The UK Illegal Migration Bill amounts to an ‘asylum ban’, campaigners said as they protested against the legislation outside Parliament.
Around 50 people, including poet and author Michael Rosen, trade unionists and refugee campaigners, took part in the demonstration in Parliament Square on Monday evening, reports Breaking News.
Rosen told demonstrators: “This is not the Illegal Immigration Bill. It’s the scapegoating bill. A government in trouble is trying the old trick of hoping to shore up support by blaming migrants for its own shortcomings. This is playing with fire: encouraging hostility towards desperate people,” reports Breaking News.
He also criticized Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick for claiming he was a “cowboy builders” who painted a Mickey Mouse mural at a shelter for unaccompanied children in Kent.
Rosen said: “It tells you the cowboy builders – if that’s what they were – have got more heart than Robert Jenrick,” reports Breaking News.
The protest was joined by representatives of the Union of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), which represents civil servants, including the Ministry of Interior.
Paul O’Connor, head of negotiating at the PCS, told the PA news agency that Home Office officials had approached the union about concerns about the government’s immigration policy.
The union joined asylum seekers and charities earlier this year in seeking action in the Supreme Court over government plans to deport migrants to Rwanda.
He added: “We have massive support amongst the membership, particularly in the Home Office itself. It is important for people to understand that the Civil Service is not there to blindly carry out instructions given by ministers. Part of their job is to speak truth to power. They have been giving advice repeatedly to the Government that the policy they are embarking on is illegal,” reports Breaking News.
During the protest, Charlotte Khan, of the Care4Calais charity said “this Bill is an asylum ban” and “isn’t representative of who we are as a people, as a compassionate society,” reports Breaking News.
She added: “If there is anything criminal here it is the Bill itself. It is not illegal to seek asylum,” reports Breaking News.
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