Hundreds jailed for coming to UK in small boats to claim asylum, says report

UNITED KINGDOM: Hundreds of people, including children and victims of trafficking and torture, have been convicted and jailed for arriving in the UK in small boats to claim asylum, according to a report.

The prosecutions have largely slipped under the radar, although the issue has been highlighted by the case of the Senegalese teenager Ibrahima Bah.

He was sentenced to nine years and six months detention after being convicted of four counts of manslaughter and one of facilitating a breach of immigration law after steering an overcrowded dinghy that got into difficulty, leading to the drowning of at least four people.

The report, called No Such Thing as Justice Here, from the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and Border Criminologies, examined the cases of people who have been imprisoned for their arrival on a “small boat” since the Nationality and Borders Act (2022) came into force. It used a mix of attendance at more than 100 court hearings, as well as freedom of information requests and interviews with lawyers, convicted asylum seekers convicted and interpreters.