Hundreds of refugee charities have offered the new Prime Minister a ‘blueprint to fix the broken asylum system’, urging him to ditch ‘gimmicks that waste taxpayers’ money’ in favour of a plan that’s ‘cheaper, more effective and more humane’.
As reported by The Mirror, groups including Doctors of the World UK, Freedom from Torture, City of Sanctuary and Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) have signed an open letter to new PM Andy Burnham, presenting a blueprint for a new approach to asylum in the UK, based in working rights, safe routes, community accommodation and ‘evidenced-based policy making’.
Coordinated by Asylum Matters, the letter came from 219 organisations, which include a host of grassroots and local organisations supporting people on the ground in cities and towns across the UK, condemn measures in the new asylum and immigration bill, including the £10,000 ‘refugee tax’; the opening of new multi-million pound ex-military asylum camps; and previous steps taken by Keir Starmer’s Government including moves to deny or delay for decades refugees’ ability to gain settled status.
Calling these measures “performative cruelty that fails on its own terms”, the letter says: “Every successive effort to ramp up hostility towards refugees has failed to boost public confidence or political success for the Governments who have taken this approach, while the people we support suffer the consequences of these misguided bids for political gain. We have witnessed first hand the human cost.”
Cost-saving measures that would improve the lives of people seeking sanctuary recommended by the letter including allowing people to work from six months after making an asylum claim; housing people in homes in communities instead of ex-military camps (at a cost of £23.25 a night instead of £132 a night, excluding set up costs, in camps); and replacing the focus on immigration detention with demonstrably cheaper and more humane ‘alternatives to detention’.
We’ve sent the blueprint to the Prime Minister – now we need to make sure he uses it. Click HERE to send the same blueprint to your MP, to let them know that their voters want to see real, evidence based change and an asylum system that works for all of us.
Nathan Phillips, head of campaigns at Asylum Matters, said: “We’ve seen Government after Government try to solve the problems in our asylum system with more hostility, and it simply hasn’t worked. From the Rwanda plan to the new refugee tax, every new cruel, impractical gimmick has done nothing but waste public money and cause yet more suffering for people seeking sanctuary, all while emboldening racist agitators and undermining the togetherness of our communities.
“So our message to Andy Burnham is simple: you don’t have to keep doing this. It’s perfectly possible to build an asylum system with welcome at its heart that is both efficient and cost effective. Our blueprint is based on real evidence and the expertise of hundreds of people and organisations living and working in the asylum system who are ready to work with the new Prime Minister to build an asylum system that works better for everyone.”
Jon Beech, Director of Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network: “The current asylum system isn’t just cruel — it’s not working. It costs more, delivers less, and leaves hard-pressed communities to pick up the pieces, while private companies make millions in excess profits.
“We’re calling on the new Prime Minister to stop punishing people seeking safety and to start building an asylum system that serves the public interest — not private profit — and works for all our communities.”
Andy Durma, Chief Executive of Newcastle’s West End Refugee Service, said: “The new Prime Minister has a unique opportunity to end counterproductive asylum policies that punish people for trying to rebuild their lives. It is in all our interests to build an inclusive, contributing society – not one where people’s belonging in the UK comes with an expiry date.”
Blueprint to fix the broken asylum system – cheaper, more effective, and more humane:
- Open safe routes for people seeking asylum to reach the UK so that people are not forced to risk their lives in the Channel, including restoring visa routes, family reunion, and rebuilding refugee resettlement;
- End the use of harmful rhetoric from government aimed at people seeking asylum, which has contributed to a febrile environment of racist violence on our streets and the emboldening of the far-right, and instead lead by example by promoting messages of compassion and welcome towards people seeking safety, and affirm their rights as set out in the Refugee Convention and international law;
- Abandon plans for ‘earned settlement’ that would leave refugees and migrants in years of limbo and uncertainty, setting back integration, creating barriers to sustained employment, reducing labour market participation and increasing the risk of exploitation; reverse the changes to the ‘Good Character’ guidance which effectively ban refugees from ever securing citizenship; and roll back on the new ‘temporary refugee status’ that will see survivors of war and persecution threatened with deportation every 2.5 years – an eye-wateringly expensive policy that will make it near impossible for people to integrate with any certainty or stability;
- House people seeking asylum in communities, not camps – close down existing camps at Wethersfield and Crowborough, and abandon plans for further camps which cause unnecessary lasting harm at an eye-watering cost to the taxpayer whilst community-based accommodation is available and cheaper;
- Lift the ban on work for people seeking asylum within six months of arrival so people who are able to work are granted the right to rebuild their lives in dignity and generate £1.2 billion to the UK economy;
- Drop the new Asylum and Immigration Bill, maintain judge-led appeal tribunals, and scrap the proposed £10k ‘refugee tax’ that will punish refugees for the Home Office’s failure to process claims in a timely manner;
- Address the legal aid crisis, and ensure that everyone has access to good quality legal advice;
- Increase the rate of asylum support so people in the asylum system are not trapped in poverty and driven into exploitation, and restore the legal duty to support otherwise destitute asylum seekers rather than increasing pressure on local authorities;
- Extend the move-on period to at least 56-days in line with the Government’s own pilot evaluation, to help address refugee homelessness and relieve pressure on local authorities, and invest in ESOL provision and employment support to aid with integration as recommended by the independent Commission for the Integration of Refugees;
- End the use of immigration detention which restricts people’s freedom and liberty and causes immense harm to people’s physical and mental health, and move towards demonstrably cheaper and more humane ‘alternatives to detention’;
- Establish an independent public inquiry into the role of UK tax funds in escalating border violence, deaths in the Channel and the use of force against children, and improve transparency by publishing data on the number of deaths at the border and within the UK asylum system;
- End the criminalisation of people seeking asylum, which has led to refugees fleeing war and persecution dragged through the courts and imprisoned under new offences that punish exploited and desperate people caught with their ‘hand on the tiller’ rather than targeting smugglers or human traffickers, and repeal in full the 2023 Illegal Migration Act and the 2022 Nationality and Borders Act;
- Commit to evidence-based policy-making on immigration and asylum, informed by genuine collaboration and co-production with NGOs, local authorities and people with lived experience, rather than doubling down on performative cruelty that fails on its own terms.
You can read the full text of the letter to the new Prime Minister here.
