Illegal Migration Act 2023
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Year | 2023 |
| Citation | 2023 c. 37 |
Illegal Migration Act 2023
2023 Chapter 37
An Act to make provision for and in connection with the removal from the United Kingdom of persons who have entered or arrived in breach of immigration control; to make provision about detention for immigration purposes; to make provision about unaccompanied children; to make provision about victims of slavery or human trafficking; to make provision about leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom; to make provision about citizenship; to make provision about the inadmissibility of certain protection and certain human rights claims relating to immigration; to make provision about the maximum number of persons entering the United Kingdom annually using safe and legal routes; to make further provision about the credibility of claimants making asylum and human rights claims; and for connected purposes.
[20 July 2023]
e it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Introduction
1 Introduction
(1) The purpose of this Act is to prevent and deter unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes, by requiring the removal from the United Kingdom of certain persons who enter or arrive in the United Kingdom in breach of immigration control.
(2) To advance that purpose, this Act—
(a)
(a) places a duty on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the removal of certain persons who enter or arrive in the United Kingdom in breach of immigration control as soon as is reasonably practicable after their entry or arrival, subject only to the exceptions specified by or under this Act;
(b)
(b) provides for protection claims and certain human rights claims made by persons who meet the conditions for removal under this Act to be inadmissible;
(c)
(c) provides for the detention of persons who are subject to removal under this Act;
(d)
(d) provides for protections and entitlements to assistance and support which are available to victims of modern slavery or human trafficking not to apply to persons who are subject to removal under this Act;
(e)
(e) prevents persons who meet the conditions for removal under this Act from being given leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom;
(f)
(f) prevents persons who meet the conditions for removal under this Act from settling in the United Kingdom or obtaining citizenship;
(g)
(g) provides a procedure for persons who are subject to removal under this Act to challenge their removal by means of a suspensive claim (as defined in section 38);
(h)
(h) has the effect that all other legal challenges to the removal of persons under this Act do not suspend the duty to make arrangements for their removal.
(3) Accordingly, and so far as it is possible to do so, provision made by or by virtue of this Act must be read and given effect so as to achieve the purpose mentioned in subsection (1).
(4) In addition, this Act makes provision—
(a)
(a) about the period for which persons may be detained in immigration detention;
(b)
(b) for protections that apply to victims of modern slavery or human trafficking not to apply to persons who are a threat to public order or who have claimed to be victims in bad faith unless compelling circumstances apply;
(c)
(c) for persons who have been sentenced to a period of imprisonment for an offence or who are liable to deportation to be deemed to be a threat to public order for the purposes of the disapplication of those protections;
(d)
(d) for asylum claims and human rights claims made by nationals of certain safe States to be inadmissible;
(e)
(e) for the maximum number of persons who may enter the United Kingdom annually using safe and legal routes to be specified in regulations which are subject to approval by Parliament;
(f)
(f) for certain kinds of behaviour relating to an identity document or electronic information by a person who makes an asylum claim or a human rights claim to be taken into account as damaging the claimant’s credibility.
(5) Section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (interpretation of legislation) does not apply in relation to provision made by or by virtue of this Act.
Duty to make arrangements for removal
2 Duty to make arrangements for removal
(1) The Secretary of State must make arrangements for the removal of a person from the United Kingdom if the person meets the following four conditions.
(2) The first condition is that—
(a)
(a) the person requires leave to enter the United Kingdom, but has entered the United Kingdom—
(i) without leave to enter, or
(ii) with leave to enter that was obtained by means which included deception by any person,
(b)
(b) the person has entered the United Kingdom in breach of a deportation order,
(c)
(c) the person has entered or arrived in the United Kingdom at a time when they were an excluded person within the meaning of section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971 (persons excluded from the United Kingdom under certain instruments) and—
(i) subsection (5A) of that section (exceptions to section 8B) does not apply to the person, and
(ii) an exception created under, or direction given by virtue of, section 15(4) of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (power to create exceptions to section 8B) does not apply to the person,
(d)
(d) the person requires entry clearance under the immigration rules, but has arrived in the United Kingdom without a valid entry clearance, or
(e)
(e) the person is required under immigration rules not to travel to the United Kingdom without an electronic travel authorisation that is valid for that person’s journey to the United Kingdom, but has arrived in the United Kingdom without such an electronic travel authorisation.
(3) The second condition is that the person entered or arrived in the United Kingdom as mentioned in subsection (2) on or after the day on which this Act is passed.
(4) The third condition is that, in entering or arriving as mentioned in subsection (2), the person did not come directly to the United Kingdom from a country in which the person’s life and liberty were threatened by reason of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) a person is not to be taken to have come directly to the United Kingdom from a country in which their life and liberty were threatened as mentioned in that subsection if, in coming from such a country, they passed through or stopped in another country outside the United Kingdom where their life and liberty were not so threatened.
(6) The fourth condition is that the person requires leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom but does not have it.
(7) Any limited leave to enter or remain given under the immigration rules to a person within section 4(1) (unaccompanied children) is to be disregarded in determining whether the person meets the condition in subsection (6).
(8) In this section—
“country” includes territory;
“deportation order” means an order under section 5 of the Immigration Act 1971;
“electronic travel authorisation” means an authorisation in electronic form to travel to the United Kingdom;
“entry clearance” has the meaning given by section 33(1) of the Immigration Act 1971.
(9) In this Act “immigration rules” means rules under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971.
(10) Section 11(1) of the Immigration Act 1971 (person deemed not to enter the United Kingdom before disembarkation, while in controlled area or while under immigration control) applies for the purposes of this section as it applies for the purposes of that Act.
(11) The only circumstances in which the duty in subsection (1) does not apply to a person who meets the four conditions in this section are where—
(a)
(a) section 4(1) (unaccompanied children) applies to the person,
(b)
(b) regulations under section 4(7) (other exceptions) apply to the person,
(c)
(c) a Minister of the Crown has made a determination under section 55(2) (interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights) in relation to the person, or
(d)
(d) section 61 or 62 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 (victims of slavery and human trafficking) apply in relation to the person, so far as they have effect by virtue of section 22 of this Act (modern slavery provisions relating to removal and leave).
3 Amendment of date in section 2(3) etc
(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations amend the date which is for the time being specified in—
(a)
(a) section 2(3) (duty to remove: date of entry or arrival in the United Kingdom);
(b)
(b) section 5(8)(a) (application to claims made on or after passing of this Act);
(c)
(c) section 6(12)(a) or (14)(a) (application to claims made on or after passing of this Act).
(2) Regulations under subsection (1) may make consequential amendments to this Act or any other enactment.
(3) Provision made by virtue of subsection (2) may, in particular, amend this Act or any other enactment to modify the operation of a provision which would otherwise apply to a person who meets, or has ever met, the condition in section 2(3) (including to enable that provision to operate as if an amendment to section 2(3) had not been made).
(4) An amendment made by virtue of subsection (1) may have the effect that a provision mentioned in that subsection specifies—
(a)
(a) a particular calendar date, or
(b)
(b) a date which is determined by the occurrence of a particular event (for example the coming into force of a provision of this Act, generally or for a particular purpose).
(5) But such an amendment may not have the effect that the provision specifies a date which is earlier than the date specified before the amendment was made.
4 Unaccompanied children...
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