header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
04 February 2022 / Professor Elspeth Guild , Rebecca Niblock
Issue: 7965 / Categories: Opinion , Immigration & asylum
printer mail-detail

Border control—all at sea?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
Elspeth Guild & Rebecca Niblock cast doubt on government plans to use the Navy to deter asylum seekers

Border control at sea between the UK and France has risen in political prominence in the past eight months (see ‘Migrant pushbacks: crimes at sea?’). While there has been a rise in the number of small boats arriving in the UK, much of the UK press have presented as unprecedented the numbers of arrivals, amounting to under 30,000 in 2021 (compared to 418,495 in the EU). That the UK remains party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention garners less attention: under the convention, it is committed to determining and providing international protection to those applying in the UK, including those arriving irregularly by sea.

Since the early 2000s, the UK and France have had agreements regarding policing arrangements in France to prevent apparently unwanted persons from travelling from France to the UK. Under these, the UK has been entitled to send Border Force officers to France for border control

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll