Why Turkey has dealt another blow to Rishi Sunak’s ‘stop the boats’ plan

Could an end to deportations to Turkey be an even bigger headache for the prime minister, asks Sean O’Grady

Nearly 400 Turkish asylum seekers have made the journey to Britain by small boat so far this year (PA)

Rishi Sunak’s promise to “stop the boats” has suffered another setback. The Home Office has declared Turkey an unsafe country for the purposes of asylum, meaning deporting anyone there could risk their life, in breach of domestic and international human rights law.

It is not the biggest setback he’s faced – everything to do with the Rwanda scheme has been far more embarrassing and damaging – but it’s undoubtedly an uncomfortable end to a difficult week. Questions about the asylum system as it has worked under successive Conservative governments have also been raised by the case of the chemical attack suspect, Abdul Ezedi. So on an important issue where the government hopes to gain some political advantage over Labour, the headlines continue to be all about chaos and failure.

What has gone wrong?