Anglican Church leader calls immigration bill 'morally unacceptable'

Anglican Church spiritual leader Justin Welby on Wednesday sharply criticised the British government's controversial illegal immigration bill, calling it "morally unacceptable".

In front of the House of Lords that studies the text and of which he is a member, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, called on Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reconsider this bill.

Restricting the right to asylum

It aims to drastically restrict the right of asylum in order to put an end to illegal crossings of the Channel. It effectively makes asylum inaccessible to migrants who arrived illegally, most often by crossing the Channel by rubber boat.

It provides for the speedy deportation of migrants who have arrived illegally and prohibits them from seeking asylum and subsequently from settling in the United Kingdom or applying for British citizenship. It also facilitates the detention of migrants until they are deported to a third country deemed safe, such as Rwanda.

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I urge the government to reconsider much of the bill, which falls short of our history, our moral responsibility, and our political and international interests," said Justin Welby. "It is morally unacceptable and politically impractical to leave the poorest countries to deal with the crisis alone," said Justin Welby, the top Anglican Church official in the UK since 2013.

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The draft "risks seriously damaging the interests and reputation of the United Kingdom ... not to mention the interests of those in need of protection". The Archbishop of Canterbury, who on May 6 crowned Charles III and his wife Camilla, accused the government of "cruelty".

In The Times newspaper, Interior Minister Suella Braverman defended his "robust measures". "We urge the House of Lords ... to remember that the bill is designed to meet the will of the British people in a humane and fair way and to support the bill," she wrote, in a text co-signed with Justice Minister Alex Chalk.

Rishi Sunak has made the fight against illegal immigration a priority after a year 2022 where the arrivals of migrants on small boats via the Channel exceeded 45,000, a record. His draft law has been criticized by many international organizations.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, called on British parliamentarians to oppose it, denouncing its "incompatibility" with the UK's international obligations.