UK Aping Australia’s Abusive, Unlawful Migration Policies

Protesters gathered opposite The Royal Courts Of Justice on the first day of a High Court challenge over the UK’s agreement with Rwanda in Sept last year. AP via HRW

It isn’t hyperbolic to say that the UK’s cruel and unlawful migration policies have been met with widespread shock and anguish.

But while they are evidently cruel and unlawful, one thing they couldn’t be accused of is originality. Many of the policies have already been tried in Australia- with disastrous consequences.

Last month, the UK introduced new legislation in the form of the “illegal migration bill” which, in the words of the UNHCR, amounts to “a defacto asylum ban”

If passed, people arriving by boat or other irregular means will be detained, with no right of appeal, before being expelled to their home country or a so-called safe third country. Once removed, they will be banned from returning or gaining British citizenship, except in extreme circumstances.

If this sounds eerily familiar, that is because it is.

Dr Emilie McDonnell, UK Advocacy Coordinator at HRW, has written for Asylum Insight about the UK’s race to the bottom on migration and how many of the UK’s flagship policies are being borrowed from ‘down under’.

Her article is a sobering insight into policies that have resulted in horrendous human suffering, even death. That the UK knows this, but refuses to change course, is perhaps most shocking of all. – Human Rights Watch