Welby slammed the bill as a “low point” and “inhumane”.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been praised for the manner in which he has taken apart the government’s Illegal Migration Bill, exposing it for the cruel and inhumane piece of legislation that it is.
Justin Welby, who crowned the King in Westminster Abbey on Saturday, slammed the bill as a “low point” and “inhumane”.
The Bill places a legal duty on the Home Secretary to remove migrants who arrive in the country illegally. They will be swiftly sent to their home country if it is deemed safe, or to a safe third country such as Rwanda, where they will be “supported to rebuild their lives”, the Home Office has previously said.
Under the proposed legislation, all those who arrive illegally will be declared inadmissible to stay. The proposed law also means that people who come to the UK illegally will be prevented from settling in the country and will face a permanent ban on returning.
The Archbishop told the Lords: “This Bill has no sense at all of the long term and of the global nature of the challenge that the world faces. It ignores the reality that migration must be engaged with at source as well as in the Channel, as if we as a country were unrelated to the rest of the world.
“It is a siloed bill, not a whole of government bill. It does not draw in conflict management and prevention which drives migration. It does not draw in climate impacts which drive migration and conflict.”
He added: “It is isolationist, it is morally unacceptable and politically impractical to let the poorest countries deal with [the refugee crisis] alone and cut our international aid.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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