Campaign reply - Please support a fair and just asylum system

Thank you for contacting my office. I very much appreciate you getting in touch about the differential treatment of refugees and the Nationality and Borders Act.

The United Kingdom has a proud history of supporting those in need of protection; our resettlement programmes have provided safe and legal routes to better futures for hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe. This includes individuals from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

The power to differentiate (introduced through the Nationality and Borders Act) aims to influence migrants' choices, encouraging them to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach, and to travel to the UK using safe and legal routes, and not by dangerous means. These powers are not prescriptive, and the Secretary of State is under no compulsion to use them – which provides flexibility in the fair and lawful implementation of the provisions. Differentiation may relate to length of leave, requirements for settlement, family reunion, and recourse to public funds.

The New Plan for Immigration and the Nationality and Borders Act fully comply with the UK's global obligations including commitments to the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Refugee Convention. As you will be aware, through the Act, whether people enter the UK legally or illegally may have an impact on their asylum claim, and on their status in the UK if that claim is successful. The UN Refugee Convention does allow for different treatment where, for example, refugees have not come directly from a country of persecution. For example, if someone enters the UK via a safe country, where they could have claimed asylum, they are not seeking refuge from imminent peril. Therefore, returning them to a safe third country is consistent with the UN Refugee Convention.

Under the legislation, those who meet the terms of the refugee convention will be granted refugee status. There is no question of this clause making it harder to be a refugee or otherwise enabling the Government to refuse refugee protection to those who need it. That is simply not true. The clause enables the Secretary of State to distinguish between refugees based on whether they came directly and claimed without delay, but anyone considered under this policy will be a refugee.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write. If you require any further assistance, then please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

 

Kind regards