Medical Justice has produced a briefing on the medical consequences of the new Illegal Migration Bill, jointly with Doctors of the World, Medicines Sans Frontieres, Freedom from Torture, the Helen Bamber Foundation and Maternity Action.
The briefing outlines our grave concerns that the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ will have serious implications for the health, wellbeing and dignity of people seeking safety people in the UK.
The new legislation will extinguish the right to seek refugee protection in the UK for those who arrive irregularly (i.e. without prior permission), stripping people fleeing war and persecution of their right to seek safety in the UK and punishing them, based simply on how they came here, not on their protection needs.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that the Bill “would amount to an asylum ban” because of the absence of virtually any ways to claim refugee protection before arriving in the UK. The Bill would also be a clear breach of the United Nations Refugee Convention which explicitly recognises that refugees may be compelled to enter a country of asylum irregularly.
The briefing outlines the profound harm that the Bill will have on people’s health and wellbeing.
This includes the health implications of the detention provisions.
