Celebrities from both sides of the pond have teamed up to condemn a government bill which could criminalise some refugees seeking safety in the UK.
The short video from Refugee Council was scripted by writer and comic David Schneider, and urges No.10 to reconsider the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently in the final stages in parliament.
It will treat refugees differently according to how they reached the UK and those who take especially dangerous journeys – such as travelling in small boats across the English Channel – will be treated as criminals.
Celebrated British actress Dame Emma Thompson kicks off the clip by addressing the camera, putting the viewer in the position of a migrant: “You’re a mother fleeing with your toddler and a baby from bombs falling on your home. You’re a criminal.”
American legend Meryl Streep then follows: “You’re an elderly grandmother. You have trouble walking and you’re trying to reunite with family. You’re a criminal.”
“You’re heavily pregnant, trying to escape with nothing but the clothes on your back. You’re a criminal,” Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe says.
Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone adds: “You’re a teenager. You don’t even know where your family is or if they’re even alive. You’re a criminal.”
Other celebrities – including actors David Harewood, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Luke Evans, and David Morrissey along with writer Benjamin Zephaniah – continue to run through the lists of refugees who could be coming to the UK including diabetics and wheelchair users.
“This government wants to criminalise desperate refugees for taking what they see as the wrong path to safety,” Emma explains later in the clip, adding: “It is not always possible to take the right path when you’re running from bombs.”
AsBenjamin points out, “your life matters”, regardless of what country you’ve fled from or which war you’re fleeing.
The powerful clip has since been retweeted by other celebrities including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, who added the message: “People fleeing for their lives from war and persecution should be treated with kindness not like criminals.”
The Refugee Council is calling on the public to email their local MP to pressure No.10 to remove various parts of the bill.
The charity’s CEO Enver Solomon said the new bill is “brutal and cruel” and undermines the refugee Convention which the UK signed in 1951.
“Now more than ever we must strengthen, not weaken our commitment to granting protection to any man, woman or child who has fled war and oppression regardless of how they arrived.”
The Nationality and Borders Bill is being rolled out as part of the UK’s tougher stance on immigration.
It is currently being ferried between the Commons and the House of Lords over various measures before MPs vote on whether to pass it into law.
Ministers claim it will establish a post-Brexit asylum system which will be “firm but fair” and allow the UK to “take full control of its borders”.
It also aims to prevent illegal entry to the UK, remove people from Britain if they have no right to be there and protect those who are in genuine need by creating a new system.
It could allow border force officers to turn boats away from British shores without prosecution, and make it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK without permission.
The maximum sentence for people entering the UK unlawfully could go up to four years under the new bill. The current maximum sentence in six months.
The threshold for asylum seekers to prove they face persecution will also be raised to an even higher level than it is currently if the bill passes into law.
The bill has been heavily criticised, and even described as one of the “biggest attacks on the rights of refugees in recent memory” by Labour’s Olivia Blake.
The backlash around the bill adds to the growing frustration over the UK’s attitude towards refugees.
As the UN estimates more than four million people have now fled Ukraine in the month since Russia invaded, the UK has been accused of dragging its feet when it offering those fleeing the war.
Refugees minister Lord Harrington also admitted “we have not got everything right” on Wednesday.
The Tory peer was responding to the backlash over the UK Ukrainian refugee scheme after critics said the process was being too slow.
Almost 60,000 applications have been received for the Ukraine Family Scheme (for refugees with relatives settled in the UK) and the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme (where individuals and groups can accommodate refugees) in total.
However, as of Wednesday March 29, only 25,500 visas had been granted – 2,700 from the sponsorship scheme and 22,800 from the family scheme.
Speaking to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Harrington claimed that staff were working as hard as possible to speed up the process.
The UK has already faced intense criticism over its insistence on the refugees having visas to gain entry into the UK – making it the only European country to do so.
Harrington said: “If I’m positive, I can say we’ve got 30,000 completely forms thereabouts.
“But we have not got everything right. It is not as seamless as it should be.
“We (the Home Office) are not trying to slow things up. The last we looked, there were more than 300 staff and if we include both schemes, about 500 staff.”
“There has been some talk, quite correctly in my view, that the visa application process, the actual filling it out, is too slow,” admitting that it took him “just under an hour filling one out myself”.
Harrington also described it as an “emergency operation” and said the Home Office was trying to get the refugees here “as quickly as possible’.
He said he hoped civil servants could process 15,000 applications per weeks through the two schemes in the next three weeks.
