British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has drawn fierce criticism after saying the Geneva Convention on Refugees is not “adapted to our modern age”, reports AFP on Wednesday and Agerpres.
Suella BravermanPhoto: Tejas Sandhu/SOPA Images / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
The Geneva Convention – which dates back to 1951 and defines refugee status – was “an incredible achievement for its time”, “but now we live in a completely different era”, appreciated the British minister with a pronounced right-wing orientation in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank based in Washington.
Noting that under this convention “at least 780 million people have the theoretical right to settle in another country”, she estimated that “it is up to political leaders to ask whether the Refugee Convention and how which has been interpreted by our courts are relevant to our modern times, or if it needs to be reformed”.
“We will not be able to maintain an asylum system if the simple fact of being gay or a woman and having fears of discrimination in the country of origin is enough to benefit from protection,” Braverman also claimed.
In response, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, qualified in a statement the Geneva Convention as “the cornerstone of the global refugee protection system and a life-saving tool”, which “remains as relevant today as it was then when it was adopted and establishes an essential framework to address” the challenges raised by the influx of refugees.
In the same statement, the agency invites London to improve its asylum system.
For his part, in a message posted on Instagram, the singer Elton John declared himself “very concerned about the statements (of the minister) according to which discrimination against homosexuals and women should not be a sufficient reason” to benefit from refugee status.
“Ignoring the real danger facing LGBTQ+ communities risks further legitimizing hatred and violence against them,” he added, in a statement also signed by his husband, David Furlong, as well as the Elton John Aids Foundation.
“No person coming to Britain by boat from France is fleeing imminent danger”
In his speech, the British minister also noted that the current situation, which he said is “absurd and unbearable”, allows migrants “to choose their preferred destination to seek asylum”. “No person coming to the UK by boat from France is fleeing imminent danger,” she added.
The British government has made the fight against illegal immigration a priority, recalls France Presse. A year ahead of a general election in which Labor is favored, the government continues to toughen its rhetoric against migrants arriving illegally in the UK.
The Refugee Council also took a stand on Suella Braverman’s speech, saying the UK government should “address the real problems facing the asylum system and provide safe routes for people in need of protection”, instead to attack the Geneva Convention.
The Labor opposition also criticized Home Affairs Minister Yvette Cooper, accusing her of “giving up on fixing the mess caused by the Conservatives” regarding the right to asylum and of trying to “blame someone else” by invoking the Convention on in Geneva.
The British government has promised to put an end to crossings of the English Channel from France by migrant boats. However, around 24,000 migrants have already made the crossing so far this year.
Currently, the law prohibits migrants who have arrived illegally in the UK from applying for asylum and provides for their expulsion to third countries, such as Rwanda, a project currently blocked by the courts.
