The UN has criticised Priti Patel’s proposals regarding asylum seekers as so damaging they risked Britain’s ‘global credibility’.
This follows six weeks after the home secretary unveiled a sweeping immigration overhaul that included deporting migrants who enter the UK illegally to safe countries such as “France and other EU countries”. The UN’s refugee agency is going to publish a detailed legal opinion and “likely to conclude her plans infringe international legislation and are unworkable”. According to The Guardian, not a single European country has decided to support the UK government’s controversial asylum plans. Despite this, Patel’s asylum proposals are to feature in the Queen’s speech on Tuesday, which lays out the government’s legislative agenda for the next year. A UK government spokesperson said: “Our new plan for immigration is fully in line with our international and legal obligations including the UN refugee convention and the European convention on human rights. People should claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in rather than making life threatening journeys to the UK.”
