Our response to the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’

We know our Visitors’ response to the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ is to keep visiting, our Refugee Tales community will keep sharing the tales of people behind the headlines and our frontline team will always respond to the people they support seeing each person as an individual and giving a person-centred response accordingly. In the face of a Bill that embeds dehumanisation into law, we shall resist dehumanisation in all the ways open to us and at every turn.

You’ll have read that the Bill refuses people access to the asylum system and places a duty on the Secretary of State to remove people. People will be treated according to the way they travel to the UK and not according to their history and need for safety. The UNHCR have said the plan would breach the Refugee Convention and the Home Secretary starts the Bill with a statement that they are unable to say that provisions are compatible with the rights in the ECHR. The UK could be proved to be in breach of its international obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights. A number of provisions in the Bill have retrospective effect and retrospective law-making undermines the rule of law.

The Bill will be challenged, it is unworkable, and when we contemplate the reality of the policies, it is certain that they would lead to people suffering the pain of lives held in limbo and people locked up without a fair hearing of their claim for asylum. And even if the Bill is unworkable, we understand that the moment the policy intention was uttered, our lives were ALL damaged by the separating out of the rights of one group of people and dismantling of principles of human rights.

There are no safe routes for the people who come to the UK in small boats so the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ will not end dangerous crossings. It will, however, fuel hostility to asylum seekers. This is something we must counter. We know you will be writing to your MPs. Tell them that instead of this cruel Bill, the government should create a system that prioritises safe routes to get here, efficient asylum processing and a UK strategy of welcome at local and national level. Do consider writing to your local councillors asking them to pass a motion condemning the Bill. We acknowledge that saying ‘put on your walking boots’ can feel a tiny response, but we encourage our community – all of you – to find ways to personally demonstrate how you see the world differently and walk a path of welcome and respect and we are stronger together. 

Statement from Anna Pincus, Director of GDWG.