The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the bill would “penalize most refugees seeking asylum in the country via damaging and unjustified penalties, creating an asylum model that undermines established international refugee protection rules and practices.”

The UN body has urged the Government to re-assess parts of the draft law, currently going through Parliament, that would create an “unfair two-tier asylum system and cause unnecessary suffering to asylum-seekers”.

The bill intends to make it a criminal offense to knowingly arrive in the UK without permission, with a maximum sentence for those entering the country unlawfully ranging from six months to four years of imprisonment.

It means that, for the first time, how someone enters the UK, whether legally or illegally, will have an impact on how their asylum process goes and on their status in the UK if the asylum demand is successful.

The sentence of convicted people-smugglers could reach life behind bars, up from the current maximum sentence of 14 years.

“Those arriving irregularly will be stigmatized as unworthy and unwelcome, kept in a precarious status for ten years and denied access to public funds unless destitute. Family reunion will be restricted,” Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor, the UNHCR’s UK Representative said.

“This differentiation of treatment has no basis in international law,” Ms. Pagliuchi-Lor added. “The Convention’s definition of a refugee doesn’t vary according to the route of travel, choice of country of asylum, or the timing of a claim.

"This Bill would undermine, not promote, the Government’s stated goal of improving protection for those at risk of persecution."

 

-- Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor, the UNHCR’s UK Representative.

The UNHCR criticized the fact that refugees should claim asylum in the "first safe country" they arrive in, as this principle is not stated in the 1951 Refugee Convention and there is no such requirement under international law, where the primary responsibility for protecting refugees is with the State in which an asylum-seeker arrives.

UNHCR believes the Bill:

✖️ won’t deter people risking their lives

📈 will increase suffering and deny human rights

❗️ will be unworkable

Full analysis here: https://t.co/lYSJdiZInn

— UNHCR United Kingdom (@UNHCRUK) September 23, 2021

The British bill comes at a time when the UK is facing a record influx of migrants crossing the Channel "illegally" on life-threatening boats, despite promises by the Conservative government to make the route impassable.