On January 29th members of the Right and the Left of the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn allowed Theresa May’s government to get the first stages of the Tory government’s new Immigration Bill through Westminster. This paves the way for a post-Brexit gastarbeiter-type system of controls over worker migration. We are reposting an article from Global Justice Now which explains the intention behind this bill.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE IMMIGRATION BILL?
The Immigration Bill threatens in the UK to the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants. The hostile environment, the brainchild of Theresa May when she was Home Secretary, seeks to make life unbearable for people without the ‘correct’ immigration papers, and turns teachers, doctors, landlords and employers into border guards. This has already had a devastating effect on thousands of people, but the Immigration Bill does nothing to fix the hostile environment and instead will expose millions more people to it.
The Immigration Bill also signals the end of free movement for millions of people between the UK and the EU. Of course, this has always been at the centre of the government’s vision of Brexit. But this is a backward step for human rights. Free movement gives everyone, not just the wealthy, the crucial right to live, love and work in the place of their choice without fear. We should be trying to defend and extend free movement, not the other way round.
The Immigration Bill also increases the government’s power over our immigration system. Just like the trade bill, the immigration bill gives the government ‘Henry VIII’ powers to make changes to immigration rules without parliamentary oversight. But the catalogue of errors made by the Home Office show that we need more scrutiny, not less.
What next?
The Immigration Bill is making its way through parliament right now. We’re monitoring progress and, at the right time, we’ll be calling on you to take further action. Right now, we need to be building public awareness about the problems with the bill, so we’re asking you to share this video.
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