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Template Letter

Dear [Your MP’s name here]

Sending Refugee to Rwanda

I am writing regarding the Governments abhorrent plan to send refugees by force to Rwanda. This is particularly important to me because [I have volunteered with refugees in Calais/ volunteered with asylum seekers in the UK/ regularly donated to and supported refugee causes / followed the development of the refugee crisis closely for some years]. *delete as appropriate

I should like you to consider that the one thing that all refugees have in common is that something truly terrible has happened to them. Now they will face the further trauma of deportation across the globe. This will cause immeasurable fear, anguish and distress.

The Rwanda policy is an unlawful punishment of people seeking asylum based on their method of arrival, in direct violation of the Refugee Convention which prohibits penalties against refugees for their illegal entry.

Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda would breach the UK’s legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Home Secretary has failed to provide sufficient evidence for her conclusion that Rwanda constitutes a safe country.

The Home Secretary has stated that the decision to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda will be made on a case-by-case basis by Home Office officials. However, by making the unfounded assertion that Rwanda is a safe country under law, the Home Secretary is pre-empting and unfairly influencing those case-by-case decisions, thereby putting people at risk of being sent to persecution or danger. Existing research, as well as the Government’s own country information documents, make clear that Rwanda’s human rights record and existing asylum claim processing system present serious risks of exposing people to persecution.

Further, the Home Secretary has refused to publish the Suitability Policy containing the criteria by which people will be determined eligible for being sent to Rwanda. By keeping the Suitability Policy a secret, the Home Secretary is preventing people seeking asylum from presenting evidence that would show they would be at risk of persecution if sent to Rwanda. Given the Rwandan Government’s record of the Home Secretary presents a particular risk to: disabled people; lesbian, gay and bisexual people; trans people, and women who have experience sexual assault or gender-based violence.

In summary, sending refugees to Rwanda will abuse their rights, cost taxpayers millions and break international law. It should not be allowed to happen, and the Government must be held to account for its decisions, which should be made with transparency and decency, not without the opportunity for public scrutiny.

I would be very interested in hearing from you with regards to your views on this matter and what you might be able to do about it.

Thank you in anticipation of your help.

Yours sincerely, [Your name here]