Today, members of Parliament will debate the trafficking-related changes proposed under the Illegal Migration Bill. The bill was first presented in early March as a way to “prevent and deter unlawful migration”. If passed, it will give the government the power to deny both asylum and protection under the human trafficking and modern slavery system to anyone entering the UK via irregular or “illegal” routes.
Charities and organisations in the asylum sector have condemned the bill as the “Refugee Ban Bill”, and more than 300 academic experts have signed a letter saying the policy is not “evidence-based, workable, or legal under human rights law”. A second letter, signed by nearly 50 NGOs, outlines how the bill’s removal of protection for a large swath of trafficking victims will “cost lives” and “inflict harm on survivors”.
“The [bill’s] primary impact is going to be that modern slavery victims who arrive through routes that the UK government deem as irregular will be banned from accessing support,” Jamie Fookes, of Anti-Slavery International, told openDemocracy.
