This week the government unveiled a huge catalogue of changes on immigration, billing it as ‘the most significant reforms to the asylum system since World War Two’. Here, our CEO, Duncan McAuley, gives his views on the latest announcements 

 

The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood’s, announcements on asylum reform are performative, impractical and illogical.

Amongst the huge raft of new measures she proposes are:

  • plans to make people granted refugee status wait 20 years (rather than the current five) before they can apply to settle in the UK permanently
  • plans that will see people’s refugee status regularly reviewed every two and a half year with those whose home countries are deemed safe, told to return

Action Foundation calls for a more united, compassionate and fairer response to our country’s issues.

Inflammatory language breeds division, but constructive dialogue and a healthy sprinkling of the facts brings us together.

Sadly, it appears that scapegoating, blame and inflammatory language are the order of the day in our politics, and like we’ve seen before, we’re seeing the rights and security of refugees targeted. People fleeing war, persecution and torture. People who have a lot to give to our country.

Refugees are less likely to claim benefits or be in social housing, more likely to contribute to their local economies through work and taxes and no more likely to commit crime. *

They make up a small percentage of all migrants in the UK and an even smaller percentage of our population. Just 0.3% of the North East population are asylum seekers. How can they possibly be to blame for ‘huge divides in our society’?

They aren’t. It is politics causing the divide.

Here at Action Foundation we will continue to stand with families and individuals, who have given up so much to flee here and who give so much to our country and our region.

Time and time again we hear stories of asylum seekers desperate to find work, contribute, improve their language skills and move forward in life, but they are barred from doing so and punished by a broken system.

Instead of forcing people to wait 20 years to apply to settle here, this small group of people arriving to seek safety should be given the opportunity to integrate and contribute.

When delivering a workshop recently, the refugee who was with me was asked the question, ‘Would you go home if the war stopped?’ Though most refugees express a strong desire to return to their country of origin, her response reflected both the length of their time here and their attitude toward the UK.

She said, ‘We’d love to go back to Ukraine and miss our family dearly, but having been here seven years now, this is also home. Our children have grown up here, we have friends, we work, we volunteer and we care about the UK. I think we’d choose to stay.’

As Christmas draws near, we’re busy putting up our decorations or making our plans, and as always, we’re highlighting the plight of refugees and asylum seekers through our winter campaign.

If you can, please consider standing in solidarity with us to support refugee children and families this winter. You can support our Stand with Refugee Families campaign here.