The duty to remove asylum seekers under the Illegal Migration Act 2023: Is the government's plan to ‘Stop the Boats’ now doomed to failure?

With ‘Stop the Boats’ high on the government agenda, legislation has come into force to try and uphold this pledge. However, the methods the government is deploying to bring about this stated aim are highly controversial and potentially unlawful. In the latest government attempt to halt the crossings, the Illegal Migration Act 2023's central provision places a duty on the Home Secretary to remove those who arrive in the UK by irregular means ‘as soon as reasonably practicable’. However, the section of the Act that places this duty on the Home Secretary has not yet come into force. This is largely because the Home Secretary does not currently have a lawful agreement with any third country to remove people to. The so-called ‘Rwanda asylum deal’ that the duty in the Act relies upon to operate was ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal in June 2023. This article will consider the enforceability of the duty outlined at s.1(2)(a) of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 in light of developments in the ongoing litigation regarding the lawfulness of the UK government's Rwanda asylum deal and the broader motivation and implications of pursuing such a policy to address the so-called ‘small boats crisis’.