News18 earlier looked at the BBC’s controversy on the day when presenter Gary Lineker was taken off the air for his outburst Britain’s new asylum law criticized, Now, let’s take a look at what the UK’s Illegal Migration Bill actually is and why some people are reportedly opposing it.
What has been announced?
An AFP report suggests that the Illegal Migration Bill places a legal duty on the interior minister to deny anyone who has entered the UK illegally their other rights under human rights conventions.
They would be deported home or to a “safe third country” such as Rwanda under an existing UK scheme, where they could then claim asylum.
Legal challenges or human rights claims will be heard in that country. The applicants would be disqualified from using British laws aimed at preventing modern slavery to prevent their deportation.
Illegal entrants who are removed also face a lifetime ban on citizenship and re-entry into the UK.
The government is promising new “safe and legal routes” for refugees, but has yet to spell them out.
Lawmakers will set an annual quota for legal refugees eligible to settle in the UK.
Why is the UK making this offer?
Last year more than 45,000 arrivals were recorded from across the channel, with 3,150 people traveling so far in 2023.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman says the number could exceed 80,000 by the end of the year, and that a “broken” asylum system is costing UK taxpayers £3 billion ($3.55 billion) annually.
He and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also argue that their approach is more “compassionate” than allowing cross-Channel tragedies to happen.
In November 2021, at least 27 people drowned when their dinghy ran out of air.
But the government says that anyway, many migrants are coming for economic reasons rather than genuine asylum needs.
Last year, the largest contingent came from Albania, which has already agreed a return policy with Britain to take back its illegal migrants.
Is this a new problem?
This issue is neither new nor unique to the UK War, famine, poverty and political repression have moved millions around the world. The UK has a low number of asylum seekers compared to European countries including Italy, Germany and France.
But for decades, thousands of migrants have traveled to northern France each year in the hope of reaching Britain. Many are attracted by family ties, the English language or the belief that work is easier to find in Britain.
After the opening of the Eurotunnel linking France and England under the Channel in 1994, refugees and migrants gathered near the French end, hoping to steal vehicles. They gathered in overcrowded temporary camps, including a vast, violent settlement called “The Jungle”.
Neither frequent sweeps to close the camps nor increased security patrols stopped the flow of people.
Why are people crossing by boat now?
When the COVID-19 pandemic completely halted rail, air and ship travel in 2020 and disrupted goods transport, people-smugglers began ferrying migrants into inflatable boats and other small boats.
In 2018, only 300 people reached Britain in this way. This number is expected to increase to 8,500 in 2020, 28,000 in 2021 and 45,000 in 2022.
Dozens of people have died in the cold channel, including 27 in a single drowning in November 2021.
Groups of migrants appear almost daily on beaches or in lifeboats off the south coast of England, sending news and political agendas to the asylum issue.
Who’s in the boats?
The British government says many of those making the trip are economic migrants rather than refugees, and points to a surge in arrivals last year from Albania, a European country Britain considers safe.
The other main countries of origin last year were Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Most of those whose applications have been processed have been granted asylum in the UK
Is it legal?
The UK is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which sets out a number of responsibilities for countries towards people fleeing persecution or war.
Criticizing the UK bill, the UN refugee agency said the convention explicitly allows people to flee their homeland and claim asylum elsewhere without a passport or other papers.
The UK also has obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to avoid putting people at risk of torture or other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment.
The country’s own 1998 Human Rights Act also provides various protections to asylum seekers.
Braverman insists that the draft law complies with international law.
But in a note to MPs at the start of the 66-page bill, she admitted she was “unable” to assess whether its provisions were compatible with the ECHR.
What reactions have occurred?
The bill has drawn vocal support from several Conservative MPs and right-wing newspapers, following serial pledges by governments to crack down on cross-Channel migration.
But critics, including UK rights groups and UN agencies, have expressed deep concern.
The Refugee Council has said it is “unworkable, costly and won’t stop the boats”, while the Doctors Without Borders charity has called it “cruel and inhumane”.
The main opposition Labor Party wants the money to instead be spent on a crackdown on the criminal gangs behind cross-Channel traffic, arguing that the government’s plan will do nothing to stop them.
BBC football presenter Gary Lineker, a long-time critic of the government’s migration policies, also compared the new plan to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany.
What do the British public think?
The government has vowed to push the bill into law, saying the British public wanted to see tougher action. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday, “Stopping the boats is not just my priority, it is the priority of the people.”
Evidence suggests that public attitudes are mixed. The desire to control immigration was a big factor behind Britain’s 2016 vote to exit the European Union. But post-Brexit total immigration is set to rise rather than fall, reaching a record high of more than 500,000 by June 2022. Britain also took in a record number of refugees last year, including 160,000 from Ukraine and 150,000 from Hong Kong.
At the same time, polls show that immigration is no longer a top issue for many voters. Jonathan Ports, senior fellow at the think-tank UK in a Changing Europe, said there had been a “steady shift towards a more positive attitude towards migration” since Brexit.
For asylum seekers, he said Britain wanted the country to be “relatively lenient towards genuine refugees. But how this is defined is highly disputed”.
AFP, with inputs from The Associated Press
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