by Caroline Nokes, Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump
A senior Tory MP has compared the government’s immigration plan to Donald Trump’s “caging children”.
Caroline Nokes said elements of Rishi Sunak’s legislation halting small boat crossings were “absolutely appalling”.
It comes as the Illegal Migration Bill cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons, despite dozens of Tory MPs refusing to vote for it.
The legislation aims to stop people applying for asylum in the UK when they arrive through unauthorized channels, deport them and bar them from returning.
The bill allows illegal arrivals to be detained without bail or judicial review for the first 28 days of detention until they can be deported.
However, a number of dissatisfied Tory MPs have called for changes to protect victims of trafficking in women, children and modern slavery.
Individuals detained in connection with cases of illegal entry into the United States sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, on June 17, 2018.
Nokes, chair of the Women’s and Equality Committee, was among 44 Tory backbenchers who failed to vote for the Illegal Migration Bill on Monday night.
She told TalkTV: “I listened to the words the Home Secretary said last week to spread the specter – I think it started with 100 million displaced people all coming here. Well, that’s just a fallacy, they don’t come here.
“73% of displaced people worldwide are in the neighboring country of their country of origin.
“As Chair of the Special Committee on Women and Equality, I looked at the provisions of the bill that would have given the Home Secretary powers to imprison pregnant women and imprison children with their families.
“Although there was a special regime for unaccompanied children, this would have given the home secretary the opportunity to take children to other countries – places like Rwanda.
“Which I felt was contrary to our responsibilities under the Children Act 1989, which, to be perfectly honest, we didn’t learn from Donald Trump and his incarceration of children, that this is a terrible thing – incarceration of children?”
Trump’s administration implemented policies that took thousands of children from their parents as part of a crackdown on immigration.
Its “zero tolerance” policy towards unauthorized border crossings – implemented in a 2017 pilot program and broadened in 2018 – led to prosecutions of parents and the separate detention of their children.
There was outrage when footage emerged of youth being held in cages at a warehouse in Texas, just across the border from Mexico.
When presenter Tom Newton Dunn pressed her on whether she equated the UK government with Trump’s actions, she replied: “Well I think when you saw his willingness to separate families and when I look at the content of this bill – allow the children would be detained for at least 28 days with no chance of bail – to me that is just appalling.
“Absolutely appalling. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for this bill.
“I don’t think it will have the impact that the government has proposed. I don’t think this will deter a single migrant from making this crossing.”
The House of Commons voted 312 to 250 (majority 62) to give the bill a second reading.
Former Tory Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland voted in favor of the law but warned the Government he had “major concerns” at the prospect of children being held.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “As I said, I said in my speech (in the House of Commons on Monday) that the issue, which affects women and children in particular, needs to be addressed head on.
“I do not support the detention of unaccompanied children or the separation of families; This was a government policy that has been in place since 2010.
“And I think those parts of the bill should be removed. Voting to advance the principle of a bill is different from the details of the bill and I would expect it to be carefully considered.”
Speaking in America, Sunak defended the bill. He said: “I am confident that our bill is the best way to tackle this problem.
“I have also always known that there is no simple solution to a complicated problem. It will require many different interventions.”
