A POWYS group supporting refugees in the county set up a market stall earlier this month to share awareness of a controversial new bill proposed by home secretary Priti Patel.

The Nationality and Borders Bill, dubbed the “anti-refugee bill” by campaigners, would give the UK Government powers to jail asylum seekers for up to four years if they arrive via treacherous small boat journeys, and send others to a third country for processing and detention. It would also allow ministers to strip people of their British citizenship without warning.

The Welsh Government rejected the new legislation a week ago, with Scotland following suit this week.

On Thursday, February 10, in Hay Market, members of Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees (HBTSR) stood with people fleeing war and persecution and joined others around the country by promoting two key cross-party amendments to the bill; these include the removal of clause 11 which would permit the Home Office to treat refugees differently based on how they arrived here and the introduction of a new and safe route by setting an ambitious but deliverable target to resettle 10,000 of the world’s most vulnerable refugees a year.

As part of an ongoing collaboration with Together with Refugees, members of the group set up a stall in Hay-on-Wye. The aim was to ensure that people visiting the market were aware of the Nationality and Borders Bill and to share details.

Group secretary Ailsa Dunn said: “We found everyone who visited the stall was keen to sign our request to our MP to reconsider her support for the bill.

“We also were given £217 in donations with many people thanking us for drawing their attention to the details of the bill.”

The Nationality and Borders Bill is now at the committee stage in the House of Lords. A number of Welsh peers have told the group that they will seek to support these amendments.

If passed into law, the bill will deny many refugees the chance to seek sanctuary in the UK, criminalise many of those who try, isolate refugees in harmful out-of-town institutions, and undermine 70 years of international co-operation under the UN refugee convention. Many consider the Bill to be inhumane, expensive, unworkable and one that risks eroding the UK’s international standing.

“The government says the bill will ‘fix the broken asylum system’,” added Ailsa.

“Instead, many experts think that it will worsen problems such as the large, growing backlog of people awaiting a decision on being accepted as a refugee and the poverty and insecurity they suffer in the meantime.

“To make matters even worse, the bill does nothing to increase access to ‘official’ routes nor to offer safe passage for unaccompanied children or others with family ties in the UK. It does not address the right to work whilst awaiting decisions upon asylum cases which can take years and may lead to exploitation such as modern day slavery.

“Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees thinks that how we treat refugees reflects who we are. At our best, we are welcoming and kind to those facing difficult times. If any one of us feared for our lives or the lives of our loved ones, we’d hope that others would help us to safety.

“Please join our call for a kinder, more humane approach to refugees – so they can seek safety in the UK, rebuild their lives and make a valuable contribution to their new communities. You can let your MP know your thoughts so they can be represented when the bill returns to the Commons in March.”

Former prime minister John Major criticised the bill, saying that while “it proposes serious action against criminal gangs that traffic migrants – and rightly so. But it also proposes to criminalise the migrants themselves”.

HBTSR formed in September 2015, as the global refugee crisis escalated. It is a registered charity and joined City of Sanctuary soon afterwards. For more information, visit https://hbtsr.cityofsanctuary.org/.