LONDON — The British government will propose on Tuesday a plan to put asylum seekers in offshore detention centers and arrest those who arrive by boat over the English Channel, policies that rights groups say would violate international laws protecting refugees. The plan, called the Nationality and Borders Bill, is expected to be brought forth by Priti Patel, the British home secretary, for a first reading in Parliament on Tuesday. It is the latest measure introduced by the government to “fix the broken asylum system,” as the Home Office described it in a statement. Ms. Patel, writing in the newspaper The Daily Mail before the bill’s introduction, outlined proposals to “create a new criminal offense of entering the country illegally, giving Border Force more scope to make arrests, and we will increase prison sentences for those who do so.”The plan, if it were to go into effect, would place Britain in the company of Denmark, which recently passed a law allowing for the offshore detention of refugees, and Australia, which has already put in place similar measures, in adopting what until recent years had been considered a fringe approach to the issue.

Source: International New York Times July 06, 2021 11:37 UTC