Andy Drozdziak
A leading Catholic justice charity has blasted a major speech by Home Secretary Suella Braverman as a ‘cruel, vaunting attack on refugees’ and criticised her attack on the UN Refugee Convention.
The Home Secretary spoke at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday and made a wide-ranging attack on the principles on which the UN Refugee Convention was built.
Mrs Braverman questioned whether the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention is ‘fit for our modern age.’ She also declared that no migrant crossing the Channel to Britain is in “imminent peril” and accused some asylum seekers of “shopping around” for their “preferred destination”.
Sarah Teather, JRS UK Director, attacked the contents of the Home Secretary’s speech.
“The Refugee Convention is a vital and core mechanism to protect people fleeing persecution, and it is badly needed, now as much and more than ever,” she said.
“These comments from the Home Secretary are the latest in a cruel, vaunting attack on refugees. To suggest that many of those to whom it has extended protection for decades should be shut out and cast back into danger is appalling. “
The Illegal Migration Act, which has been criticised by JRS UK and the UN’s refugee agency — legislated for those arriving via the Channel to be deported to their country of origin or to Rwanda. Sarah Teather said that ‘the ‘Government should work to extend protection to those who need it, not to find new ways to deny sanctuary.’
In her speech, Mrs Braverman suggested that fleeing discrimination for being gay should not be enough to qualify for asylum in the UK. “Where individuals are being persecuted (for being gay), it is right that we offer sanctuary,” she said.
“But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.”
Sarah Teather blasted the ‘attack.’
“Her attack on (the) LGBTQI+ community is particularly concerning given the scale of oppression worldwide,” she said.
“Is her focus political and aimed at her own party? If so, she is recklessly giving comfort to dictators and tyrannical regimes on the world stage for vain purpose.”
The Home Secretary also took aim at multiculturalism in her speech, which, she said, “has failed because it allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it.” Pointing to “streets all over Europe – Malmo, to Paris, Brussels, to Leicester”, Suella Braverman said that multiculturalism enabled people to “pursue lives aimed at under-mining the stability and threateningthe security of our society.”
She added: “Uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration anda misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe.”She was also critical of migration to the UK and Europe in the last 25 years which, she said, “has been too much, too quick, with too little thought given to integration and the impact on social cohesion.”She denied it was “anti-immigrant” to speak out if you believe a nation state must be protected. Ms Braverman pointed to her own background as “a child of immigrants”.
Sarah Teather reiterated the call of Pope Francis in his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 23rd September, in which, he renewed his call for the practice of ‘good politics – one that is transparent, honest, farsighted and at the service of all, especially those most vulnerable.’
“These actions from the Home Secretary today are anything but,” she said.
“Where people are forcibly displaced from their homes, we have a human duty to work together to seek solutions. Trying to draw others into a coordinated attack on those in need is a new low.”
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