UNHCR blasts UK's planned immigration law
Gulf Times
Britain's interior minister Priti Patel has said the current system was "overwhelmed".
Britain's proposed law to implement what it calls the biggest overhaul of asylum rules in decades "undermines established international refugee protection rules", the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Thursday.
Interior minister Priti Patel -- a prominent supporter of Brexit, where "taking back control" of immigration was a key campaign issue -- said the current system was "overwhelmed".
Instead, she said the proposed new law would be based "on genuine need of refuge, not on the ability to pay people smugglers".
But the UNHCR said the bill "would penalise most refugees seeking asylum in the country via damaging and unjustified penalties, creating an asylum model that undermines established international refugee protection rules and practices".
