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Anger over Britain’s Plans for Instant Deportation
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The plans were described as “unfair”, “unworkable” and “plain folly”.
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LONDON,
May 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – British Home Secretary
David Blunkett provoked anger and dismay Thursday, May 30, when he
said asylum-seekers would be subject to fast-track deportations with
no rights of appeal in Britain, news agencies reported.
Blunkett
announced the last-minute amendment to the Government's immigration
Bill in what appeared to be an attempt to deflect attention from new
figures that show a sharp increase in asylum applications during the
past three months.
The
decision was promptly denounced as "impractical",
"unfair" and "clear nonsense" by immigration
experts, the British daily newspaper, The Independent, reported
Friday, May 31. Critics said the idea had a hollow ring because there
was little sign other countries would be prepared to take Britain's
rejected asylum-seekers.
But
Blunkett said he would be amending the Nationality, Immigration and
Asylum Bill – already before Parliament – to allow what he
described as "wholly unfounded" claimants to be sent home
without appeal.
"We
will return these people to their country of origin as soon as we have
rejected their claim," he said. "If they choose to appeal,
they will have to do so from their home country. This decision would
be taken literally within a matter of one or two days of any claim
made within this country."
In
an interview with the BBC, Blunkett acknowledged, though, there was a
strong likelihood that the new asylum measures would be challenged in
the courts.
"The
idea that you can send people back to another country and then still
ensure they can exercise their right to appeal is clear nonsense. It's
wrong in principle," the Independent quoted him as saying.
The
Refugee Council said identifying what the Home Office called
"clearly unfounded" cases could lead to the re-introduction
of the hated White List of "safe" countries from which
asylum-seekers were automatically refused.
“We
are extremely worried about this,” a spokeswoman said. “The
likelihood would be that a decision would be based entirely on the
country the person has come from rather than the merits of the
case.”
She
noted that countries such as Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Turkey have
been on previous White Lists but were now countries from where many
asylum-seekers were accepted.
The
Home Office insisted Thursday the fast deportation plan was more than
a publicity stunt and there was a real prospect of other countries
accepting the return of fast-tracked asylum-seekers rejected by
Britain.
Putting
the policy into law will strengthen Blunkett's hand when he meets his
French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, next month to negotiate
immigration matters.
The
two countries will discuss the possible return to France of failed
asylum-seekers who cross the Channel to Britain, as well as the
closure of the Sangatte refugee hostel near Calais. Britain will also
be able to put added pressure on European Union applicant states from
Eastern Europe to accept prompt return of citizens who fail to get
asylum in Britain.
Sangatte
has been a running sore in cross-Channel relations. The overcrowded
Red Cross refugee center, near the entrance to the Channel tunnel, is
home to around 1,500 illegal immigrants of mainly Asian origin who
attempt to board trains bound for Britain.
Britain
has repeatedly called for the center to be shut down. France has
argued that a sudden closure of the center would not resolve the
larger immigration problem.
It
has long argued that the concentration of asylum seekers in Britain
occurs because they are drawn by lax rules on work permits and
identity controls.
Blunkett
is frustrated by difficulties faced by immigration officials in
returning those asylum-seekers whose claims have been turned down.
Countries
including China and Sri Lanka are unwilling to take responsibility for
people who have often destroyed their identity documents before
arrival in Britain.
Most
removals in the past quarter were to Eastern Europe, with 545 people
returned to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and 180 to the Czech
Republic, which both have EU ambitions.
Figures
released Thursday show asylum removals were almost static at 2,920 in
the first quarter of 2002, well below targets of 30,000 removals a
year.
The
British Government has chartered private aircraft to return
asylum-seekers and a leaked memo suggested officials were prepared to
use RAF planes to step up removals.
The
new plans were criticized by refugee bodies, who said they would
breach international conventions, but welcomed by France, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Neil
Durkin, a spokesman for the human rights group Amnesty International,
said forcing people to appeal from abroad was "plain folly."
Keith
Best, head of the Immigration Advisory Service, said the plans were
"unjust and unworkable... clearly nonsense and ill thought-out.
He said they should be "resisted".
Simon
Hughes, of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, said they amounted
to a "new form of international pass the parcel."
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