Joint Letter to the Prime Minister: Illegal Migration Bill
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing to you now regarding the Illegal Migration Bill. As charities, unions and community organisations that stand with refugees, and people with lived experience of seeking asylum and being refugees, we are horrified by the proposed legislation that shames this Government and marks the UK as running roughshod over human rights.
The need to seek safety is a reality for people fleeing war and persecution across the world. The right to do so, and be treated fairly, is a long-established international principle. Like every country party to the Refugee Convention, the United Kingdom has committed to do its fair share to provide sanctuary and support people to rebuild their lives. This Bill, which proposes we lock up families, children and other refugees simply for asking for protection, fundamentally undermines this principle and makes a mockery of our international commitments.
This cruel and unworkable legislation will be just as damaging as last year’s Nationality and Borders Act. It will cause misery, cost millions to the taxpayer and drive desperate people to take ever more dangerous journeys having been left with no other route to safety. The Government boasts of our proud history of welcoming refugees, but this asylum ban does the exact opposite — it shuts the door on desperate people in need of protection. The glaring racism at the heart of the Government’s hostile refugee policy — which pulls up the ladder on refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and most of Asia including Afghanistan — must be called out.
Hostility and deterrence do not work. Last year’s anti-refugee Nationality and Borders Act proves it. What’s needed is a focus on improving the system. This includes better and faster decision-making to tackle a backlog that leaves people languishing in hotels; it means giving people seeking asylum the right to work; and it means supporting people to live safely and in dignity in our communities in humane housing. If passed, this Bill will cause more chaos to the asylum system by leaving thousands of people trapped in permanent limbo.
The Government must scrap this Bill and uphold its commitment to the Refugee Convention. This means considering people’s claims for asylum based on their merits and not the journey they took to get here, and supporting people to rebuild their lives in our communities.
We urge Ministers to rein in their inflammatory words that all too often echo the language used by racist groups. Dehumanising people in order to target minority and protected groups of people can only draw frightening parallels from history.
As signatories to this letter, we have pledged to defend the right to seek safety from war and persecution in the UK and oppose the long line of anti-refugee laws of which this Bill is the latest. In response to this Bill, we ask the Government to urgently rethink these measures, which do not reflect the proud history of welcome in the UK of which you speak so often.
Yours sincerely,
Abigail Housing
Action Foundation
African Community centre
African Rainbow Family
Alghochak – Afghan Association NI
Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU)
Ardoyne Youth Enterprise
Ashton Churches Asylum Project
Asylum Link Merseyside
Asylum Matters
Asylum Support Appeals Project
Asylum Welcome
Bail for Immigration Detainees
BARAC UK
Bath Trades Union Council
Beacon
Belfast Friendship Club
Ben & Jerry’s
Bentham Area Refugee Support Group
Best for Britain
Bristol Hospitality Network
Bradford Immigration and Asylum Support and Advice Network (BIASAN)
Big Leaf Foundation
Birmingham Community Hosting Network (BIRCH)
Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid
Black Europeans
Bloody Good Period
Bradford City of Sanctuary
Bridgwater Trades Union Council
Brighton Migrant English Project
Bristol City of Sanctuary
Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers Campaign
Bristol Refugee Rights
Bromsgrove Justice and Peace Group
Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcome Refugees
Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group
Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign
CARAS
Care4Calais
Caritas Leeds (Catholic Diocese)
Caritas Shrewsbury
Carlisle Refugee Action Group
C-Change Scotland
Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
Children England
Children in Wales
Children’s Law Centre
City of Sanctuary UK
Come2Calais Volunteering
Committee on the Administration of Justice
Community Policy Forum
Connect Aid
Coventry Against Racism
Coventry refugee and migrant centre
Craven District of Sanctuary
CRIBS International
Croeso Menai
Curious monkey
Cyfoeth Y Coed
Da’aro Youth Project
DARE Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise
Derby Refugee Forum
Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity
Digbeth in the Fields, United Reformed Church in Birmingham
Diverse Cymru
Doctors of the World
Doncaster Conversation Club
Dr Zigs
Durham City of Sanctuary
Dyma Ni
Ecojustice Ireland
ECPAT UK
End Deportations Belfast
End Violence Against Women Coalition
Entraide
Epsom and Ewell refugee network
ERANO -Empowering Refugees and Newcomers Organisation
Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team Wales (EYST)
Europia
Everyday Language Solutions
Evesham Vale Welcomes Refugees
Fair Vote UK
Faith Network for Manchester
Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)
forRefugees
Freedom from Torture
Freedom United
Friends of the Drop in for Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group
George House Trust
Global Link (Lancaster)
Good Chance Theatre
Govan Community Project
Grassington Peace Group
Greater Manchester Equality Alliance (GM=EqAl)
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Growing Together Levenshulme
Guildford Refugee Aid
Hackney Stand Up to Racism
Haringey Migrant Support Centre
Haringey Welcome
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
Hastings Supports Refugees
Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees
Helen Bamber Foundation
Helping Empower Lives in Peterborough (HELP)
Her Centre
Here for Good Law
Here NI
Herts for Refugees
Hope and Aid Direct
Hope Cafe Athens
Hope into Action: UK
HOPE not hate
Hope Projects
Human Rights Consortium
Human Rights Consortium Scotland
Human Rights Watch
Humans for Rights Network
Humans of Wolverhampton
Inclusion London
Jesuit Refugee Service UK
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
Justice and Peace Co-ordinating Council Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle
Justice First
Just Right Scotland
Kairos Women Working Together
Kalayaan
Keep our NHS Public Merseyside and Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital Campaign
Lancaster Cohousing Black Lives Matter Group
Latin American Women’s Rights Service
Law Centres Network
Lawrence Street Workshops
Learn for Life Enterprise
Liberty
M W Accounting
Magic for Smiles
Maison Foo
Manchester City of Sanctuary
Manchester Community Central
Manchester Migrant Solidarity
Marlow Refugee Action
Mary Thompson Fund
Maryhill Integration Network
Medical Aid for Refugees & Displaced People
Medical Justice
Methodist Central Hall Manchester
Methodist Church
Metropolitan Community Church of North London
Micro Rainbow
Middlesbrough Diocese Justice and Peace Commission.
