Dozens of MPs in Britain are demanding the Home Office speed up progress on a bill that would slash chain migration restrictions.
A total of almost 70 MPs urged Home Secretary Sajid Javid to end “delays” over the refugee family reunion bill, in a letter declaring it “important” that his ministry act quickly because migrants from the third world are missing out on spending holidays like the Muslim festival of Eid with family members in Britain.
“With your help, we can bring families together,” pleaded supporters of the Scottish National Party-sponsored bill, which passed its second reading last year after receiving support from SNP, Labour, and Liberal Democrat MPs, as well as from some Tories — despite years of Tory promises to reduce net immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands”.
According to the left-liberal Guardian, the letter reads: “Almost a year ago, MPs from across the political spectrum united behind a common cause as they overwhelmingly voted to introduce a law that would help reunite refugee families.
“The current rules condemn child refugees fleeing conflict and persecution to live in the UK without their parents. It also prevents parents from bringing their children over the age of 18. At a time when refugees need their families the most, they are being forced to be without them indefinitely.
“They say a week is a long time in politics, but a year is a long time to wait. For refugee families it means a year of missed birthdays, Christmases, Mother’s Days, Father’s Days, and Eid.
“We cannot let the urgent crowd out the important. We urge you to use your power to stop the delays on this bill and allow it the necessary time to proceed and be debated.”
The proposed law, which is backed by a long list of open borders-supporting NGOs and international bodies including Amnesty International, the UNHCR, and Help Refugees, would change migration rules to expand the definition of family for reunification purposes, along with reintroducing taxpayer-funded legal aid to assist third world migrants in applying to have family members brought into the United Kingdom.
Critics argue the measures will encourage people in the Global South to send their children on dangerous journeys to Britain, as so-called unaccompanied minors who broke into Britain illegally would be allowed to import family members under the proposed rule changes.
Responding to the letter, a spokesman for the Home Office told the Guardian: “We have always been clear that we support the principle of family unity and have reunited over 26,000 family members in the last five years.
“However, we also believe that we must not create perverse incentives for people, particularly children, to leave their families and risk dangerous journeys hoping relatives can join them later.”
Immigration minister Caroline Nokes previously argued that the bill was not in Britain’s interests, noting that the Government had already enabled the reuniting of “24,700 families in the past five years” within the current system, in addition to spending more than a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money on resettling refugees from Syria in the same period.
Denouncing the bill in The Times last year, she also pointed out that sponsor Angus MacNeil was “calling for us to open our family reunion policy to allow refugees to bring many more extended family members to the UK then we currently allow — regardless of whether they need protection, are living in conflict zones or had even formed a family unit before they left.”
Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the country want to see immigration levels to Britain brought down, many MPs appear determined to ensure that the opposite happens.
Earlier this month, Breitbart London reported how cross-party MPs on the International Development Committee have demanded the country double the number of refugees it imports directly from the third world, and to expand the working rights of asylum seekers, despite multiple warnings from think tank Migration Watch that the latter policy would incentivise illegal economic migration.
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