Chloe McDermott

Written: 07/04/2022

Chloe McDermott

In a week where Amnesty International released a damming report on the UK’s government’s draft refugee and Police laws. Referring to them as ‘human right vandalism’. The same week it was revealed that the Met Police issued 20 fines to people for breaching covid-19 lockdown rules by partying at No 10. The same week Rishi Sunak finally got put under the microscope of public scrutiny UK now their gas bills have skyrocketed. It is easy to feel weary.

 The Nationality and Borders Bill passed a third reading in the House of Commons with a majority of 67 in December last year. At the time this horrendous bill passed, it came just weeks after 27 migrants drowned at sea.  Since then the Bill has been stuck in a ‘ping pong between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Lords is to receive the amended bill again by 4th April.

There are plenty of reasons this bill is so controversial. It will have a devastating impact on the lives of immigrants and asylum seekers. The Bill includes clauses, such as clause 9, that allows the home secretary Priti Patel, to strip a naturalised Brit of their citizenship without any notice at all.

Amnesty International criticised the British government for its attempts to dismantle the Human Rights Act and a battery of new “draconian” legislation on refugees and policing in its annual report. Sacha Deshmukh, head of Amnesty International UK, said: “The UK can’t credibly champion human rights internationally if it’s busily undermining and unravelling them at home.”

This statement seems especially poignant now when more than 130,000 Brits have registered to house Ukrainian refugees. People are willing to open their hearts and homes to Ukrainians fleeing war. Yet only 10% of those same refugees have had their visas approved. Something the Government has been criticised heavily for by the Shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper. In Parliament she asked: “Why on earth is it taking so long? Why are they still demanding reams of bureaucracy, reams of information?”

Answering her question on why it was taking so long was The Home office minister Kevin Foster. Who claimed one of the reasons for the current slow pace in approving visas was due to applications not being available in Ukrainian and he said translating them would take “a reasonably significant amount of technical work” He also added that there had been 23,500 visas granted to Ukrainians with family connections in the UK; and 3,705 under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Of course, it is not just Ukrainians fleeing war this bill will affect. The Bill has been criticised by many for effectively creating three classes of people. In an Open Democracy article written in November last year, they wrote: “…On the least secure, bottom tier are those naturalised as British citizens who have no other nationality. They can be stripped of their citizenship even if this results in their statelessness.”

Ministers claim that it will save lives. Amnesty International points out: “By failing to provide any safe or safer alternatives for people still compelled to make journeys, the Government is not merely perpetuating the very conditions that put people at risk. It is also making this much worse and making the likelihood that people die or suffer other serious harms much greater.”

They also claim it will save taxpayer money. It won’t. Amnesty reports: “While Ministers claim the Bill will save money, it will instead increase costs to the taxpayer. As is recognised expressly in the Bill, some of its provisions will require additional spending on legal aid, financial support for asylum applicants and their accommodation.”

Ukrainians need our help now. So do all refugees and asylum seekers. So, we need to protest this bill in whatever way we can. It is something that needs organisation and direct action – I am not sure yet in what form said direct action should take but there needs to be something beyond marches and demonstrations. Something that will gain mainstream attention. Now would be the time to point out a deeply insidious piece of legislation. Who knows maybe it’s not actually that naïve to think it can be scrapped now.