LONDON, March 24, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The British government on Wednesday
launched plans for what it said would be the biggest overhaul of asylum rules
in decades, saying the current system was “overwhelmed”.
Interior minister Priti Patel said “The New Plan for Immigration” would be
based “on genuine need of refuge, not on the ability to pay people
smugglers”, but drew fire from refugee groups.
The plan is focused on identifying genuine asylum seekers, deterring
illegal entry and changing the rules to make it easier to deport those “with
no right” to be in the country.
“We’re looking at a range of options as to how we can reform the entire
asylum system, and importantly for people that are fleeing persecution from
terrible parts of the world,” she told the BBC.
“We’ve got to break this people smuggling model, we’ve got to put in safe
and legal rules, and we’ve actually got to be able to help genuine asylum
seekers, not just flee persecution, but be resettled in the United Kingdom.
“Currently our system is overwhelmed.” Tightening immigration rules and
securing Britain’s borders were key promises of those that argued for leaving
the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum.
– ‘Two-tiered system’ –
Whether people enter Britain legally or illegally will have an impact on
how their asylum claim progresses under the proposals.
“If people arrive illegally, they will no longer have the same entitlements
as those who arrive legally, and it will be harder for them to stay,” said
Patel.
“If, like over 60 percent of illegal arrivals, they have travelled through
a safe country like France to get here, they will not have immediate entry
into the asylum system — which is what happens today,” she added.
Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, called the plans
“inhumane”.
“We should not judge how worthy someone is of asylum by how they arrived
here,” he said.
“The proposals effectively create an unfair two-tiered system, whereby
someone’s case and the support they receive is judged on how they entered the
country and not on their need for protection. This is inhumane.”
The government will also seek to reform the judicial process to speed up
the removal process, said the Home Office, and make it “much harder for
people to be granted refugee status based on unsubstantiated claims”.
More stringent age assessment tests will also take place “to stop adult
migrants pretending to be children”.
Roughly 8,500 people arrived in Britain having made the perilous crossing
of the Channel in small boats last year.
The opposition Labour party’s interior spokesman, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said
he feared the plans would do “next to nothing to stop people making dangerous
crossings, and risk withdrawing support from desperate people, such as
victims of human trafficking”.