BYM calls on Friends to push for a ‘just immigration system’
Britain Yearly Meeting urges action on 'the broken immigration system'
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has urged Friends to help ‘shine a light’ in 2019 on what it calls ‘the broken immigration system’.
Jessica Metheringham, parliamentary engagement officer for BYM, on the Quakers in Britain website, says now is the time to push for a more ‘just’ system as immigration is high on the news agenda due to the ongoing Windrush scandal, the closure of Campsfield Detention Centre announced last month and the ‘Stansted Fifteen’ trial.
According to Jessica Metheringham, there are four key areas that could be addressed in legislation.
Firstly, the right to family life, highlighted in the Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill debated earlier last year, which would ‘make it easier for refugee families to stay together by allowing children to sponsor their parents and reinstating legal aid’.
Secondly, the right to work, without which many refugees and asylum seekers are ‘destitute’ and ‘reliant on charity’.
Thirdly, burden of proof, which, according to Jessica Metheringham, is ‘sometimes impossible’.
And, lastly, limiting detention to twenty-eight days. She says, out of the 30,000 people detained in the UK every year, ‘anyone with “irregular status” can be detained…
‘Most have not been charged with any crime. There’s no judicial oversight of the decision, and nearly half of those detained are subsequently released back into the community. The damage to their relationship with the state, and to their own mental and physical health, can be permanent.’
Quakers have also signed a letter with other faith representatives urging the government to move away from a ‘hostile environment’ towards a culture of sanctuary.
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