Tag: international law

Safety of Rwanda (Asylum & Immigration) Bill: Bishop of London points out inconsistency with international law and human rights regulations

On 29th January 2024, the Bishop of London spoke in a debate on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum & Immigration) Bill, pointing out the inconsistency of the bill’s approach to international law, and the potential harm of disapplying parts of the human rights act to refugees and asylum seekers:

The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I share many concerns about the Bill that have been expressed by many other noble Lords, but I will focus on human rights. What underpins my contribution to the House is a fundamental belief that all people are made in the image of God. It is a belief that is the foundation not just of the Christian faith but of many other faiths and religions. People have an inherent immeasurable value and deserve dignity and respect. In the Bill, unfortunately, the value of people is consistently maligned. For example, the Bill decides who is and is not entitled to human rights. Has history not taught us the risk of that?

It is an odd situation that we find ourselves in when it feels necessary to state in your Lordships’ House that the Government should obey the law, yet the Minister has stated on the face of the Bill that he is unable to say that the measures within it are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Clause 3 disapplies sections of our Human Rights Act and Clause 1(6) lists great swathes of international law that will be contravened to pass the Bill. As many noble Lords have said, it is illogical that the Government are disregarding international law while relying on Rwanda’s compliance with it to assure us it is safe. That is not a mark of global leadership.

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Safety of Rwanda (Asylum & Immigration) Bill: Archbishop of Canterbury raises concerns over potential damaging impact of legislation

The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in a debate on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum & Immigration) Bill on 29th January 2024, expressing concern that the legislation would be damaging to the UK in outsourcing asylum to another country, calling on the government to establish a wider strategy for refugee policy and to lead internationally on this:

The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, in almost every tradition of global faith and humanism around the world, the dignity of the individual is at the heart of what is believed. In the Christian tradition, we are told to welcome the stranger. Jesus said:

“I was a stranger and you invited me in”.

In numerous places in the Old Testament and the New, the commands of God are to care for the alien and stranger. It has already been said, and I agree, that the way that this Bill and its cousin, which we debated in the summer, work is by obscuring the truth that all people, asylum seekers included, are of great value. We can, as a nation, do better than this Bill.

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