s “small boats week” was supposed to be the moment in which the government demonstrated its seriousness about achieving its key pledge of “stopping the boats”.

A raft of announcements would push migration to the top of the news agenda, as ministers talked up the government’s tough approach and floated an array of well-worn policy ideas – from pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights, to sending migrants to Ascension Island – all against the backdrop of asylum-seekers being moved to an overcrowded barge in Dorset, the Bibby Stockholm.

But plagued by embarrasments from the start, multiple threats of actual disease saw the week quickly descend into farce and calls for home secretary Suella Braverman to be sacked, before ending with a tragedy in the Channel which has intensified pleas for more safe and legal routes into Britain.

Following weeks of delays and warnings from firefighters that the Bibby Stockholm was a “potential deathtrap”, “small boats week” began with the government placing just 15 migrants onboard the Bibby Stockholm on Monday – far below the Home Office’s initial estimate of 50 in the first group.

Ministers were forced to abandon attempts to transfer at least 20 men selected for the barge, who it emerged included victims of torture “traumatic experiences at sea”, and disabled people. One was told to board despite having tuberculosis – a move labelled a “potential public health catastrophe” by a doctor involved.

In response to the news, Tory deputy chair Lee Anderson claimed that asylum-seekers refusing to board “should f*** off back to France”, which saw him accused of “stoking division and hate” by London’s mayor, and labelled a “fascist” by one Tory-ex minister.

That row served to overshadow Ms Braverman’s announcement on Tuesday of a taskforce tasked with pursuing “crooked” lawyers she claimed help migrants “exploit” the system, in a press release claiming laywers could face “life in prison”.

The swift backlash saw ministers accused of scapegoating lawyers for upholding its own laws, while the Law Society poured cold water on the announcement by pointing out that the “taskforce” it centred around had been set up months ago.

Meanwhile, it emerged that people refusing to move onto the Bibby Stockholm had been threatened with eviction and homelessness.

Wednesday then saw the government unveil a new partnership with Turkey to disrupt the supply of dinghies used for Channel crossings.

But ministers would not say how much money was being given to Ankara, following revelations that the Home Office provided more than £3m in funding to Turkish border forces in the past year, diverted from the overseas aid budget.

Meanwhile, a Tory rift reignited over calls for the UK to become the first nation to voluntarily quit the European Convention on Human Rights if flights remain grounded to Rwanda, where the lord chief justice has said “the physical capacity for housing asylum-seekers” is “limited to 100”.

Warnings over the Bibby Stockholm also continued, as a worker who stayed on the barge in 2013 when it was berthed in the Shetlands for a gas pipeline project told The Independent that it was “not designed for living on”, describing “cramped conditions” where people would go “stir-crazy”.

But cracks in the government’s deterrent policy were underscored dramatically the following day, as 755 people crossed the Channel on small boats – the highest daily total for 2023 so far, and taking the total since 2018 to above 100,000.

In a grim foreshadowing, RNLI lifeboats were scrambled to pull migrants from the Channel after their dinghy began to sink, with women and children among those seen being taken ashore by rescue crews in Dover. Simultaneously, a £420,000 Home Office drone crashed into the Channel.

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Crossings continued on Friday, with some 343 people detected in six boats – taking the provisional total for the year so far to more than 16,000.

But in a major embarrassment for the government, the Bibby Stockholm project came crashing down on Friday – as it emerged that the barge was being evacuated after the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was discovered in its water supply.

Efforts began to move staff and all 39 asylum-seekers onboard to a hotel, in a blow to the PM’s pledge to reduce hotel costs in favour of “alternative accommodation” on vessels and military bases.

The evacuation – which The Independent reported was announced to the press before those onboard were told about the Legionella – was a “precautionary measure”, the Home Office said, adding that it hoped to put people back on board as soon as possible, without giving a timescale.

“What an end to small boats week,” one former Conservative minister told The Independent. “It’s obvious to all that the home secretary has lost all control and authority on the issue of illegal migration.”

“She should be sacked,” they added. “She has turned the migrant crisis into a Carry On show.”

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As the “small boats week” publicity drive collapsed, The Independent revealed that just two of the Bibby Stockholm passengers had arrived in the UK via small boat, with all others using regular passenger planes – meaning they did not enter the country illegally.

Despite the week’s farcical overtones, the human cost of the desperation at the heart of the issue was devastatingly underscored on Saturday, as a small boat sank in one of the Channel’s worst accidents in recent years.

Fifty-nine people were rescued – but six were recovered in serious condition, and were later pronounced dead. Two are still feared missing.

Those deceased are believed to be Afghan men in their thirties, with those rescued – including children – also mostly from Afghanistan, where thousands remain trapped amid a Taliban crackdown – despite British pledges to resettle them.

Amid fresh calls to introduce more safe and legal routes for asylum-seekers, the government said the “devastating” deaths were “sadly another reminder of the extreme dangers of crossing the Channel in small boats and how vital it is that we break the people smugglers’ business model and stop the boats”.

And senior Tory MP Tim Loughton sought to insist that French authorities had the ability to “stop this whole vile trade absolutely overnight” by intercepting boats.

“It was probably not a good idea to have a small boats week,” Mr Loughton said. “It was a hostage to fortune and clearly it depends on how many people are risking their lives coming across the Channel, which is dependent on the weather and how people smugglers are operating.”

It was also reported on Saturday that ministers intend to push on with plans to hire more barges to house asylum seekers, as well as student halls and former office blocks.