Rishi Sunak’s small boats plan suffers another blow as Home Office deems Turkey unsafe

Rishi Sunak’s pledge to halt boats carrying migrants across the English Channel is under threat once again as the Home Office has declared Turkey an unsafe country.

The decision puts the prime minister’s hope of striking a returns deal with Ankara in jeopardy, as officials say Turkey is “over-zealous” in its anti-terrorism laws and has unfair trials. There are also allegations of torture in the judicial system.

Three thousand Turkish nationals arrived by small boat to the UK last year, the third largest nationality and more than double the number from the previous year.

Rishi Sunak has faced considerable party discord over his failure to get a grip on the small boats crisis (PA)

The proposed deal would have mirrored the accord with Albania, which Downing Street says has seen the number of people arriving by small boats falling by 90 per cent since the returns deal was signed.

But now the plans face a major setback as an internal Home Office review described Turkey as “a state that does not meet the criteria of being ‘generally safe’” and raises concerns about appeals to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which could scupper the plan.

The audit may gift Sunak’s right-leaning colleagues yet more ammunition to push for the UK to leave the ECHR and bolster provisions within the Rwanda bill to ignore the court-orders that override UK government policy.

The Times is now reporting that officials are considering whether another treaty – similar to the Rwandan one – could be worked up to ensure that political opponents would not be persecuted upon return.

Some officials also suggest that returns to Turkey could be considered on a case by case basis to protect those most at risk.

Turkey has long been considered an important state in the wider immigration landscape as a gateway between the war-torn Middle East and the rest of Europe.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (PA Archive)

It has also become the main hub for manufacturing dinghies which are used by people-smugglers to transport migrants over the channel.

Back in August 2022 the UK and Turkey signed an intelligence sharing agreement that would strengthen collaboration and enforcement between the states in dealing with the migrant crisis.

The government established a new centre of excellence, to be established by the Turkish National Police, which would help the two countries share intelligence so staff could act more quickly on information.

But some government figures wished to take the deal further by striking a returns agreement whereupon those who come to the UK via Turkey could be sent back.

New Home Office figures published on Thursday revealed 1,335 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in January, a 13 per cent increase compared with the same month last year.