LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government said Tuesday that it was ready for human-rights legal challenges to a tough new law intended to stop tens of thousands of migrants a year reaching the country in small boats across the English Channel.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the government had “pushed the boundaries of international law” with a bill that will bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means, and will compel the government to detain and then deport them “to their home country or a safe third country.” They would be banned from ever reentering the country.
“If you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed,” Braverman told lawmakers in the House of Commons as she introduced the government’s “Illegal Migration Bill.”
But critics said the plan is unethical and unworkable, since people fleeing war and persecution can’t be sent home, and is likely to be the latest in a series of unfulfilled immigration pledges by successive U.K. governments.
“There is nothing fair, humane or even practical in this plan, and it’s frankly chilling to see ministers trying to remove human rights protections for groups of people whom they’ve chosen to scapegoat for their own failures,” said Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International.