Send this message to your MP:
I want to raise with you the urgent matter of the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is back in Parliament on 7 and 8 December.
I urge you to oppose this Bill. According to migrants’ rights experts and the Home Office’s own impact assessment, the proposed Bill will do nothing to alleviate the suffering at UK’s borders. It won’t help create safe routes for asylum seekers so they don’t feel the need to risk their lives crossing the Channel. It won’t offer an option to regularise their status to those who find themselves with lapsed papers but will push them further into exploitation. It won’t help families who can’t afford the prohibitive costs of passports. It won’t offer security to EEA nationals relying on an entirely digital immigration status. In fact, it will further criminalise migration, and hang the threat of citizenship removal over British people in clear violation of international human rights agreements and basic principles of decency and fairness.
There are a number of amendments across the House that seek to address specific urgent issues for migrants and other impacted groups. I urge you to support the cross-party amendments giving a safe and regular route and a right of appeal to asylum seekers from France to the UK (NC 10 and NC 11 in the Amendments document). Data shows 98% of those who make perilous Channel crossings lodge an asylum claim, and 91% come from just 10 countries with well documented human rights violations. The amendment offers a straightforward conditional asylum process for those in France. It would stop exploitation by people smugglers and save lives. I also encourage you to support the amendments that remove the No Recourse to Public Funds (NC 12 and NC 13) and address the high costs of registering as citizens for children (NC 8).
Ultimately, the Nationality and Borders Bill is as cruel as it is impractical. It does little to address the urgency of people risking their lives to reach safety in the UK. It also contradicts the shifting public opinion on immigration, which is moving towards a more positive outlook. I urge you to use your parliamentary platform to speak for the rights of all those who will be harmed by this legislation, and to speak on behalf of constituents like myself who want a kind and compassionate approach to immigration.