The mania for deportation is expensive, cruel and doesn’t work. My family history shows how the UK can benefit from refugees
Guli Francis-Dehqani is a member of the independent Commission on the Integration of Refugees
This week, as the Rwanda bill ping-pongs between the Lords and the Commons, delaying even further the government’s unrealistic deportation plans for refugees, an independent commission has published some concrete solutions aimed at permanently fixing Britain’s failing asylum system. As one of the 22 members of this group, I have spent the past two years working on these recommendations, which could improve life for refugees and the wider British public, upskill the UK economy and raise a net income of more than £1bn.
At the same time I have been opposing the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda – the latest contentious and divisive plan from a government that is producing few realistic or cost-effective alternatives in an increasingly polarising area of policy. The government’s strategy to meet its target to clear the backlog of asylum claims by the end of 2023 and the Illegal Migration Act are just two others, and at the time of the commission concluding its work, the next steps on both were still not clear.
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is the bishop of Chelmsford and the Church of England’s lead bishop for housing
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