Refugee Council: ‘stop the boats’ plan would bar 45,000 children from UK
The Illegal Migration Bill Home coined the ‘stop the boats plan’, would result in 45,000 children effectively barred from refugee status in the UK, according to an upcoming report by the Refugee Council, The Guardian reported.
The upcoming report analyses the overall impact of the UK’s Illegal Migration Bill, under which asylum claims are to be revoked if refugees arrive in the UK through unauthorised means such as crossing the Channel with a boat.
Braverman travelled to Rwanda over the weekend to discuss a controversial deal to deport asylum seekers to the African country once they arrive in the UK, known as the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.
“The Migration and Economic Development Partnership is key to breaking the business model of people smugglers while ensuring those who genuinely need protection can be helped to rebuild their lives,” said Home Secretary Suella Braverman, according to a press release by the UK government.
The plan is currently on hold after asylum seekers won permission to challenge the policy.
“Braverman is wasting taxpayers’ money to flaunt the Conservative party’s latest vanity project in Rwanda. Liberal Democrats will oppose this appalling, anti-refugee law, which is nothing more than a criminal traffickers’ charter,” said Liberal Democrats Leader Ed Davey with regard to Braverman’s trip to Rwanda.
The ‘stop the boats’ bill states that refugees arriving in the UK without prior permission will be detained for 28 days, and asylum claims will be deemed “inadmissible”. Braverman told MPs in the House of Commons that the duty to remove “will not be applied to detain and remove unaccompanied asylum-seeking children,” The Guardian reported.
While the bill has caused a lot of controversies, Braverman is resisting any amendments to it as she pushes for it to be rushed into law.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)