For the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the bill is equivalent to “a prohibition of asylum”.
The world with AFP
The British government presented Tuesday, March 7, a bill against illegal immigration which plans to prevent migrants arriving by the Channel from asking for asylum from the United Kingdom and to expel them “in a few weeks”, A text to the limits of international law of London admission.
“If you arrive irregularly, you cannot ask for asylum. You cannot benefit from our protections against modern slavery. You cannot make fallacious requests related to human rights and you cannot Not staying “in the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Rish Sunak said at a press conference. “It’s hard but it’s necessary, and it’s right,” he said, stressing that the number of migrants crossing the Channel had “more than quadrupled in the past two years”, despite the attempts of the governments Successive conservatives to stop these crossings.
With more than 45,000 arrivals by the English Channel last year (especially Albanians and Afghans but also Iranians, Iraqis and Syrians) and already more than 3,000 this year, the asylum system in the United Kingdom is “exceeded” according to London.
“Inapplicable and completely inhuman”
“We will place people who come here illegally, then we will send them back in a few weeks”, either in their country or in a country deemed sure like Rwanda, said Rishi Sunak, adding that the government was going to build from new detention centers. He said that the law once adopted would apply retroactively to March 7.
“Prohibiting people from asking for asylum is illegal, unenforceable and completely inhuman,” the director of Human Rights Watch for the United Kingdom, Yasmine Ahmed, reacted on Twitter. This is “a new shocking new low blow from the government” said Amnesty International in a statement, accusing the government of using migrants as “scapegoats” in the midst of the cost of living and a few months old ‘Local elections.
For the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the bill is equivalent to “an asylum ban”. “The law, if adopted, will amount to ending the right of asylum, depriving those who illegally arrive in the United Kingdom of the right to seek the protection granted to a refugee, whatever the authenticity and the urgency of Their request, “said the High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in a press release.
On the first page of the bill presented to Parliament, the government admits that it is unable to ensure that the bill “is compatible with the European Convention”. But the government “nevertheless wants the Chamber to examine the bill”. The United Kingdom voted a law last year to expel asylum seekers in Rwanda whatever their origin, but the project remains at neutral, blocked by European justice.