PRITI PATEL is under growing pressure to drop her “pushback” plans in the Channel after a parliamentary report warned it would be unlawful and endanger lives. 

The report by the joint committee on human rights said the Home Secretary’s plans to turn around small boats in the Channel “would create a situation where state actors were actively placing individuals in situations that would increase the risk to life.

“Under the current conditions, we cannot see how a policy of pushbacks can be implemented without risking lives, contrary to the UK’s obligations under the right to life and international maritime law,” the report, published today adds. 

The committee’s damning analysis deals another blow to Ms Patel’s widely condemned policy, which has been opposed by cross-party MPs, lawyers, human rights groups and even by Border Force staff. 

At the weekend, Border Force workers’ union PCS announced it was joining one of three legal challenges being threatened over the policy, saying staff were “aghast at the thought they will be forced to implement such a cruel and inhumane policy.”

The committee, chaired by Labour MP Harriet Harman, is calling on the Home Secretary to scrap the proposals or change them to comply with the law. 

Ms Harman said: “The government is determined to prevent these crossings, but pushbacks are not the solution. They will not deter crossings, the seas will become even more dangerous and the people smugglers will continue to evade punishment.

“Current failures in the immigration and asylum system cannot be remedied by harsher penalties and more dangerous enforcement action.”

The MPs are also calling for measures in the Nationality and Borders Bill which give Border Force staff partial immunity from prosecution if refugees drown to be scrapped. 

Proposals in the Bill to criminalise asylum-seekers who arrive via irregular routes to Britain are inconsistent with the United Nations Refugee Convention, the committee added. 

Campaigners are calling on MPs to vote down the proposed legislation when it returns to the Commons for its final stages next week. 

Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said: “It’s shocking that ministers want to plough on with this dangerous strategy in the face of huge opposition from MPs, the Border Force union and refugee organisations.

“The government must focus on keeping people safe, not keeping people out.”

A Home Office spokesman insisted that all options being considered to stop small boats “comply and are delivered in accordance with both domestic and international law.”