Amnesty UK Submission to Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill Public Bill Committee

Amnesty's submission to the Public Bill Committee considers the wider implications for the UK's immigration system of ending EU free movement. In this submission, we emphasis the need for parliamentary deliberation upon the following in preparation for a post-Brexit single immigration system with responsibilities that will inevitably be far enlarged in terms of the number of applications and people the system will be required to manage. In particular, deliberation on the following is needed: 

(i) the principles, purposes and constraints to and within which it is to operate; 

(ii) complexity and volatility of the immigration system, including by the manner, degree and frequency of changes to its rules and fees; 

(iii) respect for family unity and for children’s rights, including in relation to refugee rights of family reunion and the rights of British and settled persons to be joined by family members in the UK;  

(iv) the need for effective safeguards including to ensure access to justice for individuals by provision of appeal rights and legal aid; and to secure equality, human rights, data protection and constraint on the exercise of the power to detain (including through the introduction of a statutory time limit); 

(v) the means by which the immigration system makes people vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, including survivors of domestic violence at risk of being subjected to immigration powers if seeking to escape their abusers; and 

(vI) barriers, including prohibitive and unjustifiable fees, to the exercise of rights to British citizenship of people born and grown up in the UK.