There’s no easy answer when it comes to asylum seekers – but the UK can do better than this

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The governments new bill will punish the victims, not the perpetrators (WPA Rota)

There’s no easy answer to the issue of asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the UK on small boats, but criminalising thousands of vulnerable people and further ruining already damaged lives cannot be the best the UK can do.

“Safe and legal” routes to the UK don’t exist for the majority of refugees, so imprisoning people in detention centres for not using them is unfair, and punishes those who believe they had no other choice but to enter the UK this way.

No one chooses to be a refugee, or to risk their lives on dangerous journeys; it is a status forced on them by war or disaster.