On Monday 28 February, the House of Lords voted to amend the Nationality & Borders Bill to remove Clause 11.
This Clause would discriminate between recognised refugees based on how they arrived in the UK, not their need for protection. Refugees who arrive via so called ‘unofficial routes’ would be penalised, only those people able to arrive through an organised route such as a resettlement programme would not be discriminated.
It is hard to overstate the scale of harm Clause 11. It would create a population of refugees who would be in a very precarious situation, unable to be reunited with family members or integrate and have the threat of return constantly with them.
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted the provisions of Clause 11 would “threaten the integrity of the global asylum system”.
As the majority of people who make an asylum claim in the UK are deemed to have entered irregularly the majority of recognised refugees in the UK will be denied the rights and protections owed under the Refugee Convention in the future. This would include Ukrainian refugees who arrive irregularly in the UK.
The Bill will later return to the Commons for further consideration.
We very much hope that MPs will see how unfit for today’s world this cruel Bill is, and uphold this crucial amendment from the Lords.
