New immigration proposals betray the UK’s history of accepting refugees, write Dr Edie Friedman and Adam Rose from the Jewish Council for Racial Equality. Plus letters from Ruth Kitching and John Nicholson
As members of a community with a long history of seeking sanctuary from persecution, we are deeply concerned by the government’s new plan for immigration (UN refugee agency hits out at Priti Patel’s plans for UK asylum overhaulMigrants entering UK illegally to be liable for removal at any time, 23 March).
Seventy years on from the refugee convention, it is extremely disturbing to see the government seeking to violate international law and pledging to remove asylum seekers who have entered the UK after passing through “safe countries”. Under such plans, many Jewish refugees who fled to the UK from mainland Europe in the 1930s would not have been protected.
