The Government has been condemned by civic chiefs in Cheltenham for “othering” people with new legislation which aims to deport those arriving in the UK without permission.
The Illegal Migration Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, aims to give ministers the power to remove anyone arriving in the country illegally.
These people would be barred from claiming asylum in the country. And Cheltenham Borough Council has condemned the bill which it considers to be a breach of the fundamental tenets of international human rights law.
The council will also call on Conservative MP Alex Chalk to do everything he can to withdraw the “appalling legislation”.
They also ask the Government to commit to resourcing an asylum system that can deliver fair and timely decisions, and allow refugees and asylum seekers to work in the UK at the earliest opportunity.
Councillors held an emotional debate over the motion which was put forward by deputy mayor Paul Baker (LD, Charlton Park) and councillor Tabi Joy (G, St Paul’s). Councillor Julian Tooke (LD, Pittville) spoke of how the issue is very personal to him and said that the othering of people started with Brexit and has increased over the last seven years.
“I’m not sure if Conservative supporters of the Illegal Migration Bill have been friends with asylum seekers. I don’t know if they’ve fallen in love with asylum seekers.
“Well, I have. Thirty-three years ago, I fell in love with an asylum seeker who didn’t have the correct papers and I’m still with that asylum seeker who is now a British citizen.
“I can’t explain the level of gratitude that he felt for this country at that time because it did the right thing. We still feel that gratitude, however, what we’ve noticed is a kind of othering of outsiders.
“It started with Brexit, with European citizens but that othering has extended to a broad range of groups, asylum seekers, it’s also extended, I would argue, to the trans community but that’s a separate issue.
“Don’t judge outsiders. This outsider who I have been lucky to be with, has been the most brave person I will ever know.
“He has been bombed for this country, shot at for this country, arrested for this country in a way I don’t know a single indigenous British citizen who has taken those risks with their lives on behalf of this country so don’t other outsiders. Welcome them.
“I would ask my Conservative colleagues to search deep within their hearts because this isn’t the Britain I know and love and I support this motion.”
Councillor Emma Nelson (C, Leckhampton) said she fully supports the spirit of the motion but would abstain. She said: “We are talking about asylum seekers and they really need our help. I would take in anybody if I had a spare room and I could.
“I fully support the principle and giving asylum seekers shelter and helping them and getting them into work and giving them homes. But these are illegal immigrants that don’t have a legal right to be here, so I’m sorry, I’m going to be abstaining.”
Councillor Simon Wheeler (LD, Hesters Way) said illegal immigrants are only deemed as such because “somebody has said they are illegal”. He said: “As an Englishman, I’m extremely privileged to have been born in this country of English parents and get to live here.
“I just think, all right I might moan I have to renew my bus pass every few years, that my supermarket might not have the product I would like to see, but what would it take me to put my family in a little inflatable boat and come across the Channel, put their lives in danger, walking for hundreds of miles… what would it take me to do that?
“We should look at all migrants, whether legal or illegal. Fair enough, if they are simply economic migrants and haven’t really got anything to offer this country they should go to somewhere more suitable, and I don’t mean Rwanda.
“Some of those illegal immigrants are only illegal because somebody said they are.”
Cllr Baker said it was an emotional subject and that the Government is making migrants illegal “whether they have got a good ground to come here or not”. “It’s frankly disgraceful.”
He said it was disappointing Cllr Nelson could not support the motion.
“What’s interesting is that of all the asylum seekers who have then got refugee status and all of the refugees who have come to Cheltenham, they want to stay here.
“That says a lot about what Cheltenham welcomes refugees does but beyond that, it says a lot about what this town has to offer and what this town is all about.”
The motion was approved by 28 votes in favour with four abstentions.
The Liberal Democrats, Green Party and People Against Bureaucracy groups voted in favour while the Tories abstained.
The Government says the Illegal Migration Bill will deter people smugglers and illegal migrants making the dangerous journey in small boats across the English Channel.
They say the new legislation will make it unambiguously clear that, if people enter the UK illegally, they should not be able to remain here.
Instead they will be detained and promptly removed either to their home country or to a safe country where any asylum claim will be considered.
