World

Britain Is Jumping Through The Hoops To Evict Illegal Immigrants

Swarajya Staff

Dec 14, 2023, 06:11 PM | Updated 08:44 PM IST


United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

As India struggles to frame and notify rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), four years after its passing in 2019, the United Kingdom government is literally jumping through hoops to evict illegal immigrants from the country.

The British government led by the first-ever Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is doing everything possible, even going to the extent of passing emergency legislation, to overturn a Supreme Court's decision, against his immigration plans.

The Conservative Party government of the UK has historically stood against illegal immigration, which they say has been done at the expense of British citizens and legal migrants.

Britain even exited the European Union (EU), under Brexit, because of the EU's policies of absorbing immigrants from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and others.

The Conservative Party members are particularly miffed about the illegal immigrants that come from Europe on small boats crossing the English Channel.

It is reported that just in 2022, close to 46,000 illegal immigrants arrived in the country through these boats.

To combat this, the Sunak-led Conservative administration unveiled an anti-immigration plan known as 'Stop The Boats' to prevent the illegal immigrants from coming through boats, and to send the ones that have arrived in boats to a third country, in this case — Rwanda.

Sunak earlier this year, in March 2023, also warned illegal immigrants entering Britain, of deportation. He was quoted as saying, "Make no mistake, if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay."

He said, "Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally and it is not right that criminal gangs should be allowed to continue their immoral trade. I am determined to deliver on my promise to Stop The Boats."

The new 'Stop The Boats' legislation, if passed, will prevent illegal immigrants who crossed the English Channel from boats, from claiming asylum in the first place.

It will be the duty of the Home Secretary to deport the ones that have already arrived in the country, as soon as possible, to a third country.

Rwanda — A Safe Country For Asylum Seekers Or Not?

The British are so eager to get rid of these illegal immigrants that they are deporting them to a third country and not to the countries from which these immigrants originated.

The UK Supreme Court, just a month ago in November, declared that the plans of the Sunak administration to deport these illegal immigrants to Rwanda were unlawful.

It states that Rwanda has serious systematic defects in asylum claims processing, and believes 'refoulment' could occur — where genuine refugees could be deported to their original countries.

This ruling had put Sunak's 'Stop The Boats' plan under jeopardy.

To annul this judgement, Sunak even put emergency legislation to declare Rwanda as a safe country, defying its Supreme Court.

Resistance From Within Sunak's Conservative Party

Sunak has also faced resistance from both moderates and hardliner members of his own party.

Even his immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, resigned, stating that the emergency declaration does not go far enough to end the “merry-go-round of legal challenges.”

Suella Braverman, ex-interior minister and another Conservative member of his party, whom Rishi Sunak fired last November, is also asking for a tougher immigration policy.

Fortunately for Sunak, he was able to manage the rebellion and was able to see the controversial bill through with a very slim majority of just 44 in the House of Commons just a day ago (13 December), and has survived these attacks, for now.


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