Today (13th December), over 730 organisations and individuals on the frontline of providing support to people seeking asylum in our communities across the UK, wrote jointly to the Home Secretary to urge her department to reconsider the decision to suspend all Syrian asylum claims following the fall of the Assad regime.
This letter, signed by over 200 organisations (across the four nations of the UK) and over 500 individuals (including doctors, professors, lecturers, trustees, volunteers, ESOL tutors, teachers, nurses, midwives, directors, consultants, faith leaders, solicitors, lawyers, immigration advisors, charity workers, writers, artists, photographers, trade unionists, local councillors, retirees, legal advisors, refugees, people seeking asylum, journalists, human rights advocates, interpreters, campaigners, support workers, students and more) who are proud to welcome people seeking safety, calls on the Home Secretary to reverse the unprecedented move to announce a suspension of the asylum system for a single nationality group, at a time when the safety of Syria is far from certain.
Dear Home Secretary,
We are writing to you as organisations and individuals grounded firmly in our communities across the UK, many on the frontline of stepping in to support people who have been targeted and brutalised by hostile anti-refugee policies in recent years. We are proud to welcome people seeking safety, and many of us are signatories to the Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws pledge that seeks to defend the right to seek asylum in the UK.
We are writing to you today to express our deep concern and opposition to your decision to suspend asylum claims for Syrians just days after the fall of the Assad regime.
The reasons given by government ministers for pausing all asylum claims by people who have fled Syria have, in our view, been inconsistent. Whilst the Minister for Border Security and Asylum told Sky News that the suspension was down to claims being based on “fleeing the brutal Assad regime that has just collapsed” which seems to suggest Syria is now safe for those who have fled, the Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons that “Assad’s demise brings no guarantee of peace” and that this is “a moment of danger”.
We feel strongly that it is far from clear that Syria is safe for those who have or are seeking sanctuary. The Foreign Office continues to advise against all travel to Syria, ‘due to the ongoing conflict and unpredictable security conditions’, all British Embassy services in Damascus remain suspended, and as things stand there has been no return of British diplomats to Syria. We feel this shows the British Government’s acknowledgement that Syria is not yet a safe place, and therefore asylum claims should not be suspended. Announcing an indefinite pause for a specific nationality group is an unprecedented step in recent asylum policy, and given the fact that you have a range of temporary leave mechanisms at your disposal we feel there is no need to stop processing claims.
Whilst we acknowledge that the UK is not alone in taking this step, following some European countries – there is an acute and substantial backlog already present in the UK following the passage of the Illegal Migration Act which effectively halted all asylum claims. In the UK many Syrians have already been kept in limbo for years awaiting a decision on their claims, all the while banned from working, warehoused in barracks and hotels and forced to live on just £8.86 a week. Further suspending their claims will have a detrimental impact on the mental health and wellbeing of these individuals whose claims should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
We are urging you to reconsider the decision to suspend Syrian asylum claims and urgently:
- Ensure access to the asylum system for Syrians and re-start consideration of their claims
- Grant all people seeking asylum the right to work after six months of awaiting a decision on their asylum claim, lifting people including Syrians out of limbo
- Commit to no forced returns or coercive repatriations of Syrians in the UK
We also urge you to defend the right for all fleeing persecution and war to seek asylum in the UK and build a compassionate refugee system as set out in the blueprint sent to the Prime Minister in July, as published in The Guardian.
