UK: Under the contentious Illegal Migration Bill proposed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the UK has room to house only about 3,000 people. According to a Monday article in The Independent newspaper, this represents about one in 15 of the people who crossed the English Channel in small boats last year and about one in 19 of the people who are anticipated to do so this year.

In 2022, nearly 46,000 immigrants crossed the English Channel to enter the UK; according to internal Home Office estimates, this year's total may exceed 56,000.

There will only be slightly more than 3,000 detention spaces available, even with the construction of two new immigration facilities. Additionally, there are only 98 spaces available in the current immigration detention facilities for women, and none for families or children.

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Although the government is trying to increase capacity, Home Secretary Suella Braverman stated that "clearly we are not building capacity to detain 40,000 people, nor do we need to."

The goal of the bill is not to detain people, but to swiftly remove them," she told the legislature. It is illegal to hold individuals in immigration detention centres unless they will be sent abroad in a "reasonable" period of time.

However, a former Home Office employee warned The Independent that the government might have to release many migrants who arrive on small boats if it does not reach agreements with more nations than just Albania and Rwanda to send them back.

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The statistics, according to Stephen Kinnock, shadow security minister for Labour, "just further expose how much of a con this Tory plan really is."

The rising asylum backlog and increased hotel use, he continued, "while taxpayers foot the bill."

There were worries that "details of how the Illegal Migration Bill will be operationalized" had not been "worked through" when it was introduced, according to internal Home Office communications obtained by The Independent.

The Refugee Council estimates that an additional 10,728 spaces will be needed to achieve the bill's objective of holding all small-boat migrants for 28 days before allowing them to apply for bail.

According to Mark Davies, the charity's head of campaigns, "instead of spending billions to lock up people in desperate need of sanctuary, and a chance to rebuild their lives, the government should focus on creating safe and orderly routes for refugees to reach the UK."

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The bill is "unworkable, barbaric, and pointless," according to Clare Moseley, the founder of the refugee charity Care4Calais. It will also trap potentially tens of thousands of people in a system where their asylum claims will not be heard, she continued.

Additionally, according to the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the government is establishing a "indefinite legal limbo."