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Unions have condemned British home secretary Priti Patel’s appointment of the former Australian foreign minister and key architect of the Pacific Solution

The British government has handpicked former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer to review the country’s border force, months after he urged the UK to adopt Australia’s controversial boat turn-back policy.

British home secretary Priti Patel announced Downer, a key proponent of Australia’s Pacific Solution, would review the UK Border Force and examine the agency’s “structure, powers, funding and priorities”.

Unions in Britain were quick to condemn the appointment, which they described as “deeply concerning”, citing Downer’s role in Australia’s “inhumane” immigration policies.

Asylum seekers arrived in the UK in record numbers last year, fleeing persecution by boat across the English Channel. Many say they have no alternative but to make the hours-long journey across the Channel because there are no alternative “safe and legal routes”, a criticism also aired by the French president Emmanuel Macron.

Both Patel and Downer have advocated for harsher policies as a deterrent.

Patel has suggested boats be “pushed back” to the French coast, a proposal that Downer supported in a piece for the Daily Mail in September, boasting of Australia’s policy of sending boats back to Indonesia.

Downer said the suggestion people were fleeing France was “ridiculous”, saying his recent holiday experience in Dordogne which was “very civilised”.

The border force review is expected to take several months to complete.

“The public rightly expects this work to be carried out to the highest possible standard, which is why I have ordered this review of Border Force to identify ways in which it can keep improving its operations,” Patel said.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/18/deeply-concerning-british-government-picks-alexander-downer-to-review-uks-border-force

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