New legal routes for refugees proposed by ministers

Ministers are preparing to propose new safe and legal routes for up to 20,000 refugees to come to the UK next year in a major concession to Tory rebels.

The Government is understood to be ready to spell out the routes within six months of its illegal migration Bill becoming law and take the first refugees in the subsequent year.

The new safe and legal routes will be additional to those already agreed for refugees from Ukraine, Hong Kong, Syria and Afghanistan.

The moves are expected to be set out in amendments on Thursday to the Bill which is due to return to the Commons next week for its final report stage before being considered by the House of Lords. Ministers are trying to get it into law before the summer recess in July.

Rishi Sunak had previously sought to delay announcing any new routes until he had got a grip on illegal migration through his Government’s plans to detain any migrants arriving illegally in the UK and swiftly deport them to their home country or a safe third country such as Rwanda.

Ministers have pledged to open up safe and legal routes for refugees with a cap on the numbers agreed annually in a vote by Parliament. Under the new plans, the Government would consult with local councils to produce a full scheme within six months of the Bill becoming an Act.

They have been negotiating with rebels led by former minister Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs committee. He told the Telegraph: “I have had some very constructive meetings with ministers and look forward to some helpful amendments coming up ahead of the Bill being debated on Tuesday."

Mr Loughton’s amendment enacting the changes was backed by at least a dozen Tory MPs and is understood to have had the support of Labour, meaning it could inflict a severe defeat on the Government.

Just under half a million people have come to the UK under safe and legal routes between 2015 and last December, according to Home Office figures. This includes 233,770 visas issued to Ukrainians and 153,708 issued to people from Hong Kong.

A separate safe and legal route exists for refugees fleeing from Afghanistan, which aims to resettle up to 20,000 people over the next few years.

Ministers are also considering concessions over the detention of child migrants aged under 18 which could mean the Home Office would have to secure permission from a court to hold them for longer than 72 hours.

It comes as a group of about 60 Conservative rebels are refusing to cave in over demands to toughen up Rishi Sunak’s Illegal Migration Bill.

MPs are demanding the Government introduce a measure that would prevent the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from granting injunctions that ground migrant deportation flights, known as Rule 39 orders. The Strasbourg court granted an injunction to suspend the first scheduled deportation flight to Rwanda at the eleventh hour last June.