• Friday, March 29, 2024

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London mayor cautions Braverman over migration bill, calls it ‘cruel’, ‘unworkable’

In a letter to the minister, the mayor warned the bill “would do significant damage to vulnerable people seeking sanctuary and put already-stretched services in London on crisis footing”, reported the Evening Standard.

London mayor Sadiq Khan (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

London mayor Sadiq Khan has called the Illegal Migration Bill “cruel” and “unworkable” and cautioned UK home secretary Suella Braverman that more than 50,000 people will be at risk of homelessness in the capital city if it becomes law.

In a letter to the Indian-origin minister, the mayor warned the bill “would do significant damage to vulnerable people seeking sanctuary and put already-stretched services in London on crisis footing,” the Evening Standard reported.

Proposals under the bill, introduced in the UK parliament this year, would prevent people from entering the country in unauthorised boats across the English Channel.

They will also be detained and then promptly removed — either to their home nation or to a safe third nation.

While prime minister Rishi Sunak has sought to frame the bill as a move to prevent traffickers from taking advantage of prospective migrants, Khan said it would “end up handing power to human traffickers, undermine crucial child protections, and leave people in immigration limbo, rather than have their requests for sanctuary heard”.

In his letter to Braverman, Khan wrote, “It is clear that the current asylum system is broken and this bill will serve only to deepen the challenge, which could result in 50,000 people over the next three years left in London, unable to access support, work or legitimate avenues to fend for themselves.”

Of those reaching the UK illegally via small boats, Indians form a big chunk with the country recently witnessing a rise in their numbers.

The home office data showed that 683 Indians arrived in the UK on small boats last year, as compared to 67 the year before.

The majority of “irregular arrivals” from India were male between 25 and 40 years of age, out of a total of 45,755 in 2022, which also included Albanian, Afghan, Syrian and Iraqi nationals.

The Refugee Council said there is little or zero evidence to suggest the new plan will stop people from crossing the Channel in small boats.

While the Opposition Labour has raised doubts about the bill’s legality and feasibility, the Liberal Democrats said the ruling Conservatives have drawn up “another half-baked plan”.

(With agency inputs)

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