JRS urges new Prime Minister to build a humane asylum system

Source: JRS UK

Dr David Ryall, Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK (JRS UK) has issued the following statement today; appealing to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to build a humane asylum system:

'Guided by our experience of serving people seeking sanctuary, and the Catholic social teaching that underpins our work, the Jesuit Refugee Service UK urges the new Prime Minister to restore the right to asylum, end immigration detention, and put dignity and protection at the heart of the asylum system.

Any of us, if we were forced to flee our homes, would want to find somewhere safe to rebuild our lives. Yet people seeking safety in our communities today are too often denied the protection they badly need, instead facing hostility, detention, and destitution.

Recent laws and policies have undermined the very principle of international protection by punishing refugees for how they travel, erecting barriers to the asylum process, and forcing people to live in limbo for years even after being granted asylum.

This is the result of political choices. It is deeply harmful to women, men and children seeking sanctuary, and to our communities more widely. The new Prime Minister has a chance to take a different path and build a politics that welcomes people seeking sanctuary as neighbours, protecting rather than punishing them.

We therefore call on Andy Burnham to:

- Restore the right to asylum: repeal anti-refugee laws that punish people seeking sanctuary; create safe routes so people are not forced into deadly journeys; and build a system that examines all asylum claims fairly on their merits.

- End immigration detention: a practice that violates human dignity, does long-term damage to mental health, and isolates people from their friends, families and communities. Abuse, neglect, and humiliation of detained people is prolific. Our society can be better than this.

- Put dignity and protection at the heart of the asylum system: allow people seeking asylum to work; provide safe and dignified accommodation in local communities and abandon plans to cut off asylum support from families with children.

Pope Leo recently expressed that: "a litmus test for social justice today is the treatment of migrants, refugees and those forced to move due to poverty, violence, climate change and environmental disasters. The way a society treats them reveals whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or by the spirit of fraternity."

As he begins his premiership, we urge the Prime Minister to embrace a spirit of fraternity and take a new approach to welcoming our sisters and brothers seeking sanctuary.'

The Jesuit Refugee Service works in over 50 countries with a mission to serve, accompany and advocate for the rights of refugees and other forcibly displaced people. JRS UK has a special ministry to people made destitute by the asylum system and people held in immigration detention.

LINK

JRS UK: www.jrsuk.net/