Liberty responds to the Home Secretary’s announcement that any migrant who crosses the channel will not be allowed to claim asylum in the UK

Responding to the new Home Secretary’s announcement any migrant who crosses the channel will not be allowed to claim asylum in the UK, Jun Pang, Policy and Campaigns Officer at Liberty, said: 

“The Home Secretary’s proposals are extreme, inhumane, incoherent and unlawful. We all want to live in a society that treats people with dignity and respect, no matter who we are or where we’re from. But Suella Braverman’s proposals will make all of us less safe from persecution and abuse of power, while punishing those already at the sharpest edge of state violence.

“With the ink not even dry on Priti Patel’s cruel Anti-Refugee Act, these new plans are a staggering escalation of the Government’s attack on the most marginalised in our society. Human rights are universal – by weakening them for some of us, these plans would cause irreparable damage to the rights and freedoms that we all hold dear.

“These proposals weaken our links to vital human rights frameworks, and demonstrate the latest damaging attempt by this Government to make itself untouchable and above the law. More than this, they represent unconscionable and deliberate cruelty – and we will resist these plans In full solidarity with those seeking safety and sanctuary in the UK.

“We’ve already seen Conservative MPs rejecting some of the most dangerous and divisive parts of this Government’s agenda and we urge them to do the same with these abominable proposals.”