Even the most ardent members of the Conservative Party were surprised by Prime Minister of the UK Rishi Sunak’s revision of the nation’s immigration laws.
The “Stop the Boats Bill” or Illegal Migration Law, which outlines a plan to stop people from entering the UK illegally to seek asylum, has drawn attention to Sunak’s family history of immigration as well as that of UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her predecessor Priti Patel.
Sunak wrote the following while announcing the rule: “You will be prevented from filing late claims and attempting to thwart your deportation if you entered the UK unlawfully. In a few weeks, you will be deported, either to Rwanda or, if it is secure to do so, to your own country.”
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, stated in a statement: “The British people want us to resolve this situation, and I and the PM are committed to doing so.
The boats must be stopped. You won’t be permitted to remain.”
Priti Patel, the former home minister in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet, had previously established a “pushback policy” that aimed to forcibly return people in tiny boats to France.
All three are regarded as ardent Brexiteers who fervently backed Britain’s secession from the European Union: Sunak, Patel, and Braverman.
Sunak’s family emigrated to unrecognized India while the British Raaj was still the region’s dominant colonial force, but they only arrived in London in 1960. Sunaks were among those who became known as “twice migrants,” having first traveled from India to Africa and then later stored in the United Kingdom.
In addition, like Rishi Sunak, former home secretary Priti Patel and UK home secretary Suella Braverman are the offspring of two immigrants.
Like the Sunaks, who traveled from India through Kenya to the United Kingdom, Braverman’s father was from Goa.
The South Asian diaspora cannot include Sunak, Braverman, and Patel. Why?
The three of them are classified as belonging to the general South Asian diaspora in the UK. Yet, sociologically speaking, Leonard Williams’ study “Indian Diversity in the UK: An Analysis of a Complex and Varied Population” categorizes the three of them as East African Asians in the UK, distinct from other South Asian immigrants (or “new migrants”) in many aspects.
Route of 20th-century migration from India to Africa and the UK.
Indians from the present-day Punjab regions of India and Pakistan, as well as from Gujarat and Maharashtra, started migrating to East African nations when the British were the colonizing force in the Indian subcontinent.
Railroad workers made up the first wave of emigrants in the late 19th century.
According to information kept in the Imperial Indian Gazetteer, the second wave of migration to East Africa started after the British transferred the nation’s capital from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911 and continued until the start of the second world war. During the time, professionals including doctors, clerks, lawyers, accountants, and small dealers traveled to these nations and settled primarily in cities and towns.
new ownership of land Many Indians were forced to leave the country in search of better possibilities as a result of laws passed to make room for local Africans in positions of authority.
The families of Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, and Rishi Sunak traveled to the UK in this context.
In nations like Kenya and Tanzania, the process of forcing Indians to leave East African countries was gradual and covert. General Idi Amin Dada, however, imposed a deadline for all Indians to leave the nation by 1972, or face the consequences, which led to a terrible turn in Uganda.
The current immigration backlash in Britain
The UK, according to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is “spending £5.5 million a day plus on hotels,” in reference to the alleged lodging expenses of the asylum seekers.
Recent protests that have broken out around the locations of these apartments have sparked significant anti-immigration outrage in Britain.
In order to combat illegal immigration, the UK Prime Minister is also thinking about leaving the (ECHR) European Convention on Human Rights.