London, United Kingdom. Given that England has been overwhelmed by migrants to the point of an EU Brexit divorce, one would assume there is a central minister or ministry responsible for migrant matters, but if you said yes, you would be very wrong.
The post Brexit government of the United Kingdom should create a ministerial post with specific responsibility for refugees, MPs and peers have said.
British MPs criticised a “two tier” system of providing protection for refugees MPs criticised a “two tier” system of providing protection for refugees and targeting needed resources to those who need it most.
A group on refugees said thousands of people face homelessness and destitution due to a “two-tier” system, where those brought in through resettlement schemes receive more support than those with refugee status after arriving as asylum seekers.
Officials argued that refugees should have more help to access English language classes, training, health services and that ministers should change rules that ban asylum seekers from working.The members of parliament said the issues were exacerbated by administrative delays, a lack of support for employment and skills and an absence of a UK integration strategy.
“Those refugees who have come through the asylum route will have faced the same persecution and violence as those who are resettled,” the UK report said.
“That two refugees who could have fled from the same country, the same town, even the same neighbourhood could have such different experiences of what it means to be a refugee in the UK is unacceptable.”
Britain has had more than 50,000 refugees arrive in Britain as asylum seekers since 2012, while fewer than 10,000 people have come in through resettlement programs in the same period.
The refugees in the UK have fled unimaginable horrors are now being left homeless and destitute. Whoever is in government after the 2017 elections should ensure that for all refugees, no matter how they arrived in the UK, protection means protection.