It's facile of Labour to claim, as Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary does, that they're going to 'smash the gangs', and There's no prospect whatsoever of Kier Starmer, as a Human Rights Lawyer, ditching the European Court of Human Rights (which some seem to mistakenly believe is the EU, and that it would we could disregard it after Brexit.
https://www.echr.coe.int
Given that currently, 27% of UK processed asylum claims fail, how are Labour going to remove those unsuccessful applicants from the UK as
they then have no legal right to stay, given that they can't be returned to an unsafe country (from whence they came)? Labour opposed tooth and nail the Rwanda plan, so what alternative do they propose?
Whichever side of the argument people are on, it's a fact that the forces of anti-immigration politics are upending liberal governments all over Europe - with voters in 21 of 28 EU countries citing immigration as the top issue facing the continent, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey.
Over the next year or two, I can see this getting much worse, eclipsing all other issues.
Two sides of the same coin.
Under the Tories:
The Illegal Migration Act (IMA) 2023 is a UK law introduced by the tory government that aims to deter and prevent illegal migration into the country. The act was enforced on July 20, 2023.
The act's main goals are to:
Remove the incentive for dangerous small boat crossings
Speed up the removal of those without the right to be in the UK
Prevent people from using modern slavery safeguards to block their removal
Support those in genuine need of asylum
The act gives the Secretary of State new powers, including:
Detaining people who are subject to removal
Increasing the search powers of immigration officers
Removing judicial scrutiny of government decision-making
Stripping away safeguards for vulnerable groups
The act also includes a measure to send illegal migrants to their home country or a safe third country. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will allow the Secretary of State to remove illegal migrants to Rwanda for the consideration of their asylum or human rights claims.
Illegal Migration Act 2023 - GOV.UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/illegal-migration-bill
Under Labour:
From ‘Right to Remain.org’:
Quote:
'Illegal Migration Act ban on processing asylum claims lifted':
[Under the new Labour Government], on 24 July 2024, the Home Office published
regulations to amend provisions of the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act (IMA), which will allow asylum claims to be processed. These regulations will also enable people to be granted settlement and British citizenship.
Regulations are a form of secondary legislation. Acts are a form of primary legislation, which outline general law. Secondary legislation outlines how that law is meant to be enforced in practice.
We welcome these amendments as they will hopefully result in a more efficient decision-making process for asylum claims and will pull many people – who arrived in the UK from March 2023 onwards, and people who claimed asylum from mid-July 2023 onwards – out of immigration limbo.
However, though the regulations outlined below provide relief, they fall short of repealing (this means abolishing) the IMA in its entirety. The IMA is a hugely damaging piece of legislation which was introduced by the previous Conservative government to effectively end the asylum process. It was published in violation of the UK’s human rights obligations, grants high levels of power to the Home Secretary, and has caused so much fear and uncertainty in migrant communities for over a year.
The new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, published three regulations in total under
The Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Amendment) Regulations 2024.
Generally, the regulations make the following changes:
Regulation 1: This simply outlines procedural points (like where the regulations apply, and what they are called).
Regulation 2: Asylum claims made from 20 July 2023 onwards will now be processed as normal.
Section 2 of the IMA is the part upon which everything else depends. It creates a duty on the Home Secretary to arrange to remove anyone who meets the 4 removal conditions from the UK. One of those removal conditions was that the person had to have arrived in the UK on or after 20 July 2023. Section 2 of the IMA was never brought into force, however, its impact was tangible: it stopped the processing of asylum claims made on or after 20 July 2023. Even though they were not subject to Section 2 removal, many people’s asylum claims could not progress.
Regulation 2 has now amended Section 2 duty to make arrangements for removal to apply to claims made after the section comes into force, whenever that eventually occurs. It has removed the reference to 20 July 2023, meaning that claims which were made from July of last year can now be processed as normal.
Regulation 3
Parts of the IMA related to the Section 2 duty of removal have been omitted, and the ban on eligibility for immigration status or British citizenship has been lifted for people who entered the UK irregularly on or after 7 March 2023.
Regulation 3 amends all the other sections of the IMA which stemmed from the Section 2 duty of removal to also come into force on “the day on which this section came into force in relation to the person”.
Regulation 3 amends Sections 30-31 to apply to claims made after these sections come into force, whenever that eventually occurs. Section 30 of the IMA originally barred anyone who fulfilled the four requirements of (the unenforced) Section 2 from ever securing leave to remain in the UK. This amendment means that people who claimed asylum on or after 20 July 2023 will be able to have their asylum claims processed.
Section 31 of the IMA originally barred anyone who entered the UK ‘unlawfully’ – on or after 7 March 2023 – from obtaining British citizenship, British overseas territories citizenship, British overseas citizenship and British subject status. This ban has now been lifted as a result of Regulation 3.
So, the regulations allow the asylum system to revert back to ‘normal’: people who claimed asylum last year will have their claims considered, and will be able to obtain refugee status, and later citizenship if their claims are accepted.
The IMA caused unnecessary delay and fear in our communities and prevented thousands of people from regularising their status in the UK – perpetuating the very situation the previous government was so staunchly against. We know that some people will have been forced to go underground as a result of this law.
We repeat that though this is a welcome change, the IMA is a dangerous piece of legislation (even if it is now dormant) and should be repealed in its entirety.
As always:
No one is illegal.
These walls must fall.
Migration is life.
End quote.
https://righttoremain.org.uk/illegal-migration-act-ban-on-processing-asylum-claims-lifted/