Humanists UK expresses concern at UK Government asylum proposals

Humanists UK has expressed concern at the UK Government’s proposals on asylum policy announced yesterday. Government plans will see the ability of refugees granted asylum to rebuild their lives be hamstrung by reviews and the threat of removal every 2.5 years, potentially for up to 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently. This could mean, for example, that a child who arrives as a newborn, and has their whole education in the UK, may face forced deportation just as they are sitting their GCSEs due to a change in circumstances in a country they hardly know.

Currently, asylum seekers granted refugee status gain it for five years and then can apply for indefinite leave to remain. Humanists UK is concerned about the negative impact this will have on encouraging asylum seekers to integrate into society, on community cohesion, and on the ability of asylum seekers to rebuild their lives when they could be removed at the next review. The constant reviews will also be very expensive, adding further burden to an asylum system already creaking at the seams.

Tony Vaughan KC, Labour MP and Member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, has spoken out about the plans, saying:

‘We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation. The rhetoric around these reforms encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities.

‘The Government is wrong to think that reviews of safety in the person’s country every few years will mean refugees can be returned at scale. That hasn’t happened in Denmark. Brutal dictators tend to hang onto power. It would just move huge amounts of resource away from making our asylum system work as it should – by cutting initial decision delays and the appeals backlog, sorting out asylum accommodation, making the UK-France deal work, removing those whose claims fail etc.’

The Government also announced that the interpretation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, had been ‘expanded over time’ and must ‘evolve’. It will remove the legal obligation to provide support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and replace this with a discretionary power. This will deny help to those with the right to work, for example those who enter the country on a work or student visa with permission to work before claiming asylum, even if they are unable to find work. It will also continue exploring the use of return hubs, which it says are ‘safe third countries that failed asylum seekers can be sent to’. 

Humanists UK has welcomed some aspects of the proposals, including the introduction of capped safe and legal routes for asylum for those sponsored by voluntary and community groups, students, and for skilled refugees and displaced people to come to the UK for work.

Humanists UK, which supports non-religious asylum seekers to claim asylum on the basis they would be persecuted for their beliefs in their home country, has long called for safe and legal routes for those fleeing persecution. Humanists UK spoke out against the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act and Rwanda scheme which would have placed non-religious and other minority asylum seekers at risk. This was despite the UK Government designating Rwanda a ‘safe’ country. The asylum seekers would have been placed at risk due to the country’s blasphemy law. The Illegal Migration Act also listed a set of 57 other so-called ‘safe’ countries that asylum seekers could be deported to; however this included 10 countries which, according to Humanists International’s Freedom of Thought Report, have prison sentences for blasphemy and apostasy. Deportations to these would also have placed humanist and minority religious asylum seekers at risk. 

Humanists UK will write to the Home Secretary to raise its concerns about the proposals.

Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson commented:

‘We are deeply concerned about these proposals and how they could impact on asylum seekers who have gone through the unthinkable: having to flee their home for safety, only to find their ability to rebuild their lives hamstrung by the UK’s asylum policy. Some will spend almost all their lives in the UK, from when they are very young children into adulthood, only to be deported to a country they don’t even know.

‘It’s vital that once asylum seekers are granted refugee status, they are able to build their lives with certainty about their future, and a sense of welcome. We have a long proud history of supporting asylum seekers in this country. We should seek to uphold that in terms of policy and in our national rhetoric and debate.’