PRESS RELEASE:

IHRC will join campaigners opposed to the controversial Nationality and Borders Bill to take part in a national demonstration against the proposed legislation later this month.

The much criticised Bill which is currently winding through Parliament gives the Home Secretary the right to to strip Britons with foreign ancestry of their nationality without notice.

The Citizenship Bill, as it has been dubbed, furnishes the Secretary of State with an excessive, ill-defined and unconstitutional power to make a deprivation order without notice and with fewer safeguards for those it targets. There is no test or clear definition for exercise of the proposed powers. The Home Secretary is judge, jury and executioner.

It is estimated that six million people could be affected if the law comes into force. It stands to have a disproportionate impact on those born overseas or who have a parent born abroad. As such it is racist.

The Bill also targets migrants by giving Border Force officers powers to turn refugees away from the UK while at sea, and makes it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK without permission.

As such it creates punitive and inhumane barriers for those who rightly deserve asylum, leaving them at the mercy of human traffickers. The Government’s own lawyers have even warned that they would likely lose a case on the lawfulness of forcing migrant boats to reverse course. All this serves to only further entrench an environment that is hostile to migrants and to those with migrant backgrounds.

The demonstration is supported by 22 civil society organisations:

BARAC UK
Association of Muslim Lawyers
Cube Network
Sikh Council UK
BLM Coalition
Jewish Voice for Labour
BAME Lawyers for Justice
Society of Black Lawyers
Labour Black Socialist
Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK
Society of Asian Lawyers
End Violence and Racism Against East and Southeast Asian Communities (EVR)
Muslim Association of Britain
Finsbury Park Mosque
Islamic Human Rights Commission
CAGE
Save Our Citizenships
Sikh Human Rights
Stop the War
Restless Beings
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Windrush Lives

PROTEST DETAILS:

When: Sunday 27 February, 12.00am

Assembling at Home Office, SW1P 4DF to march to Parliament Square

For more information or comment please contact 07470 630857 (ENDS)

——————————————————————————————
IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom
Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org
Twitter: @ihrc