Red Cross calls for refugees and their contribution to be valued

SCOTS are being urged to show support for a kind and compassionate way of treating refugees and asylum seekers in a new campaign.

The British Red Cross has launched a pledge for Refugee Week this week aiming to encourage people to view refugees as those who can make positive contributions to their communities.

The campaign, Every Refugee Matters, comes in response to Home Secretary Priti Patel announcing “the biggest overhaul of the UK’S asylum system in decades”.

So far, plans have been considered to house people claiming asylum on remote islands, decommissioned oil rigs and abandoned ferries as a way of deterring them from coming to the UK.

The Home Office was also found to have acted unlawfully recently by accommodating people in disused military barracks that were unfit for human habitation.

Speaking after the launch of the charity’s campaign, Kenneth Watt, policy and public affairs manager for the British Red Cross, argued refugees make “positive contributions to their communities” and urged Scots to show every refugee matters.

The latest research from the Refugee Council reveals two in three women and children accepted in the UK as refugees could be turned away under the UK Government’s proposed changes, equating to half of people currently accepted as refugees each year.

The Every Refugee Matters pledge calls for refugees to have access to a home, safety, the support they need, have their loved ones with them and be able to rebuild their life and contribute to society.

It calls for 10,000 places for people to resettle in the UK to be made available every year, and for the UK Government to “create more safe and legal ways for people to seek protection.”

It adds that people seeking asylum should have their application considered based on their need for protection, not on how they arrived in the UK.

Mr Watt said: “When people have been forced to flee their homes to escape war and persecution, we must ensure the UK continues its proud history of providing sanctuary.

“Refugees across the UK have made positive contributions to their communities, have established networks of friends, and play a valued role where they live. The British Red Cross is therefore asking Scots to back a compassionate way to support people seeking asylum by signing our Every Refugee Matters pledge.

“As the UK Government looks at the asylum system, the British Red Cross is urging them to listen to the voices of refugees living in the UK.

“Calls from the Unesco chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, Alison Phipps, to empower asylum-led groups and ensure integration occurs from day one of the asylum claim must also be front and centre.”

The Home Office has previously said they are developing a “firm but fair” approach to the asylum system.

In March the Scottish Refugee Council said Ms Patel must “redraw” her plans to overhaul the “broken” asylum system.

The Home Secretary told MPS that the UK would retain a fair approach to asylum claims, but stressed that she wanted to deter people from coming to the country illegally, and crack down on criminal gangs who smuggle people.

Under the measures, the Government plans to use controversial “third countries” to accommodate vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees while they await their claims being processed.

The plans also do not rule out using much-criticised offshore processing centres, which could see those trying to come to the UK flown thousands of miles away to remote detention centres while they wait for a decision on their claims.

Previously, Ms Patel was said to be considering Ascension Island, 4,000 miles away in the South Atlantic Ocean, as well as decommissioned ferries and oil rigs as potential locations for offshore centres.

She said the Government was “now addressing the challenge of illegal migration head on” by “introducing the most significant overhaul of our asylum system in decades, a new comprehensive, fair but firm long-term plan.”

For “too long” parts of the immigration system have been “open to abuse”, she said, adding that the system has become “overwhelmed” with a backlog of 109,000 asylum claims.

The plans have been subject to widespread criticism, from charities and opposition politicians who say there are not enough safe routes to come to the UK to claim asylum and it is forcing people to risk their lives.

We must ensure the UK continues its proud history of providing sanctuary