Human Rights Organisations, including the Refugee Council and Refugee Action, are demanding changes from the ‘fundamentally broken’ immigration policy, the Guardian reports. Instructive letters were sent to the newly elected UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, aiming to promote changes for a more sensible and humane approach to individuals seeking safety in the United Kingdom.
As reported in the Guardian, the letters outlined key demands for change to the current immigration policy, including the repeal of the Illegal Migration Act and the Nationality and Borders Act in alignment with the international policy, opening safer routes to rebuild refugee resettlement, providing community housing instead of institutional accommodation at the expense of taxpayers, and, lastly restoring the right to work for the asylum seekers.
With constant humanitarian concern, the newly elected government intends to restore a ‘swiftly, firmly, and fairly’ operated asylum system. In addition to calling for changes in the physical environment for the asylum seekers, the letters also urge diminishing the societal bias and discrimination of the people forced to make dangerous trips across borders because of the lack of accessibility to safe routes.
The past UK legislation focused its asylum seeker policy on The Illegal Migration Act 2023 and The Nationality and Borders Act 2022. The Home Office published these acts to outline the government’s goal of removing those individuals who arrive in the UK without proper documentation after a period of detainment.
The Illegal Migration Act’s objective was to stop illegal entry into the UK, break the business model of the people smugglers, remove those who illegally remained in the UK and set an annual cap on the number of people to be admitted to the UK through safe routes. Previously reported by the Justice Gap, the preceding British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s plan for illegal immigrants by sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was found to be unlawful.
‘There’s an urgent need for a sensible, humane approach to people coming here to seek safety,’ Duncan McAuley, the chief executive of Action Foundation, said.
