We at Caritas Social Action Network are profoundly concerned about the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 7 March 2023. This Bill, if passed, will not only deny those people fleeing war and persecution their right to seek safety in the UK and apply for asylum, but will punish them, based on how they came here, not whether they need protection. This would amount to an asylum ban.
The Bill would:
UNHCR, the Refugee Agency of the United Nations, has expressed its profound concern about the proposed Bill, stating, “The effect of the Bill (in this form) would be to deny a fair hearing and to deny protection to many genuine refugees in need of safety and asylum. This would be a clear breach of the Refugee Convention and undermines the United Kingdom’s longstanding, humanitarian traditions.”
The Bill ignores Home Office data which shows that most people who cross the Channel are people escaping torture and conflict from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria. Most people who make the crossing are granted asylum following rigorous checks. There are very few safe routes for refugees to come to the UK. This Bill would be turning our back on the global common good and adding to the burden on poorer countries, which receive most refugees.
On 14 March, the Department for International Affairs of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, published Love the Stranger: A Catholic Response to Migrants and Refugees. This documents sets out a number of key principles, including:
We encourage the Catholic community to engage with this document as a source of inspiration for our response to the Bill.
The document can be found at: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/love-the-stranger/
We urge the Catholic community to speak out against this cruel and unworkable Bill which is an affront to human dignity and a breach of our responsibilities to the global common good and our obligations under international law.
We call on the Catholic community to write to their MPs, asking them to:
You can find out who your MP is here https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons and either write to them or email them.
source: Caritas Social Action Network