LONDON (CU)_Over the past few weeks, a controversial asylum deal between the United Kingdom and Rwanda have been making headline, attracting sharp criticism from several high-profile individuals and organisations. Aid charity Oxfam is among the latest to warn of the risks associated with the plan, describing it as a “devastating blow for families fleeing conflict and persecution”, while Medecins Sans Frontiere (Doctors without Borders) called it “despicable”. Despite their warnings, the controversial Immigration and Nationalities Bill completed its passage through parliament on Wednesday (27 April), with just a day to spare.
Successive efforts by the unelected chamber to amend the bill, which will allow offshore processing, indefinite detention and pushbacks at sea, were overturned by the Commons in a process known as ‘parliamentary ping-pong’. There were cries of “shame” in the Upper House before a sparsely-attended House of Commons was told that the piece of legislation could now go forward for Royal Assent.
While Home Secretary Priti Patel claims the new scheme is the act of a “humanitarian nation”, United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said it was “disappointing” that the new law would seek to hinder those seeking asylum by relegating them to a “new, lesser status with few rights and a constant threat of removal”.
He noted that while the UK has a long history of welcoming and protecting refugees”, the new scheme contrasts the current administration’s stance with the willingness of some of the world’s poorest nations to take in millions of refugees from neighbouring states. “This latest UK government decision risks dramatically weakening a system that has for decades provided protection and the chance of a new life to so many desperate people,” the UN high commissioner said.
His views were reiterated by the chief executive of the British Red Cross, Mike Adamson, who said the legislation would be “detrimental” to people seeking asylum in the UK. “We believe a person’s need for protection and therefore their ability to claim asylum should be judged on the dangers they have faced, and not on how they enter this country,” he said. “Alongside the recent announcement to remove people to Rwanda on a one-way ticket, there are ever increasing barriers to refugees receiving protection in the UK.”
