WLike his predecessors, the new British Home Secretary James Cleverly wants to impose drastic restrictions on legal immigration to Great Britain. After a first contract failed due to a ruling by the Supreme Court in London, Cleverly concluded a new, internationally binding agreement to take over migrants in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Tuesday. According to British ideas, asylum seekers who arrive in Great Britain from France without a right of residence should in future be sent to Rwanda without any hassle and without a hearing.
Among other things, the contract provides for a “legal partnership” in which lawyers from Great Britain are supposed to ensure that the asylum procedures in Rwanda are sufficiently based on human rights principles. Cleverly said he was confident the agreement now addresses all the concerns raised by the Supreme Court in London last month about an initial agreement. Cleverly stated that Rwanda did not receive any new development aid funds for the conclusion of the new agreement, which is entitled “Migration and Development”. However, Great Britain bears the costs of sending British lawyers as part of the “Legal Partnership”.
In the spirit of the 2024 general election
In November, the British Supreme Court declared a previous agreement to be incompatible with human rights provisions on several points. The Court also expressed doubts as to whether Rwanda would refrain from deporting recognized refugees to their countries of origin in violation of international law.
The British are called to vote in the general election next year – and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government is clearly acting under the impression that its fate will be decided by its handling of immigration and the granting of asylum. Sunak, who is the third head of government of the ruling Conservatives in the current parliamentary term after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, originally set five goals for his term in office by which he wanted to be measured. In addition to greater control of migration, these included halving waiting times in the state healthcare system as well as halving inflation, a falling debt burden and a growing economy. Sunak can demonstrate measurable successes, particularly in terms of falling inflation rates. However, since inflation is falling in all western countries, this effect is not given significant credit.
When it comes to migration, however, voters’ impression that the government is acting helplessly increases. According to the British Statistics Authority, the immigration balance has reached a record high; According to the latest figures, which have been revised upwards again, it has risen to around 745,000 people within months. Although the number of migrants illegally smuggled by boat fell year-on-year from around 44,000 to around 30,000, this decline has not given the impression that illegal smuggling is being combated effectively. Therefore, the deportation plan to Rwanda has become a central symbol of Sunak’s migration policy.
Mandatory annual income of 40,000 euros
The restrictions on legal immigration that Cleverly announced in the House of Commons on Monday evening will have much more far-reaching consequences. Among other things, they stipulate that foreign workers will in future have to earn at least the equivalent of 40,000 euros annually in Great Britain in order to receive a work visa. Workers in nursing and healthcare should be exempt from this; However, they are no longer allowed to bring relatives with them to the UK if they take up a job in the country. Students in graduate courses will also no longer receive visas for family members. The annual income of 40,000 euros will also apply to everyone who wants to bring a foreign spouse to Great Britain.
Parliamentary Secretary of State for Migration Robert Jenrick predicted on Tuesday that these restrictions would reduce the number of immigrants by up to 300,000 annually. He also announced that the government would, if necessary, order further measures to reduce the numbers. In 2019, an election promise from the Conservatives was to limit net immigration to 225,000 annually. Jenrick also said the restrictions now announced would reduce the number of foreign nursing staff. It is the government’s hope and expectation that vacancies in the care sector will be filled by British workers.
But health care officials said the restrictions would make it harder to recruit missing staff in the future. There are 120,000 vacancies in healthcare and 150,000 in geriatric care. Meanwhile, former Interior Minister Suella Braverman said the government had not exhausted all the options it had proposed to reduce immigration.
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