Migrants At Work Ltd
Migrant Centre NI
Migrant Voice
Migrants Organise
Migrants’ Rights Network
Migration Justice Project at Law Centre NI
Migration Policy and Practice
Minority Ethnic Achievement Service
Museum of Homelessness
Muslim Council of Britain
NACCOM
Neath Port Talbot Friends of the Earth
New Europeans UK
New to the UK, North Shields
Newcastle Reform Synagogue
No To Hassockfield
North East Law Centre
North East Migration Project
North of England Refugee Service
North Wales Regional Equality Network
North West Migrants Forum
Northern Ireland Women’s Budget Group
Northumberland County of Sanctuary
Northumbria People
Nottingham Arimathea Trust
Oasis Church Inner Birmingham
Open Hearts Open Borders Ltd
Open Britain
Open Door North East
Our Second Home
Participation and the Practice of Rights
Pendle New Neighbours
Penrith and Eden Refugee Network
Phoenix Law Human Rights Lawyers
Phone Credit For Refugees
Plan International UK
Plymouth in Unison
Plymouth Trades Council
Pobl i Bobl – Supporting Refugees
POhWER
Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS)
Positive Action In Housing
Praxis
Prisoners’ Advice Service
Psychologists for Social Change Leeds
Psychologists For Social Change North East
Public Law Project
Quaker Service
Ra Football Club
Rainbow Refugees NI
Raise South West CIC
Refugee Asylum Seeker Migrant Action
Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London
RAPAR
Rape Crisis England & Wales
RAS Voice
Reading City of Sanctuary
Reboot GB
Reclaim the Agenda
Red Rope Socialist Walking and Climbing Club
Refugee Action
Refugee Aid Network
Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project Stockton
Refugee and Migrant Centre (West Midlands)
Refugee Biriyani & Bananas
Refugee Council
Refugee Futures
Refugee Relief Ynys Mon
Refugee Support Group Berkshire
Refugee Tales, Cymru
Refugee Women of Bristol
Refugee Youth Service
Refugee, Asylum seeker and Migrant Action
Refugees at Home
Regional Refugee Forum North East
René Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights
Reset
Restore – a project of Birmingham Churches Together
Rights of Women
Ripon City of Sanctuary
Roger Baron IFA Ltd
Room to Heal
Roots
S.H.A.R.E. MOLD
Salford CVS
Saltburn & East Cleveland Befrienders
Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital
Save The Children
Scarborough Friends of Refugees
Scottish Refugee Council
STDWR stroud
SHARe Knowsley
Simon Community Scotland
Six Ways Erdington Baptist Church
Skipton & Craven Refugee Support Network
Skipton Refugee Support Group
SMK Law Solicitors
Socialist Workers Party
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group
South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice
Southampton Action
St Albans for Refugees
St Augustine’s Centre
St Chad’s Sanctuary
St Thomas Aquinas School
St Vincent de Paul RC Church, Justice & Peace Group Liverpool
St Vincent’s Support Centre
St. James Church, Swansea
St.Thomas Church Ashton-in-Makerfield Lancashire
Stand & Be Counted Theatre
Stand Together Andover
Stand Up To Racism Birmingham
Stand up to Racism Llanelli
STAR Exeter
Starling Collective
Statewatch
Step Up Migrant Women UK
Stockton Baptist Church
Stories of Hope and Home
Stroud Quaker Meeting
Student Action for Refugees
Sunderland City of Sanctuary
Surviving Economic Abuse
Swansea Asylum Seeker Support
Swansea City of Sanctuary
Support for Wigan Arrivals Project
Swindon City of Sanctuary
Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group
Tara Centre Lancaster
Team Parish of St Luke in the City, Liverpool
Tees Valley of Sanctuary
The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees
The Bike Project
The Birth Partner Project
The Church at Carrs Lane
The Cotton Tree Trust
The Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE)
The PILS Project
The Rainbow Project
The Refugee Rights Project
The Runnymede Trust
The William Gomes Podcast
The Women’s Centre Derry
Trinity Safe Space Charity
Tynemouth Together with Refugees
Tyneside Welcomes
U it’s Community Cornwall Branch
UCL Student Action for Refugees
UNISON
Unlock Democracy
Upbeat Communities
Voice Ability
Voices in Exile
Voices Without Borders
Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE)
Volunteering Bradford – Inclusive Support
Walking With in North Tyneside
Walsall Quakers
WAST (Manchester Women Asylum Seekers Together)
We Belong
Welcome House
Wells Refugee Action Group
Welsh Centre for International Affairs
West London Welcome
With Love – baby blankets for refugees
Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary
Women for Refugee Women
Women’s Platform
York STAR
Young Roots