Friends highlight UK ‘temporary protection’ rule
'Some QARN members have pointed out that the UK still has provision for ‘Temporary Protection’, which is designed for emergencies producing a "mass influx".'
The crisis in Ukraine has highlighted ‘how public support for refugees is at odds with government policy’, the Quakers Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) has said.
Urging Friends to write to their MPs about the Nationality and Borders Bill, which returned to the House of Commons this week, members suggest asking for the removal of Clause 11 on differentiated treatment. They also propose the introduction of a resettlement target of 10,000 places per year. There is a petition on the Government and Parliament website.
Catherine Henderson told the Friend that some QARN members have pointed out that the UK still has provision for ‘Temporary Protection’, which is designed for emergencies producing a ‘mass influx’. ‘It is in the UK’s Part 11A of the Immigration Rules. I believe we should be calling for this to be applied to the Ukraine situation.’ QARN members, she said, ‘share the outrage and distress at what is happening in Ukraine, but feel [generally in the media] there is a lack of understanding of the complexity of this dreadful situation’.
‘Kate McNally has pointed to the racism in media reporting and we have also been aware of this, for example in local events where the view has been openly expressed that “we should help these people because they are like us”. People of non-European heritage fleeing from Ukraine have sometimes faced discrimination, and the conflicting attitudes of European governments to refugees from Europe and from other parts of the world are apparent… A human being in need deserves protection, regardless of where they come from.’
Meanwhile, a rabbi, Jonathan Romain, who has proposed a ‘Ukrainetransport’, said that he has been overwhelmed with offers as the war in Ukraine could force up to four million people to flee the country, according to the UN. Quakers in Europe are working to set up funding channels which the Friend will report on in future editions.
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