Braverman announces carve out provisions for minors in
Amid sustained backlash against the government’s illegal migration bill, the United Kingdom’s home secretary Suella Braverman has said children will be exempt from detention and removal from the United Kingdom under the scheme.
The bill states that refugees who arrive in the United Kingdom without prior permission will be detained for 28 days and their asylum claims deemed inadmissible regardless of the individual’s circumstances.
Braverman claims that the duty to detain and remove an individual will not be applied to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children save for limited circumstances such as for the purposes of family reunification. In such an instance, the minor will be provided with the necessary support in the United Kingdom until they reach the age of majority.
Former prime minister Theresa May has joined critics of the bill in the Commons. As home secretary, May was architect of the so-called hostile environment for migrants and introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015. In response to the bill she has claimed genuine victims of modern slavery will be denied support and the United Kingdom would be shutting the door to victims who are being trafficked.
