UK says plan to stop Channel migrants pushes bounds of law

The U.K. government said Tuesday that it was ready for legal challenges to a tough new law intended to stop tens of thousands of migrants a year reaching the country in small boats across the English Channel.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the government had “pushed the boundaries of international law” with a bill that will bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and will compel the government to detain and then deport them “to their home country or a safe third country.” They would be barred from ever reentering the country.

“If you come here illegally, it must be that you cannot stay,” Braverman wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

The government says its “Illegal Migration Bill,” due to be introduced in Parliament on Tuesday, will deter migrants and hobble smuggling gangs who send desperate people on hazardous journeys across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the law would “take back control” of U.K. borders – a central pledge of the successful but divisive campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.