The Conservative government went to the front on Wednesday to defend its controversial illegal immigration bill in the face of numerous criticisms, including that of ex-footballer Gary Lineker, now a star BBC presenter, who drew parallels with Nazi Germany.
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LIVE - Pensions: follow the new day of demonstration against the reform this Wednesday
With this bill, the British government wants to try to fight against the sharp increase in the arrival of illegal migrants by the English Channel on small boats, one of the main promises of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
It provides for the rapid deportation of migrants arriving in this way and prohibits them from seeking asylum, and subsequently from settling in the UK or applying for British nationality.
It also facilitates the detention of migrants until their deportation to a third country deemed safe.
“The British have had enough”
“
The British have had enough (…) It is not racist to say that we have too many illegal immigrants who abuse our asylum system
”, insisted the Minister of the Interior Suella Braverman on Wednesday in a column published in the
Daily Mail
.
The text has been strongly criticized by refugee aid associations, who believe that it is contrary to international law, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has accused the government of wanting to "put an end to the right
to asylum
" in the country.
But it was the words of ex-England international Gary Lineker that made the front page of many conservative newspapers on Wednesday.
“
My God, this is beyond horrible.
There is no mass influx (of illegal migrants) (...) It is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed against the most vulnerable people in language that is no different from that used by the Germany in the 1930s ,” the now presenter of BBC’s “
The Match of the Day
” program said on Twitter on Tuesday
, sharing a video of Home Secretary Suella Braverman defending the new bill.
Tory MPs have called for BBC sanctions against the former England international, accusing him of
Read alsoHow the United Kingdom wants to block the way to illegal immigrants
Disappointing debate
Asked about the BBC, the Minister of the Interior, already criticized for previous comments on migrants, said she was "
obviously disappointed that he could compare our measures to those of Germany in the 1930s
".
"
I don't think that's an appropriate way to conduct the debate
," she added.
“
We are not breaking the law.
We are confident that the measures we announced yesterday (Tuesday) meet our international legal obligations
,” she also said on Sky
News
.