Advocacy Update 23rd April 2025

1. Advocacy and campaigning Initiatives

Fight for Asylum Rights

People Are Not Bargaining Chips: We Say No to the UK-France Asylum Swap Deal

The UK government’s proposed deal with France to “swap” people seeking asylum would treat vulnerable individuals as bargaining chips, according to the Fight for Asylum Rights campaign. Instead of creating safe routes or addressing delays in the asylum process, this move threatens to displace people twice—without offering protection or stability. Join us in challenging these harmful policies—speak out, write to your MP, and demand a system that truly upholds the rights of people seeking safety. Read the full article here.

Offshoring Asylum is Not Justice: Reject Return Hubs Now

The UNHCR’s backing of overseas “return hubs” signals a disturbing shift toward normalising the offshoring of failed asylum seekers—an approach that prioritises deterrence over dignity. While framed as a practical solution, such hubs risk placing people in unsafe environments far from scrutiny, legal recourse, or support networks. Read the full article here.

Criminalising Identity: Stop the Stigma Against Migrant Communities

Plans to publish the nationalities of foreign offenders risk fuelling anti-migrant narratives and further stigmatising communities already facing systemic discrimination. This move reinforces the hostile environment by framing people through the lens of criminality, rather than their humanity. Fight for Asylum Rights is urging the public to challenge these divisive tactics and push for policies that uphold dignity, fairness, and truth in how migrants and asylum seekers are represented. Read the full article here.

Borders Bill
We are working with Labour MP Nadia Whittome to table an amendment to the Borders Bill which would place a duty on the Home Secretary to publish official data on deaths quarterly, in line with the publication of immigration statistics. Find out more here.

TAKE ACTION:

• Write to your MP and ask them to add their signature to report stage amendment NC1.

You can find your MP here.

• You can write your own message and share our parliamentary briefing on the amendment with them which you can find here. Care4Calais are also developing a ‘write to your MP’ action around the amendment.

• Sign up to the Fight for Asylum Rights pledge to be added to our mailing list for the campaign and not miss out on any updates on the amendment and the bill at www.fighttheantirefugeelaws.org

• Tell us about any other pro-refugee and -asylum rights amendments you know about by filling out this spreadsheet

Communities Not Camps

Calls for Wethersfield to close

Thank you to the more than 70 groups and organisations who joined with us in signing this open letter to the Home Secretary to call for the immediate closure of the camps at Wethersfield and Napier. The letter has received coverage in the Independent here – it has now been sent to the Home Secretary, and we are awaiting a response.

Safe Homes Not Hotels – call for community based housing

Conversations without Borders are convening an open letter to the Home Secretary calling for safe homes, not hotels for people in the asylum system and to establish new models of community based housing. Read the letter here and sign here by 29th April.

Lift the Ban

Amendments to the Borders Bill

We’ve been working with parliamentarians to bring forward amendments around working rights to the Borders Bill and one of them has now been published. Alex Sobel MP has tabled amendment NC2 at the Commons Report Stage which calls on the Government to report back to Parliament annually on working rights policies and allow for time for Parliament to debate and vote on these measures each year. We are also working with Peers to bring forward a substantive working rights amendment when the bill reaches the House of Lords. Find your MP here and write to them asking them to add their signature to Alex Sobel’s amendment NC2 and speak up for working rights at Report Stage.

Report launch coming up in Parliament – 13th May

On 13th May, the Lift the Ban coalition will be launching a new report with a parliamentary reception. To find out more, join the coalition and never miss out on an update on the campaign fill out this form or contact [email protected].

Lift the Ban to improve mental health

The Mental Health Foundation have produced a new report on the mental health deterioration amongst people seeking asylum – partly down to the shocking racist violence last summer, and partly due to the limbo of being locked out of work. You can read the report here and coverage here and here.

2. Government and Parliamentary updates

End of inadmissibility action for asylum claims under the Rwanda scheme

The Home Office has announced it has discontinued inadmissibility action and is committed to substantively considering the merits of asylum claims of individuals who arrived in the UK on or after 1 January 2022 and who were issued notices before 29 June 2023, informing them that they may be removed to Rwanda. This follows a legal challenge brought by JCWI – coverage here.

Windrush fund

The Home Office has announced a £1.5 million fund aimed at organisations working to help provide advocacy support for Windrush compensation scheme claimants. The closing date for organisations to apply for funding is 9 May. Coverage here.

Public Accounts Committee: enquiry on skilled worker visas

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has launched a call for evidence for this enquiry, deadline 24 April.

3. Reports and research

Routes to Employment: exploring the systematic unemployment challenges faced by refugee and asylum seeking women in London

This report by Routes Collective provides key findings into the unemployment and underemployment challenges faced by refugee women in London and provides visions and recommendations for systemic change.

4. Resources, events, jobs and training

Right to Remain / These Walls Must Fall online Solidarity Rally for Fatou

Sign up here to join an emergency rally at 6pm on 23rd April to stand in solidarity with Fatou and all those facing detention and deportation.

Children and their rights to British Citizenship

The Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens have updated their booklet on children and their rights to British citizenship, giving information for parents, carers and young people.

Community study day on asylum housing at Sheffield University

Sheffield University is holding a community study day to learn together about asylum accommodation, and discuss and explore alternatives to the current system. You can register for the event for free here.

Citizenship Ban and the creation of ‘Systemic Statelessness’ Event

Migrant Voice are running a network meeting on the recently announced changes to the ‘good character requirement’ for citizenship applications. They will discuss the implications of this and what are their calls for change. The meeting will take place online on Wednesday 30 April,  6:00-7:30 pm. At this meeting they will look into the practical implications of this change, and its legal repercussions. Sign up here.

Jobs:

• Refugee Action are seeking a Communications and Engagement Officer (maternity cover), and a Senior Digital Communications Officer (external applicants for the latter must have lived experience of forced displacement). The deadline for both posts is 27 April.

• Bail for Immigration Detainees are looking for a Media and Public Affairs Consultant, deadline 27 April

• ILPA are recruiting for a Chief Executive, deadline 9am Monday 28 April

• Scottish Refugee Council are looking for a policy officer, deadline 28 April

• Room to Heal are looking for a Co-Director (finance and fundraising), deadline 5 May

• Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit are recruiting for a Chief Executive, deadline 6 May

• Springboard Youth Academy are looking for a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer to join their Board of Trustees. Deadline 13 May.

• SHARe Knowsley are looking for a volunteer coordinator, deadline 19 May

5. What we’re reading, watching and listening to

• The Mental Health Foundation’s incredibly thorough and detailed investigation into the many ways the asylum system worsens the mental health of people seeking asylum has been widely reported on in the press, but for in-depth research, useful statistics clear policy recommendations, it’s worth digging into the full report.

• City of Sanctuary are marking their 20th anniversary with reflections on the impact of their work of welcome  – watch the video here.

• This Media Storm podcast episode examined the gender injustices at the heart of the asylum system, and heard from a mother seeking asylum who was hit with a £10,000 NHS bill after giving birth.

• Anywhere But Here – Ex-Home Office insider and journalist Nicola Kelly’s new book explores not only how our broken asylum system fails us all, and how the system was made hostile for political gain, but the human stories at its heart, spotlighting brave, resilient people forced into impossible circumstances.