West London Welcome”shocked” at Government’s new rules for asylum seekers, branding them “inhumane and hostile”

West London Welcome’s family of asylum seekers and refugees

West London Welcome’s scathing response to the Government’s new rules for asylum seekers

West London Welcome, the charity which supports asylum seekers and refugees in west London, say they are “shocked by the Government’s announcement of more inhumane and hostile policies which will likely do nothing to deter people from getting on dangerous boat journeys to reach the UK”.

The new rules will clog up our asylum and return system even more, they say.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP

Government’s proposals for sweeping changes to the asylum system

The Home Secretary set out significant reforms to the UK’s asylum system in a speech to the House of Commons on 17 November.

Shabana Mahmood MP said more families with failed asylum claims would be removed from the UK when their country of origin became safe to return to.

• Refugee status will become temporary, with regular reviews every 30 months.
• Human Rights Law will be reconsidered – including narrowing how the right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is applied in migration court cases.
• Guaranteed housing and weekly pay will end for some asylum seekers – including those who have permission to work, who have committed a crime or have defied removal directions.
• New safe and legal routes to the UK will be established along with an annual cap on arrivals via these routes.

This, she said, would enable the UK to “restore order and control to our borders”.

This country will always offer sanctuary to those fleeing danger, she said, “but we must also acknowledge that the world has changed and our asylum system has not changed with it”.

Andy Slaughter MP, speaking in Parliament

Andy Slaughter’s initial response – some good things, some bad

There will not be a vote in Parliament for some time, while MPs have a chance to study the Government’s Restoring Order and Control statement. Hammersmith & Chiswick MP Andy Slaughter’s initial reaction was this:

“First impressions are some good things like establishing safe and legal routes and some bad like making those accepted as refugees wait decades for right to remain.

“Priority should be processing the claims and appeals and moving people on – to refugee status or removal as appropriate (which resolves the hotel issue). The only solution to the boats is a wider deal with France and the EU”.

West London Welcome co-founders Joanna MacInnes and Seema Alibhai 

West London Welcome’s response – “The UK must stop with their knee jerk reactions pandering to the far right and start coming up with humane and realistic approaches to migration”

West London Welcome is a locally based charity which does its best to provide a welcome to asylum seekers and refugees, offering hot food, English lessons, help with legal advice, employment and housing advice, and by offering a friendly, welcoming space where they can relax and spend time with people who are not hostile to them.

This is the response from Joanne MacInnes, co-founder of the organisation:

‘We’re shocked by the Government’s announcement of more inhumane and hostile policies which will likely do nothing to deter people from getting on dangerous boat journeys to reach the UK.

‘The Home Office’s proposals include people only being able to permanently settle in the UK after they have spent twenty years here and have their ability to return to their home countries reviewed every 30 months, which would leave them in a state of constant uncertainty and make it incredibly difficult to find work from employers and a way to rent a room from landlords.

‘Their offer of more safe routes is welcome, but it is meagre and may not be available to the majority of nationalities who come by boat, so is unlikely to stop people forced to come through that route.

‘We have community members who have been waiting for years for a decision on their asylum claims because of Home Office delays.

‘The Home Office’s proposals will likely mean more work for refugees who will need legal advice (which is already scarce) and more work for the Home Office (costing the public more money), further clogging the system and likely the courts with appeals.

‘We can think of no members of our community who’ve gained refugee status in the last 30 months who would now be safe to return.

‘What we want to see is a return to the compassion that we saw when we welcomed Syrians, Afghans, Ukrainians and Sudanese people escaping war and oppression.

‘Less than 1% of the world’s refugees come to the UK, and small boats account for less than 2% of all migrant inflows to the UK; it is perfectly possible for us to play our small part in supporting some of those seeking sanctuary around the globe.

‘We do not have a crisis of people seeking asylum – we have a system that allows a few companies running asylum accommodation to have become very rich, a backlog of claims due to Home Office inefficiency, a lack of fair safe routes, and an absence of a set of policies that are sensible and work for everyone.

‘The UK must stop with their knee jerk reactions pandering to the far right and start coming up with humane and realistic approaches to migration.”

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