Quakers welcome measures to restore asylum rights
The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) has welcomed moves by the new Labour government to restore the rights of people seeking asylum.
The UK's immigration policies have become increasingly hostile, with people seeking asylum detained in dangerous barges and barracks, forced into destitution and threatened with forced removal to Rwanda.
[QUOTE-START]
There is plenty to go around if fairly shared
- QARN
[QUOTE-END]
So the new government's plan to close the Bibby Stockholm barge and other inappropriate housing for refugees has been welcomed by QARN.
The network of Quakers working to improve the lives of refugees also welcomed the abandonment of Rwanda plans and the ban on people claiming asylum who arrive in the UK 'illegally', including on small boats.
"We will celebrate when the UK re-engages with the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights," QARN said in a statement.
But they called for proven alternatives to immigration detention, with existing detention centres closed, and the creation of safe routes for migration.
"In a society with huge concentrations of wealth, we have been fed the line that if we treat asylum seekers humanely, it must be at the expense of lower income UK citizens," the QARN statement said.
"This is just not true. People and their human rights come first; there is plenty to go around if fairly shared."
Alongside other work around asylum issues, Quakers are involved with campaigns to close immigration removal centres (IRC), including Derwentshire IRC and Campsfield IRC, near Oxford.