Priti Patel’s borders bill is an attack on national and international law
“Turn back the boats,” said Patel. She didn’t tell the Tory faithful that she was lying to them about how it would be done.
She doesn’t stop, does she?
And it should be no surprise that Priti Patel is misleading Parliament over her new Borders Bill.
Its stated intention, according to her, is to make the asylum system fairer, deter illegal entry to the UK, and remove people with no right to be in the country.
However, legal advice commissioned by the human rights group Freedom from Torture takes a different view:
Priti Patel’s borders bill ‘breaches international and domestic law’ | Refugees | The Guardian https://t.co/NKv9pVunzx
— Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7) October 12, 2021
The report states:
“This bill represents the biggest legal assault on international refugee law ever seen in the UK.
“The principle at the heart of the bill is the penalisation, both criminally and administratively, of those who arrive by irregular means in the UK to claim asylum and the bill seeks to reverse a number of important decisions of the UK courts, including at the House of Lords and court of appeal level, given over the last 20 years.”
Anyone arriving in the UK by an illegal route, such as by a small boat across the Channel, could have their claim ruled as inadmissible, receive a jail sentence of up to four years, have no recourse to public funds, and could have their family members barred from joining them.
The inadmissibility regime outlined in the bill is potentially in breach of articles 31 and 33 of the UN refugee convention as well as articles 2, 3 and 4 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
The two-tier asylum system that the government plans to introduce means that those arriving by “irregular means” such as boats will be granted fewer rights, the barristers said, which would be inconsistent with the refugee convention and the ECHR.
“The basis for the attack on irregular arrival is that refugees should use safe legal routes. But there are no such safe legal routes. There is no such thing as a refugee visa,” they said.
Plans to send those claiming asylum to offshore centre would breach three articles of the ECHR, three of the articles of the refugee convention, the report said, while plans to “fast-track” cases with an expedited, accelerated appeals process would risk unfairness under common law as well as articles 2, 3, 4, 8 and 13 of the EHCR.
The Home Office has rejected the criticism. It would.
So the Bill seeks to overturn UK case law, the European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Refugee Convention – and states that people should use safe legal routes that Patel knows perfectly well do not exist, so she’s a double liar to Parliament.
And for once, somebody else has said it. How refreshing to be merely reporting someone else picking holes in Tory lies for a change!
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A LICENCE TO KILL
“Border Force staff who enact Priti Patel’s plans to “ push back” migrant boats in the Channel could be given immunity from conviction if a refugee dies, officials have confirmed.
The home secretary is seeking to introduce a provision in the nationality and borders bill that could give officials legal protections in the event that someone drowns.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/13/uk-border-force-could-be-given-immunity-over-refugee-deaths
Fascist tories because yes they are fascists demonising refugee women, children and men, will be delighted when this fascist tory draconian legislation is overwhelmingly passed in their fake Parliament!
The fascist xenophobic hating tories don’t care they are violating national and international law because no one will charge them with any crime whatsoever!
The fascist tory supporters will all ‘crow’ refugee must use lawful means to access little england’s green and pleasant land’ but hey there aren’t any lawful methods because we fascist supporters don’t want nasty foreigners in our pristine country!
Be very careful Patel because you too will probably discover you are being deported once the fascist tory boys have decided your usefulness to them is ended!