THE UK Parliament has been urged by refugee charities to reject the UK Government's "callous and immoral" immigration plans following Rishi Sunak's emergency press conference on Thursday.
The calls came as the Prime Minister vowed to “finish the job” of getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground despite opposition from hardline Tories and the prospect of a bitter parliamentary battle.
Sunak, whose immigration minister Robert Jenrick quit rather than backing a plan which he believed was destined for failure, insisted his new law would end the “merry-go-round of legal challenges”.
The UK Government hopes to rush emergency legislation through Parliament for MPs and peers to declare that Rwanda is a safe destination for asylum seekers. The emergency legislation looks to get around the Supreme Court’s block on previous plans to send asylum seekers to the African nation.
MPs will get their first chance to debate and vote on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on Tuesday.
Sunak said of the Bill: "Let me just go through the ways that individual illegal migrants try and stay [in the UK].
“Claiming asylum, that's now blocked. Abuse of our modern slavery rules, blocked. The idea that Rwanda isn't safe, blocked.
"The risk of being sent to some other country, blocked. And spurious human rights claims, you'd better believe that we've blocked those too, because we're completely disapplying all the relevant sections of the Human Rights Act."
Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh described the legislation as "a clear ruling from the UK’s highest court".
Deshmukh said: “The Government’s attempt to remove - or ‘disapply’ in the jargon - fundamental human rights for vulnerable and often traumatised people is callous, immoral and an attack on the basic protections that keep us all safe.
“People who’ve fled persecution and war in countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Ethiopia are entitled to seek a place of safety, and they deserve far better than this.
“The Government’s attempt to bypass a clear ruling from the UK’s highest court that Rwanda is not a safe country for refugees smacks of desperation and marks a new level of lawlessness.
Deshmukh questioned how the UK could "possibly have faith in ministers to protect any of our rights if such a blatant attempt to flout the rule of law is made an Act of Parliament?", before adding: “Dipping in and out of the Human Rights Act or the European Convention of Human Rights is an outrageous attitude toward both domestic and international human rights law.
“We strongly urge Parliament to reject this bill - it breaches international law, plain and simple.”
In the Commons, Tory hardliners may seek to beef up the Bill by calling for it to effectively override international law – something which Jenrick and former home secretary Suella Braverman have argued for.
Enver Solomon, the CEO of the Refugee Council, said the UK Government was taking a "shameful move" by treating "refugees like human cargo".
“This legislation is a shameful move from the government to treat refugees like human cargo, forcibly shipping them across the world to a country our Supreme Court has determined isn’t safe", Solomon said in reaction to the legislation being published.
“It is time for the government to stop its obsession with unworkable and inhumane schemes that show a total disregard for men, women and children in search of safety.
“There are constructive alternatives we have set out that would create an orderly and humane asylum system, ensure people have a fair hearing and are treated with dignity and compassion.”
🗣️'A dark day for the UK' Humza Yousaf hit out at the Tories' immigration policy, as a row over Rwanda looks to tear the party apart 👇 pic.twitter.com/AiJtV4S6Tq
— The National (@ScotNational) December 7, 2023
At FMQs, Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf was asked by SNP MSP Clare Haughey whether he condemns further immigration plans which will see care workers prevented from bringing their families with them to the UK.
The First Minister responded: “It’s a real dark day for the UK – a country that once welcomed immigrants, including my grandfather to the country, in fact, begged him to come and others to come to work in their factories, to drive buses, due to the labour shortages that were seen at that time.”
He also took aim at Labour as he accused successive governments at Westminster of watering down migration policies.
Yousaf said: “What successive UK governments have done – Labour and Conservatives – is they have, bit by bit, dismantled our immigration and indeed our asylum processes.
“On immigration, the latest announcements mean that we’re asking – the UK Government is asking – migrants to come here to look after our own family members but doing so by abandoning their own family members back home.
“On asylum, the UK Government has virtually eliminated any practical legal route for those that are fleeing war or persecution.
“The policies of the UK Government in this respect are not only morally repugnant, but they are economically illiterate.
“The SNP, the Scottish Government, values migration. We value the importance of it to our social fabric but also to our economy, and let me say unequivocally that in Scotland, the Scottish Government will always say that we are proud of the benefits that migrants bring to this country, and we are proud that they have chosen Scotland to be their home.”
Speaking after FMQs, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said of migrant small boat crossings: “It’s absolutely vital that we use every policy available to prevent people from making an extremely dangerous crossing – we see far too many lives lost in the English Channel.
“That’s why the Prime Minister has looked at the ruling from the Supreme Court, he’s looked at the legislation that can be brought through the UK Parliament to deter people from making that dangerous crossing, from putting their life at risk, and also to ensure the people that benefit from this currently – the people smugglers – that route is stopped from them.
“I will be supporting the Bill when it comes to Parliament.”
The Scottish Greens justice spokesperson, Maggie Chapman, echoed the charities, branding the legislation as “cruel” and “immoral.”
Chapman said: “What this desperate press conference highlighted is that Rishi Sunak is terrified of his racist and reactionary backbenchers and their far-right, anti-migrant agenda and that he will throw extremely vulnerable people under the bus to appease them.
“The reason his plans have been stopped is not only because they are immoral, but because they are illegal. To have a Prime Minister actively plotting new ways to neuter the Courts and bend and break international law is simply grotesque.
“The question is not if Tory MPs have confidence in Rishi Sunak, it is how much longer will we have to put-up with this broken, incompetent government that people in Scotland have rejected time and again?”
Scottish Labour were approached for comment.
