The UK government’s migration policy is “disconnected and incoherent” and involves pitting one government department against another a report by MPs has said.
Members of UK’s parliament are concerned that the UK is undermining its commitment to human rights and the protection of the most vulnerable refugees and have expressed concern over the government’s policies relating to:
- migration to Europe, particularly via the Khartoum process whereby Europe aims to prevent Sudan’s refugees from reaching Libya and the Mediterranean which human rights campaigners have long felt minimises human rights in favour of migration targets; and
- its support of the Libyan coastguard.
While the International Development Committee (“IDC”) praised efforts by the Department for International Development (“DfID”) to create “anchor” programmes such as the Kalobeyei settlement in Kenya where 38,000 refugees have been granted the same access to schools, health facilities and markets as their host community, using a special currency called “Bamba Chakula”, it noted that work was undermined by the Home Office’s approach to asylum seekers and refugees where the overriding concern is the control of numbers rather than human rights or the protection of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The IDC urged the government to double the number of vulnerable refugees offered resettlement in Britain, up to 10,000 a year. It also called for a review on the restrictions placed on refugees being allowed to work in the UK while they await a decision on their asylum applications.
Contradictory aims and purpose
The IDC noted there was a pressing need for a more integrated approach to migration and displacement across government. DfID has joined calls for host governments to give refugees the right to work, but at present the Home Office significantly limits asylum seekers’ ability to do so. DfID pushes for practical solutions for refugees, while the Home Office limits the number of resettlement places in the UK.
Calls are now being made to ensure UK domestic policy on migration matches its international efforts as the double standards and the lack of coherence between policies at home and abroad risk undermining the country’s overall effort to support and facilitate safe, orderly and humane migration.
