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The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department
The Rt Hon Alister Jack, Secretary of State for Scotland
New Plan for Immigration
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing as representatives of Scottish civil society and faith and belief communities to express our serious concerns about the potential implications of the New Plan for Immigration and the way the consultation is being conducted.
Recent polling shows that 74% of people in Scotland believe it is important to make refugees feel welcome here and two thirds of people believe Scotland should welcome the same number or more refugees than it currently does. Much work has been undertaken across civil society in Scotland to support integration among communities and to nurture and sustain such attitudes.
We are concerned that the New Plan does not take account of this huge commitment in Scotland to support integration and community cohesion and the desire to play a role as a responsible global citizen with regard to refugee protection. The New Plan runs counter to Scotland’s internationally recognised New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy which strives to ensure equal support to people across Scotland regardless of how refugees arrived in the country.
UK compliance with the Refugee Convention threatened by the New Plan
The 1951 Refugee Convention enshrines the right to seek protection in a third country. Refugee protection is a moral and legal commitment to help those in greatest need, in flight from persecution and abuse, in order that they can be safe and rebuild their lives. The UK has had a proud history in refugee protection. We want it to have a proud future.
However, the New Plan will detach the UK from international refugee law. It will render many people seeking refugee protection, on arrival in the UK, ineligible for asylum. The New Plan shifts the basis for protection from ‘a well founded fear of persecution’ to focus, instead, on the way people travelled to the UK in order to seek safety.
Two-tier refugee protection and support system created by the New Plan
In discriminating between people who arrive via resettlement and those reaching our shores in other ways, the New Plan institutes a two-tier refugee system, premised on a wilful ignorance of the context in which refugee flight occurs. This often means crossing borders without prerequisites for legal entry. International refugee law to which your government is a signatory recognises this fact.
At its heart, this New Plan seeks to pass responsibility to other states to protect refugees. In doing so, this risks undermining the global protection system, commitments to equitable responsibility-sharing in the UN Global Compact on Refugees, and aspirations of Global Britain. The New Plan will widen the two-tier divide by routing those deemed inadmissible into holding centres, despite the military barracks debacle. We fear these centres will be isolated and separated from communities in the UK. For those institutionalised, constant anxiety of removal awaits with the only contingent respite, a grant of short-leave with No Recourse to Public Funds, and no prospect to rebuild one’s life in the UK or be reunited with family members.
New Plan reforms on asylum stem from a false premise, will erode rights and harm people
The UK asylum system does indeed need reform but this is not due to external pressure. In fact, the UK accounts for relatively few asylum seekers in Europe and a mere fraction of those displaced globally. The problem to be solved is an internal one. Home Office refugee protection decisions are notoriously slow, frequently lacking requisite quality and gender sensitivity, leaving people in limbo and some of the severest poverty in the UK. The New Plan will not address these issues. If anything, its inadmissibility provisions will exacerbate them.
Consultation on the New Plan has been planned and conducted in bad faith
We are deeply concerned about the consultation process itself: it is running precisely concurrent with the purdah for devolved parliaments, local authority, and mayoral elections in the UK. This effectively silences a swathe of governance and the communities they represent, many of which have a legitimate interest in and expertise and insights to share of relevance to this consultation. Most importantly, the outsourced and inaccessible consultation makes no attempt to prioritise the experiences of those who have directly experienced the UK asylum system.
Many proposals, as presented, directly impinge on the legislative and executive competences of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, such as the legal system, anti-trafficking legislation and age assessment process. This further undermines and corrodes intra-UK governance relations. To simply state that asylum is a reserved matter, ignores the complexity of the reforms proposed, the legitimate role of devolved actors in the functioning of the UK’s refugee protection system and existing statutory obligations on the Secretary of State to consult with Scottish Ministers on specific matters.
A fair and humane asylum system
Most people in Scotland and the rest of the UK want a system that reflects the compassion, decency and common sense they believe in – especially as we rebuild the UK after the pandemic. This can be achieved by:
Ensuring people feel safe when they arrive, and have their refugee applications considered quickly, fairly and efficiently, no matter how they got to the UK.
Forging a new independent fairer and faster asylum decision-making system – out with the Home Office – and resettle 10,000 refugees a year and create true and safe legal routes to protection in the UK.
Ensure people seeking asylum have a safe home, enough food and essentials to live, and the right to work, with funding for communities and local authorities. Finally, chart a new vision across the UK to embrace the talents, skills and resilience of refugees to build new futures to all of our benefit.
As Prime Minister and Minister for the Union, we urge you to reconsider the deeply flawed plans and engage with those with experiences of the system as it is now: the people with lived experience of rebuilding their lives in safety in Scotland and the rest of the UK. We ask that your Ministers set out clearly how they will engage with devolved governments to ensure that a fair and humane asylum system can be developed that works for all four nations of the UK.
We will be publishing this letter within the next few days and look forward to your response.
Yours,
Aberlour
African Collaboration Group
African Lanarkshire for Mental Health
Amma Birth Companions
Best Way Community Development
Bikes for Refugees (Scotland)
CodeYourFuture
Community InfoSource
Cranhill Development Trust
Crew 2000 Scotland
Cyrenians
East Dunbartonshire Action for Refugees
Edinburgh City Mission
Educational Institute of Scotland
Engender
Equality Network
Esolperth Centre of Sanctuary Perth Scotland
Forth Valley Welcome
Free Church of Scotland
Friends of Scottish Settlers
Fun Palaces Scotland
Glasgow Afghan United
Glasgow City Mission
Glasgow Mutual Aid
Global Justice Now
GMAC Film
Govan Community Project
Greater Govanhill CIC
Homeless Network Scotland
Humanist Society Scotland
Human Rights Consortium Scotland
Interfaith Scotland
Justice and Peace Scotland (Catholic Church)
Just Right Scotland
Kinning Park Complex
Legal Services Agency
Licketyspit Theatre Company – Children & Families Network
Maryhill Integration Network
MILK Cafe Glasgow
North Lanarkshire African Women’s group
One Parent Families Scotland
Open Aye
Persian Scottish CIC
Pollokshields Development Agency
Positive Action on Housing
Poverty Alliance
Primus, Scottish Episcopal Church
Quakers in Scotland
Queen’s Park Arena (Inhouse CIC)
Refugee Survival Trust
Safe in Scotland
Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society
Scottish Association of Social Work (part of BASW UK)
Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance
Scottish Muslim Forum
Scottish Refugee Council
Scottish Trades Union Congress
Scottish Unitarian Association
Science Ceilidh
Sewing2gether All Nations
Shelter Scotland
Social Bite
South East Integration Network
St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow (Scottish Episcopal Church)
Teneu Legal
The Church of Scotland
The Glad Cafe CIC
The Iona Community
The Occasion
The Paristamen
The Scottish Youth Parliament
The Sound Lab
The Welcoming Association
Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights)
UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts
University of St Andrews Refugee and Forced Migration Network
West of Scotland Regional Equality Council
Youth Community Support Agency
Zainab Cobbald Institute
Zia-Ul-Quran Mosque