Signed:
Organisations
6 million+ Charitable Trust
Aberystwyth University
Abigail Housing
Action for Refugees in Lewisham (AFRIL)
Action Foundation
African Rainbow Family
After Exploitation
Akwaaba
AlArab in UK
Angels of Freedom Leeds
Another Europe Is Possible
Arab Lawyers Association (UK)
Asha North Staffordshire
ASSIST Sheffield
Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID)
Asylum Aid
Asylum Matters
Asylum Welcome
Baca Charity
BARAC UK
Barnsley Borough City of Sanctuary
Bawso
Bentham Refugee Support Group
Bevan
Big Leaf Foundation
BIRCH Network
Boaz Trust
Border Criminologies
Borderlands
Bradford City of Sanctuary
Breadwinners
Brighton Exiled/Refugee Trauma Service
Brigstowe
Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers
Bromsgrove & District Asylum Seeker Support
Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcome Refugees
CARAS
Care4Calais
Caritas Salford
Caritas Shrewsbury
Cheshire, Halton & Warrington Race & Equality Centre
City of Sanctuary Sheffield
City of Sanctuary UK
CivicLeicester
CLEAR Project
Community Policy Forum
Connected Routes CIC
Conversation Over Borders
Counterepoints
Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre
Craven and District Refugee Support Group
Craven District of Sanctuary
Croeso Menai
DEED
Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity
Displaced People In Action (DPIA)
Diversity Inside Us
Doncaster Conversation Club
Droitwich Welcomes Refugees
End Deportations Belfast
ENTRAIDE
Europia
Evesham Vale Welcomes Refugees (EVWR)
Father Hudson’s Caritas
FODI (Sunderland)
forRefugees
Freedom From Torture
GMIAU
Govan Community Project
Greater Manchester Migrant Destitution Fund
Growing Together Levenshulme
Hackney Migrant Centre
Hackney Stand Up to Racism
Haringey Welcome
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees
Heart4Refugees CIC
Helen Bamber Foundation
Herts for Refugees
HIAS+JCORE
Hope Projects
Horn of Africa People’s Aid Northern Ireland (HAPANI)
Housing Justice Cymru
Huddersfield Quaker Meeting
Humanists UK
Humans for Rights Network
IASK Immigration and Asylum Support Kirklees
Imix
Islington Law Centre
Jesuit Refugee Service UK
Kairos Housing
Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN)
King’s College London
Kirkstall Valley Farm
Lancaster Student Action for Refugees
Learn for Life Enterprise
Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network
Leeds Refugee Forum
Leeds Student Action for Refugees
Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network (LRMN)
Life Seekers Aid
Liverpool Community Indpendents
LYFTUK cic
Malvern Welcomes
Manchester Migrant Solidarity
Mary Thompson Fund
Merseyside Solidarity Knows No Borders
Methodist Asylum Project Middlesbrough (MAP)
Micro Rainbow
Migrant Democracy Project
Migrants Organise
Migration Matters Festival
Migration Policy and Practice
Museum of Homelessness
Music Action International
Muslim Council of Wales
NACCOM (No Accommodation Network)
New Europeans UK
Northumberland County of Sanctuary
Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum (NNRF)
Oasis
Oasis Church
One Life To Live
Our Second Home
Oxford Student Action for Refugees
Peaceful Borders
Pendle New Neighbours
Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS)
Praxis
Project MAMA
Qisetna
Race Equality First
Race Equality Network
Rainbow Migration
RefuAid
Refugee & Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL)
Refugee Action
Refugee Asylum Seeker Migrant Action (RAMA)
Refugee Legal Support
Refugee Support Group
Refugee Welcome Homes
Refugee Youth Service UK CIC
Refugees at Home
Restore (a project of Birmingham Churches Together)
Rethink Rebuild Society
Revive
Room to Heal
Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance
Safe Passage International
Salford Food Parcels
Sante Refugee Mental Health Access Project
SBC Theatre
SCS
Sensewise Consulting
Settle Area Refugee Support Group
SHARe Knowsley
Shared Goods
Shropshire Supports Refugees
Six Ways Erdington Baptist Church
Skipton Refugee Support Group
Slough Refugee Support
Somewhere Else.
South London Refugee Association
South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG)
Southampton Action
Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group (SWVG)
Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers
St Chad’s Sanctuary CIO
St James Church
St Paul’s Church, Birmingham
St. Augustine’s Centre
Stafford Town of Sanctuary
Stafford Welcomes Refugees
Stand and Be Counted Theatre
STAR Exeter
STAR Sussex
Stories of Hope and Home
Student Action for Refugees (STAR)
Student Action for Refugees Aberystwyth
Sussex Syrian Community CIO
Swansea Asylum Seekers Support (SASS)
Syria Solidarity Campaign
Syrian British Consortium
Syrian Welsh Society
Syrians Group (London)
Tai Pawb
Tees Valley of Sanctuary
The Bike Project
The Brunswick Centre
The Comfrey Project
The Launchpad Collective
The Manchester and Salford Urban Missional Partnership
The Pickwell Foundation
The Refugee Buddy Project Hastings Rother & Wealden
The William Gomes Podcast
the3million
Time to Be Out
Trinity Centre
Tulia Group
Tynemouth Together with Refugees
Unite Community
Unite NW522
University of Sharjah
University of Sussex Migration Law Clinic
Voices in Exile
VVIDY (Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees-Yorkshire)
Walking With in North Tyneside
Waltham Forest Refugee Psychology Service
Warwick STAR
Welcome Group Halesowen
Welsh Refugee Council
Welsh Women’s Aid
West End Refugee Service (WERS)
West London Welcome
WILPF UK
Women’s Support Project (Rights & Choices)
Worcester City Welcomes Refugees
Worcester LGBT (Asylum, Support, Networks)
Work For Smile
