SNP members attending the party’s conference have voted resoundingly to reject the UK Tories’ Nationality and Borders Bill.
The bill, which would see refugees stripped of rights including the opportunity to settle in the UK permanently, to family reunion, and to access public funds, passed conference by 511 votes to just eight.
Commenting, the SNP’s immigration spokesperson Anne McLaughlin MP, who also moved the resolution, said the Tories had shown “zero compassion” through their support of the bill.
She said: “The SNP has been calling on the UK government to bring in a fair and humane migration system for years - but in light of the situation in Afghanistan, it is now more urgent than ever.
READ MORE: Alison Phipps: What can we Scots do about this unbelievably cruel Borders Bill?
“By voting through this regressive bill, the Tories have shown they have zero compassion and are refusing to play their part on the global stage in supporting refugees.
“There has been widespread concern from MPs and charities about this bill but the Tory government has ploughed ahead with legislation that breaches the UK’s international obligations. This regressive bill is a full-frontal assault on the Refugee Convention and it must be abandoned.”
The UK is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which states that refugees should not be penalised “on account of their illegal entry or presence” in country’s they have entered fleeing from persecution of danger.
The Scottish Refugee Council says the Tories’ bill will “make seeking asylum via an irregular route an offence”, which is in direct contravention of the 1951 Convention.
McLaughlin added: “Scotland has shown it wants to go down a different route - we want to be an open and welcoming country and play our part on the world stage.”
The resolution read: “Conference rejects the U.K. government’s Nationality and Borders Bill in its entirety; believes practices such as ‘offshoring’ human beings, holding them indefinitely in accommodation centres, treating refugees differently depending on how they arrive on these islands and criminalising refugees with jail sentences of up to four years simply for seeking refuge, to be immoral, inhumane and contrary to the 1951 Refugee Convention; conference commits an Independent Scotland to a humane, dignified, respectful asylum system.”
It was put forward by McLaughlin and SNP councillor Graham Campbell.
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