UK: “Government denies asylum, rejects and punishes those fleeing hunger and war”. Caritas opposing new bill

“We are profoundly concerned” about the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, which will “not only deny those people fleeing war and persecution their right to seek safety in the UK and apply for asylum, but will punish them, based on how they came here, not whether they need protection”. With this statement, Caritas Social Action Network, the UK organization bringing together all major charities operating in the social sector, criticised the new bill introduced by Home Secretary Suella Braverman a few days ago, which effectively abolishes the right to seek asylum in the UK for those arriving irregularly by sea and sends people back to Rwanda. In its statement, the UK Caritas network also recalls that the new legislation breaches “the UN Refugee Convention, of which the UK is a founding signatory”, leaving “thousands of men, women, and children in limbo, detained, and denied a fair hearing”. According to Caritas, the new migration bill “undermines the United Kingdom’s longstanding, humanitarian traditions” and “ignores Home Office data which shows that most people who cross the Channel are people escaping torture and conflict from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria”. Caritas also recalls the burden placed on countries poorer than the UK, which “receive most refugees”.
Silvia Guzzetti