Slippery slope to dystopia

By Razia, Chief Executive Officer

As the gesture politics ensue to deliver on political pledges before 4 July and the general election, within a context of continued arrivals of refugees claiming asylum on UK shores and the new legislation, I am mindful of seven-year-old Sara. This little girl was failed by the asylum system in Europe and sought sanctuary with her family in the UK, only to perish in the Channel (April 2024).

The Nationality and Borders Act (NABA 2022) and the Illegal Migration Act (IMA 2023) set the legislative stage for the passing of the Safety of Rwanda Act (2024), despite huge opposition.

This most recent Act in response to the High Court Ruling that Rwanda is unsafe, has generated a flurry of activity: immigration raids including videos criminalising those who have complied with HO conditions on claiming asylum (flyers shared on their rights https://twitter.com/AntiRaids/status/1056615394880995328); challenges by Asylum Aid, and Civil Servants (https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/fda-v-secretary-of-state-for-the-cabinet-office-and-another/), and guides by the Joint Council of Welfare for Immigrants (  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xX9ax5HoRCugRNg0vJFMAEVm2nYYFctuheTs1bKxYHY/edit), and Right to Remain.

As well as more locally, adult asylum seekers in Kent hotels being threatened with removal (and then removed), instigating peaceful protests replicated in London (not all peaceful). There has so far been one voluntary departure, as part of an amended Voluntary Return Scheme. With all this media and political interest and orchestrated narrative, the general election may change the possibilities and potential for the implementation of all the Acts. 

If there is any good news, it is that the young people we work with are not affected until they are 18. However if they arrived after 20 July 2023 by “irregular means”, they will be subject to the Duty of Removal as part of the Illegal Migration Act (2023). At the discretion of the Home Secretary, they can be detained and deported to a “safe” third country - which currently includes Rwanda. Although the exact capacity of Rwanda and detention sites has limitations, which means that those in a “limbo land” cannot move on with their lives and have to wait for a decision on their removal indefinitely.

They can be detained at any moment, when they go to sign in at the Home Office they can be issued a Notice of Intent and detained; if they don't sign in, their asylum claim can be withdrawn and they would have no access to shelter or funds. 

The alternative is going “missing”, becoming destitute, being vulnerable to exploitation and becoming “undocumented”. The exact method and process of implementing the Acts have not been tested yet and so the implications are still unclear, but the fact remains if you have arrived in the UK by irregular means you can no longer become a refugee in the UK. 

If we take a step back, this all seems like a “dystopian parody”. How - in the 21st century - can we be treating fellow humans with such indignity and disrespect, after all they have been through fleeing persecution in their homeland. I especially think of young people who - through no fault of their own - were born into a family in a country where their life was threatened by external forces and where they were not protected by their own state.

Europe has recently  passed a “Pact on Migration and Asylum” to establish a common asylum system to ensure strong and secure external borders and that people’s rights are guaranteed (if they manage to enter and claim asylum), and that no EU country is left alone under pressure (new rules managing migration and establishing a common asylum system).

This is too late for little Sara, even thought the pact would probably not have helped her family gain refugee status as it has used the notion of consistency and standardisation to close borders and restrict those who can claim asylum in a European country. It maybe more than 65 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established, but humanity needs to stop the slippery slide into dystopia even more now than ever before.