Rishi Sunak has said children seeking asylum in the UK need to be imprisoned otherwise there would be incentive for more to be brought to the country.
Under the government’s controversial Illegal Migration Bill, asylum seekers could be detained without bail or judicial review.
The refugees would then be removed to their home country or a “safe third country” such as Rwanda.
Taking questions from MPs at the liaison committee on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister was asked if there Home Office would have powers to detain children in this way.
Sunak said the “policy objective is not to detain children” but addded they would be if they were with their families.
“It’s important that we don’t inadvertently create a policy that incentivises people to bring children who wouldn’t otherwise come here,” he said.
“That’s why its important it applies equally to families because otherwise you increase the likelihood people bring children here and they make very dangerous crossings.
“I don’t thin anyone would want to se that. That’s not good for children.”
He added: “We don’t want to create a pull factor to make it more likely that children are making this very perilous journey in conditions that are appalling.”
As Sunak was appearing at the committee, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael told the Commons the party would try and push the plan to detain children to a vote.
“The idea that that is a justification for locking up children is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.
The Bill has been denounced by the UN’s refugee agency as an effective “asylum ban” and has also faced objections from groups within the Conservative Party.
A group of right-wing Tory MPs had signalled that it does not go far enough, with some calling for ministers to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to drive through tighter border controls
Others on the liberal wing want to see Sunak commit to establishing safe routes by which asylum seekers can come to Britain.
Sunak suggested flights deporting people to Rwanda were unlikely to happen in the next few months. “No one has promised flights by the summer,” he said.
Yesterday Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman were heckled over the immigration plans during a walkabout in Essex.
They were there to promote their crackdown on antisocial behaviour, when one woman shouted: “Allow migrants into our country!”