Illegal Migration Act 2023

The Illegal Migration Act 2023 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, in March 2023. Most of its heavily debated provisions have never been commenced by Home Office Ministers, those targeted to reduce or end "small boat crossings", across the English Channel, which push against elements of international major treaty-based law.
The act proposed to detain and remove those from the UK who arrive in that country by illegal means, as well as blocking them from re-entry. It followed a rise in the number of migrants crossing the English Channel by boat, which increased from 300 annually in 2018 to 45,000 in 2022, and 3,150 as of March 2023. This issue was one of five key priorities outlined in January 2023 by prime minister Rishi Sunak, who tweeted: "If you come here illegally, you can't claim asylum. You can't benefit from our modern slavery protections. You can't make spurious human rights claims and you can't stay."
The bill had its third reading in the House of Commons on 26 April 2023. MPs voted 289–230 in favour of the bill, which was then sent to the House of Lords for consideration.
As widely expected on 5 July 2023, the government began to push through the bill to make it an Act of Parliament, using the power of actual or threatened provisions of the Parliament Act 1911 which enable the elected chamber to deliver Government manifesto commitments. Six days later, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick explained the government did not support “little short of wrecking amendments” as were tabled by committees and many members in the Lords.
On 20 July 2023, the bill received royal assent, requiring future commencement of its most controversial sections - this has not taken place and several will be re-formulated in new laws, which may be commenced, under the Starmer ministry elected the following summer.

Provisions commenced on 20 July 2023

sections 30 to 37; section 52; sections 63 to 69. These are: enacting UK settlement consequences for people who have ever met all four removal conditions in section 2; citizenship consequences in the same manner; resultant amendments to the British Nationality Act 1981; a widening of participants in the UK Immigration & Asylum to include, where the independent judiciary see that resources require, any judge of the First-tier Tribunal; the usual financial provision to any civil service work needed under the Act to be reimbursed ; the usual consequential and minor revisions including that 61 of the UK Borders Act 2007 lists the Act among those affecting this field; the usual limits upon regulations including with express bar on removing unaccompanied children without Parliamentary approval of any such instruments ; definitions ; extent ; commencement ; short title.

The following provisions come into force on the day on which this Act is passed for the purposes of making regulations—

section 3 ;
section 4 ;
section 7 ;
section 11 ;
section 11 ;
section 18 ;
section 20 ;
section 24 ;
section 40 ;
section 42 ;
section 43 ;
section 60.

All other provisions require Regulations to commence, and those which have, in some cases have been repealed or suspended.

Reactions

The bill and subsequent Act was generally met with backlash from UK rights groups and United Nations agencies, and questions about its legality were raised.
The bill drew criticism from BBC sports presenter Gary Lineker, who posted tweets about the plans, including one in which he described its language as "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s". The BBC removed him from co-presenting Match of the Day, saying Lineker's statement violated their impartiality policy. The company's actions led to other journalists and commentators withdrawing in support of Lineker.

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at UK Parliament