The short video from Refugee Council was scripted by writer and comic David Schneider, and urges No.10 to reconsider the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is currently in the final stages in parliament.
It will treat refugees differently according to how they reached the UK and those who take especially dangerous journeys – such as travelling in small boats across the English Channel – will be treated as criminals.
Celebrated British actress Dame Emma Thompson kicks off the clip by addressing the camera, putting the viewer in the position of a migrant: “You’re a mother fleeing with your toddler and a baby from bombs falling on your home. You’re a criminal.”
American legend Meryl Streep then follows: “You’re an elderly grandmother. You have trouble walking and you’re trying to reunite with family. You’re a criminal.”
“You’re heavily pregnant, trying to escape with nothing but the clothes on your back. You’re a criminal,” Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe says.
Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone adds: “You’re a teenager. You don’t even know where your family is or if they’re even alive. You’re a criminal.”
Other celebrities – including actors David Harewood, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Luke Evans, and David Morrissey along with writer Benjamin Zephaniah – continue to run through the lists of refugees who could be coming to the UK including diabetics and wheelchair users.
“This government wants to criminalise desperate refugees for taking what they see as the wrong path to safety,” Emma explains later in the clip, adding: “It is not always possible to take the right path when you’re running from bombs.”
AsBenjamin points out, “your life matters”, regardless of what country you’ve fled from or which war you’re fleeing.
The powerful clip has since been retweeted by other celebrities including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, who added the message: “People fleeing for their lives from war and persecution should be treated with kindness not like criminals.”
The Refugee Council is calling on the public to email their local MP to pressure No.10 to remove various parts of the bill.
The charity’s CEO Enver Solomon said the new bill is “brutal and cruel” and undermines the refugee Convention which the UK signed in 1951.
“Now more than ever we must strengthen, not weaken our commitment to granting protection to any man, woman or child who has fled war and oppression regardless of how they arrived.”
What is the bill?
The Nationality and Borders Bill is being rolled out as part of the UK’s tougher stance on immigration.
It is currently being ferried between the Commons and the House of Lords over various measures before MPs vote on whether to pass it into law.
Ministers claim it will establish a post-Brexit asylum system which will be “firm but fair” and allow the UK to “take full control of its borders”.
It also aims to prevent illegal entry to the UK, remove people from Britain if they have no right to be there and protect those who are in genuine need by creating a new system.
It could allow border force officers to turn boats away from British shores without prosecution, and make it a criminal offence to arrive in the UK without permission.
The maximum sentence for people entering the UK unlawfully could go up to four years under the new bill. The current maximum sentence in six months.
The threshold for asylum seekers to prove they face persecution will also be raised to an even higher level than it is currently if the bill passes into law.
The bill has been heavily criticised, and even described as one of the “biggest attacks on the rights of refugees in recent memory” by Labour’s Olivia Blake.
That’s not the only problem with the UK’s approach to refugees...
The backlash around the bill adds to the growing frustration over the UK’s attitude towards refugees.
As the UN estimates more than four million people have now fled Ukraine in the month since Russia invaded, the UK has been accused of dragging its feet when it offering those fleeing the war.
Refugees minister Lord Harrington also admitted “we have not got everything right” on Wednesday.
The Tory peer was responding to the backlash over the UK Ukrainian refugee scheme after critics said the process was being too slow.
Almost 60,000 applications have been received for the Ukraine Family Scheme (for refugees with relatives settled in the UK) and the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme (where individuals and groups can accommodate refugees) in total.
However, as of Wednesday March 29, only 25,500 visas had been granted – 2,700 from the sponsorship scheme and 22,800 from the family scheme.
Speaking to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Harrington claimed that staff were working as hard as possible to speed up the process.
The UK has already faced intense criticism over its insistence on the refugees having visas to gain entry into the UK – making it the only European country to do so.
Harrington said: “If I’m positive, I can say we’ve got 30,000 completely forms thereabouts.
“But we have not got everything right. It is not as seamless as it should be.
“We (the Home Office) are not trying to slow things up. The last we looked, there were more than 300 staff and if we include both schemes, about 500 staff.”
“There has been some talk, quite correctly in my view, that the visa application process, the actual filling it out, is too slow,” admitting that it took him “just under an hour filling one out myself”.
Harrington also described it as an “emergency operation” and said the Home Office was trying to get the refugees here “as quickly as possible’.
He said he hoped civil servants could process 15,000 applications per weeks through the two schemes in the next three weeks.
