Mahmood’s anti-asylum bill is “horrifying”. Burnham just voted for it

The Starmer regime’s war on human rights continues with the passage of Shabana Mahmood’s punitive ‘Immigration and Asylum Bill‘ through Parliament.

Burnham rallies behind Mahmood

The bill’s provisions demonise asylum seekers and wage war on human rights and Britain’s obligations under international law. Presumptive next prime minister Andy Burnham supposedly represents change — at least that’s the claim — but it’s not borne out by events so far.

And the same goes in this case, as Burnham voted yesterday in support of Mahmood’s racist new law.

Budget bigotry

Among its multiple abusive provisions, Mahmood plans to have asylum appeals decided by people without legal qualifications. Legal experts and human rights groups have pointed out how dangerous this move to prioritise speed over justice really is. Mahmood sneeringly dismissed the warnings, saying:

To those who say that such decisions can be taken only by a judge, I need point only to the complex and weighty decisions taken each and every day by those without law degrees… A person does not have to be a judge to have good judgment.

That might be so, but a person does need legal qualifications to know what is lawful.

The bill also removes or severely narrows the application of human rights law to asylum claims, slashes ‘modern slavery’ protections for people trafficked into slavery and doubles the amount of time refugees must be in the country before being able to claim permanent residency or apply for citizenship.

Doesn’t work

The United Nations Refugee Agency has pointed out that similar changes in Australia did the opposite of what Mahmood says she wants. Instead of speeding up the asylum system, the changes increased backlogs and created big delays. This has not deterred Mahmood from her attempt to pander to the racist right. It did not deter Burnham from supporting it.

The bill passed its second reading. Yet again, Burnham is indicating that he will be ‘continuity Starmer’ in a less drab package.

Featured image via the Canary