Dear Editor

Our MP Nigel Huddleston put forward the ‘Illegal Immigration Bill’ as something positive the Government is doing (Journal March 23). 

The question is which is illegal, is it immigration or the Bill? It is completely wrong for the Government to talk about undocumented immigration as illegal. 

Under international law people seeking asylum from persecution and conflict can enter any country to make that request. 

They do not have to request asylum in the first country they enter. If that were so the UK would get hardly any requests as we are an island.

If people come in small boats you can say their arrival is irregular or they have come without ’entry clearance’ but they are NOT ‘illegal’. 

It is actually the Bill which is illegal, so it is well-named. 

It contravenes the international law on seeking asylum which we helped to create in the

Geneva Convention and then the European Convention on Human Rights.

This Bill is making us a pariah in the world of human rights. How can we criticise Russia, or China or even Iran for failing to respect human rights when we are in the same small boat. 

It is even going to allow the detention of families, something we thought was long gone, not to mention the shocking idea of removing traumatised people to the middle of Africa. Human rights experts around the world are looking at us in disgust. 

We have managed far higher numbers in the past than the 45,000 a year in small boats, and we are well down the European table when it comes to numbers applying here. 

In order to break the business model of the traffickers we need safe and secure routes for those wishing to come to the safety of this country. 

We should be proud so many wish to do so.

Revd David Haslam
Burford Road
Evesham