HUMAN rights groups have condemned an order by US President Joe Biden imposing immediate restrictions on migrants seeking asylum after crossing the Mexican border.

Tuesday’s long-anticipated presidential proclamation will deny asylum to migrants when US officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. 

Global Refuge president and chief executive Krish O’Mara said: “We’re troubled to see this administration raise the bar on asylum-seekers who are coming to our southern border and exercising a legal right. 

“Certainly, no-one wants to see migrants who may be coming to seek a better life or for economic opportunity game the asylum system, but we see in our clients and in other immigrants people who are fleeing the most dire of circumstances at a time of unprecedented global migration and believe that the US is still a beacon of hope and refuge.”

Mr Biden’s directive comes at a time when the flow of migrants crossing the border has been in consistent decline since December, but senior administration officials claim that the numbers are still too high and could spike in better weather, as usually happens.

Once the order takes effect, migrants who arrive at the border but do not express a fear of returning to their home countries will face immediate removal from US soil.