Major law change demanded to shed light on Channel and asylum deaths

Ministers should have a legal duty to reveal the number of deaths in the asylum system, including in the Channel, MPs have said.

Labour backbencher Nadia Whittome has put forward a new law that would force the Home Office to reveal each time an asylum seeker dies. She told The Mirror every asylum tragedy "must be acknowledged, learned from and mourned" as she demanded greater transparency.

It comes after the deadliest year on record for small boat crossings, with at least 14 children among an estimated 87 who lost their lives making the perilous journey. Nottingham East MP Ms Whittome said: "The bare minimum we owe to people killed while asking for our protection is to record and remember their lives, prevent future deaths, and end this deadly legacy of dehumanisation."

She said: "After arriving, people have died in camps, hotels and on our streets. Among these tragedies were preventable deaths, deaths by suicide and of infectious disease." And Ms Whittome said: "Many of these deaths happen because successive Conservative governments created a system designed to deter and dehumanise.

"Over the past decade, refugees have been scapegoated for the UK's problems in increasingly inflamed, politicised debate. We're counting the cost now, in the lives of human beings who have been forgotten amid endless talk of 'stopping the boats'."

More than a dozen MPs have backed her call for the Home Secretary to publish quarterly data, including the cause of death if it is known. Ms Whittome told The Mirror: "People are more than statistics, but right now, we don't even have those."

She has put forward the new legislation as an amendment to the Government's Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is making its way through Parliament.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that 51 people died in Home Office-provided accommodation last year. Nine were suspected suicides, The Guardian reported in February.

Nathan Phillips, head of campaigns at Asylum Matters, said: "The figures we have show that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for people seeking asylum in the UK - what's worse is that we know that these figures are almost certainly an underestimate.

"People who should have found sanctuary in this country have died by suicide, died from preventable diseases, died because of our hostile border policies. Each one of these deaths is an appalling tragedy that must be acknowledged, mourned, and learned from.

"Yet far too many of them have gone unreported, unacknowledged - and those we know about often only find public attention because of the campaigners and journalists who've fought for transparency."We cannot possibly hope to save lives until we understand how, and why, people are dying." He said that speaking the names and honouring the memories of those who die is a "vital way to bring back some humanity to the conversation about asylum".

If Ms Whittome's amendment is accepted, this data would be released alongside those whose asylum applications are being processed and those who die trying to reach the UK. The Missing Migrants Project estimates were 82 deaths in the Channel - more than three times higher than the 24 recorded a year earlier.

The heart-breaking figures reveal 14 were children. Among the young victims were Sara Al Ashimi, from Iraq. The seven-year-old died in a crush in April as people packed onto an overcrowded boat in Calais.

In October, baby Maryam Bahez, who was just over a month old, died when she slipped from her dad's hands on a dangerously packed boat. The infant, whose family had fled Iraq, was among around 60 crammed onto the vessel.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are determined to disrupt and dismantle the criminal smuggling gangs responsible for putting lives at risk in the Channel, and making false promises to those who end up in our asylum system, or held in detention awaiting deportation.

“They do not care whether people live or die, as long as they make their profits, and through our Plan for Change, we will increase our efforts to smash those gangs, restore order to the asylum and immigration system, and end the use of asylum hotels.”

By Nadia Whittome MP

Exact numbers are murky, but here's what we know: 2024 was the deadliest year on record for refugees in the UK. At least 82 people - including 14 children - died crossing the Channel.

After arriving, people have died in camps, hotels and on our streets. Among these tragedies were preventable deaths, deaths by suicide and of infectious disease.

And while what data we have shows deaths rising twelvefold since 2019, there is no official record of how, or why, people are dying. Our Labour government, rightly, pledged to reduce Channel deaths, but how can we save lives when we don’t even know how many are being lost?

Similarly, how can we stop people dying under Home Office care without monitoring such deaths? People are more than statistics, but right now, we don't even have those. That's why I'm attempting to amend the law so that the Home Office reports these deaths as regularly as immigration statistics, because every death in our asylum system must be acknowledged, learned from and mourned.

Many of these deaths happen because successive Conservative governments created a system designed to deter and dehumanise. Over the past decade, refugees have been scapegoated for the UK's problems in increasingly inflamed, politicised debate.

We're counting the cost now, in the lives of human beings who have been forgotten amid endless talk of “stopping the boats”. The bare minimum we owe to people killed while asking for our protection is to record and remember their lives, prevent future deaths, and end this deadly legacy of dehumanisation.