Plaid Cymru condemns Illegal Migration Bill before Senedd vote

Plaid Cymru has voiced its “utter condemnation” of the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill ahead of a Senedd vote on the legislation.

MS’s will vote later today (20 June) on whether or not to withhold legislative consent for the controversial Bill.

The Bill aims to ensure those who arrive in the UK without permission will be detained and promptly deported, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.

Earlier this year, Home Secretary Suella Braverman admitted the legislation has more than a 50% chance of being incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

A number of human rights organisations have agreed that the Bill is incompatible with international human rights treaties, of which the UK is a signatory, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Incompatible

Speaking before the Senedd vote, Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for social justice and equalities, Sioned Williams MS said: “Plaid Cymru has voiced our utter condemnation of this Bill many times – both in the Senedd and in Westminster.

“This is a Bill which undermines the rights of unaccompanied asylum-seeker children and young people and is shamefully incompatible with the child-first, migrant-second approach that upholds the best interests and rights of children in Wales.

“Not only is this Bill wholly inconsistent with Wales’s commitment of being a nation of sanctuary, it likely breaches International Human Rights Law and certainly narrows the scope of human rights protections in the UK – removing such protections entirely in some cases.

“No member of the Senedd should consent to a bill which requires Wales to breach international human rights law contrary to our own devolution settlement. Plaid Cymru fundamentally opposes any attempt to undermine the right and power of this Senedd to legislate in devolved policy areas, and this ill-founded piece of legislation is the perfect example of why we hold that view.

“Welsh Government must go one further and take steps to ensure that Wales has the powers to stop any legislation that is incompatible with the values and best interests of Wales.”