The Archbishop of Canterbury has made a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak’s planned crackdown on migrants arriving by small boats – slamming the “morally unacceptable” Illegal Migration Bill.
Justin Welby said the Tory legislation represented a “dramatic departure” from Britain’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention to allow arrivals to make asylum claims.
“I urge the government to reconsider much of the bill – which fails to live up to our history, our moral responsibility and our political and international interests,” said the Church of England’s most senior bishop.
The Archbishop said home secretary Suella Braverman’s bill “fails utterly” to deal with the long-term challenge of people trafficking, “undermines” international cooperation and damages the UK’s global repuation.
“We need a bill to stop the boats. We need a bill to destroy the evil tribe of traffickers – the tragedy is that without much change this is not that bill,” he told the Lords on Wednesday.
Rev. Welby added: “It is isolationist, it is morally unacceptable and politically impractical to let the poorest countries deal with the [refugee] crisis alone.”
The international protections for refugees are “not inconvenient obstructions to get round by any legislative means necessary”, the Archbishop also told parliament.
Rev Welby added: “Even if this bill succeeded in temporarily stopping the boats – and I don’t think it will – it won’t stop conflict or climate migration.”
Calling on the government to put new “safe and legal routes” for refugees in place, he warning: “We cannot wait for the years before that happens.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury also followed Labour in criticising the lack of new government measures to tackle “evil” people-smuggling gangs – arguing that the bill failed to “engage with criminal traffickers directly and offensively”.
Responding the Welby’s scornful criticism, Mr Sunak’s official spokesman insisted that the plan to detain and deport Channel migrants was the “compassionate and fair thing to do”. He added that No 10 would “continue to robustly defend” the bill.
Earlier, Ms Braverman warned peers not to stand in the way of the “will of the British people” by blocking the plan to swiftly remove small boat migrants either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.
As the controversial legislation returned to the Lords on Wednesday, a group of 174 campaign groups and charities signed an open letter calling for the government to ditch the bill – saying it was “effectively a ban on asylum”.
The bill includes provisions that would limit the ability of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent the deportation of asylum seekers.
Critics argue the flagship immigration reforms break international law, while former Tory leaders Theresa May and Iain Duncan Smith have warned the bill threatens Britain’s existing modern slavery protections.
Lib Dem peer Lord Paddick proposed a so-called fatal motion at stopping it in its tracks but it was dismissed by Labour – who warned it could backfire and deny the peers the chance to amend the bill.
The Bibby Stockholm barge – set to be docked in Portland, Dorset and house 500 asylum seekers – arrived in the UK on Tuesday. Some on social media compared it to a “prison hulk”, while the Green party called the offshore plan “cruel, insensible and immoral”.
The chair of Portland Town Council Jim Draper told Sky News on Wednesday that he had been told by government migrants would be “free to come and go” with people on the coastal town, but added: “The mechanics of how they’re got I don’t know.
Mr Draper said: “They’re talking about a bus that will take 30 people at a time on an hourly service going in and out, so it’s not going to allow many in and out.”
It comes as the plan to clear the asylum backlog by fast-tracking applications from five war-torn countries is in a “complete mess,” a government source told The Times.
Only 10 percent of the forms offered to asylum seekers from countries including Afghanistan and Syria are said to have been filled properly which mean a lengthier process of interviews have had to take place.