People power – if citizens work together they can change government’s plans. Examples include the resettlement programme and the acceptance of some unaccompanied refugee children.
Please find details of petitions below – please take a moment to sign them – your support can make a difference.
Current as of 4th March 2021
petitions – No recourse to Public funds
Close the Barracks
Lift the ban on working for asylum seeking people. Ireland has recently allowed people seeking asylum to access work after 6 months and a recent review about Germany shows the benefit of allowing work as soon as possible after arrival to ease integration and shows recent refugees have brought great benefit to the German economy
Keep reuniting child refugees with their families
b City of Sanctuary Newsletter and a ‘helpful actions you can take from home’ page . Please try at least a few of these ideas.
c Our concerns about family re unification post Brexit continue. We await a response from Fay Jones about timescales
d Concerns about the use of barracks to house people seeking asylum continues . Refugee action have mounted a petition and appeal . You can still email your MP using this tool by Refugee Action to ask for their help to #CloseTheBarracks.
see Home office response to our MS received this week.
e Drastic cuts to Foreign aid budget to Yemen may result in many deaths from famine. there is an email link here
Long-standing petitions.
Let Refugees Learn
Refugees who have found safety in the UK want to rebuild their lives and be part of their new communities. Sadly, they have a huge obstacle to restarting their lives, because there aren’t enough English classes.
Sign the Let Refugees Learn petition, and ensure that refugees get timely access to English classes and the support they need to attend them.
Keep Refugee Families Together
Children are the only refugees in our immigration system denied the right to bring their immediate families to the UK. As a result, there are hundreds of children across the country who find themselves separated from their family, with no hope of being reunited safely. Neither their parents nor their siblings are permitted to join them – putting at risk their safety and wellbeing in the UK.
Being reunited with close family is often critical to a refugee’s chances of integration and recovery. This separation can be very damaging to their welfare and development. Please sign the Amnesty International UK petition.
Support family reunion for refugees
The UK’s current refugee family reunion rules are very restrictive. They exclude the complex relationships that affect families torn apart by war – for example, people caring for orphaned younger siblings, or unaccompanied children who have been separated from their parents. Please sign Refugee Action’s petition calling on the government to expand refugee family reunion so that families can be reunited. Find out more here.
Refugee council petition to the Home Secretary asking that Families be reunited { basically The UK is one of only two countries in the EU that bans child refugees who arrive in the UK alone from bringing any relatives to join them, even their parents].Also adult refugees are prevented from bringing their children over 18, or their elderly parents. New research here] And a toolkit for campaigning for family reunification
Lift the ban on working here People seeking safety in our country are effectively banned from working. As a result, many are left to live in poverty, struggling to support themselves and their families, whilst the Government wastes the talents of thousands of people. Lift the Ban coalition report see here.
B Detention b End indefinite detention Liberty here c Detention Action here c women for refugee women here d Amnesty International here e Freedom from torture here and here
C destitution Join the campaign to call on the Government to deliver dignity, not destitution, for asylum seekers. Briefing here take action here
D ask the government for a kinder and fairer immigration system here
here and here and here. E support a welcoming Europe here
Please use the links to sign petitions current July 2020
- Ongoing advocacy
Asylum support increase. Ministers waited 12 weeks to help people seeking asylum during the coronavirus crisis. Then they raised Asylum Support by just 26p per day. We should try to convince them this is inadequate and wrong as it risks lives.
it would take 115 days for someone to save the additional 26p per day the Government has given to those claiming asylum support to pay for the cheapest pack of face masks found on the Government’s list of shops it uses to determine asylum support rates (in this case, Boots). Details https://mobile.twitter.com/RefugeeAction/status/1276111365049143296?s=20
Please Email your MP, asking them to demand this pitiful increase in asylum support be urgently reviewed.
Safe Passage for unaccompanied children Support Amendment NC29 and save child refugees
The UK government’s planned Brexit agreement would be the end to refugee family reunion as we know it. This is not what the Prime Minister promised vulnerable refugees when he removed protections for them from the EU bill in January.That is why a cross-party group of MPs is putting forward Amendment NC29 in the Immigration Bill. This would continue existing arrangements for refugee family reunion between the UK and the EU.The more MPs that support this amendment in public, the greater the chance it succeeds.
Please write to your MP now and ask they add their name to Amendment NC29.
Preventing evictions from asylum accommodation into homelessness during COVID-19
Asylum Matters and NACCOM have produced a joint policy paper on the situation for people living in asylum accommodation who face a ‘cliff edge’ if current emergency measures are withdrawn at the end of this month. The paper calls for the continued suspension of evictions from asylum accommodation for at least the next 12 months or longer while COVID-19 poses a public health risk; a permanent end to no recourse to public funds (NRPF) conditions and a new duty and funding for local authorities to house everyone at risk of homelessness.
A number of local authorities have already voiced their support for the suspension of NRPF conditions, and just last week, a coalition of organisations wrote to a number of Councils calling for further action to provide support to homeless people subject to NRPF conditions. Asylum Matters are now reaching out to local authorities who participate in asylum dispersal to ask them to support the calls for an end to NRPF conditions, as well as demanding further protections from eviction for people seeking asylum.
If you are interested in working with your local authority to get their support on these important issues, do get in touch with Asylum Matters or NACCOM directly – contact details are on the policy paper, or do just reply to this email.
Home for All campaign
Crisis have launched a new campaign, Home for All, calling on the UK Government to commit to a plan that will enable everyone across Britain to have the security of a safe and settled home; and to implement the immediate policy changes and funding needed to continue to protect people experiencing homelessness and prevent homelessness for the duration of the pandemic. The campaign calls for a new duty on local authorities, along with funding, to house everyone at risk of homelessness; the suspension of NRPF conditions; a further extension on protections from eviction for people in asylum accommodation; and the implementation of Housing First policies.
#APrayerForLegalAid
Young Legal Aid Lawyers have launched a new campaign, #APrayerForLegalAid, to highlight that the new Coronavirus regulations being brought forward by the UK Government on legal aid fees in asylum cases will make legally aided asylum and immigration work financially unviable and harm access to justice. They are calling on people to contact their MPs to support an Early Day Motion opposing the changes.
Asylum Matters
Freedom from Torture – ‘Lessons not learned’ report and Letter to Home Secretary