Thousands of failed asylum seekers from Bangladesh and their relatives are worried about being sent back according to an agreement under the recently elected UK Labour government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday confirmed he was scrapping the Rwanda deportation scheme, a controversial plan to fly thousands of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.
However, the Conservative government signed an SOP, or standard operating procedure, with Bangladesh in May – in their first-ever Joint Working Group meeting on Home Affairs in London at the British Home Office – to return Bangladeshis not approved for asylum in Britain.
This has left Bangladeshi asylum seekers and their families anxious.
At the time, the Bangladesh High Commissioner in Britain said in a statement that the good news was that Bangladesh was not among the top 10 countries in terms of the number of undocumented citizens in the United Kingdom.
However, according to High Commissioner Saida Muna Tasneem, it was essential to sign the memorandum of understanding with the post-Brexit UK.
Notably, even without the new agreement, people could be sent back. Britain had previously made repatriation agreements with the government of Albania as well.
According to a report by The Telegraph, from March last year to March this year, 11,000 Bangladeshis applied for political asylum in Britain.
The report mentioned that they had arrived in the UK on student, worker or tourist visas.
After that, they applied for political asylum and tried to settle in Britain permanently.
“Just 5% of Bangladeshis’ initial asylum claims are successful,” the report from May states.
‘Agreement unlikely to change’
Commenting on what the new government might do about rejected political asylum seekers, Labour’s Croydon Councillor Mohammed Islam told this correspondent that he did not see any likelihood of the new government making changes to agreements completed in writing with the previous government.
Nazir Ahmed, principal solicitor at Lincoln’s Chambers Solicitors in London, said that according to the agreement, the Bangladesh High Commission would quickly assist the British authorities by providing emergency travel documents to those concerned.
“In many cases, the possibility of being put on a flight on Sunday after being held on Friday cannot be ruled out. The Home Office will try to take advantage of weekends. As a result of this agreement, many genuine applicants will be adversely affected.”
Meanwhile, Md Iqbal Hossain from Chancery Solicitors in London remarked that if the new government fast-tracked the return of failed Bangladeshi asylum seekers, it would be very terrible for Bangladeshis.
Although there are no exact statistics, approximately over 100,000 Bangladeshis are living in Britain without proper documentation with their asylum applications pending. Many have also received work permits.
Some in the local community said instead of bringing in new manpower, legalizing the existing undocumented individuals would benefit the UK.
The government could collect taxes by integrating them into the mainstream British economy, they added.
Mahbubul Karim, a leader of the Liberal Democrats in Luton, said instead of legalizing long-term illegal immigrants, the government was considering imposing new restrictions.
“Thousands of people who came here on various work visas, including care (Health and Care Worker) visas, are unemployed. All in all, immigrants and general people have been going through the most difficult time in Britain in the past decade.”