We have written to our Members of Parliament to express our concern and horror at the recent announcements from the home secretary Shabana Mahmood on changes to the UK’s asylum system. You can read our letter below.
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To our Members of Parliament,
We express our grave concern and horror at the recent announcements from the home secretary Shabana Mahmood.
For decades now, we have witnessed the continued scapegoating of people seeking safety by successive governments – in our centres, we see the real impact of this rhetoric and increasingly hostile policies on the lives of those we work with. Our clients are increasingly pushed into precarious living situations and face barriers from government service after service.
Amidst a rise of the far right and increasing threats made to asylum seekers and the places in which they are housed, Mahmood’s Immigration White Paper only builds on hate and division. It fuels anxiety for our service users, who are now extremely worried about the new changes and what it will mean for their futures.
The people demonised and scapegoated by Shabana Mahmood are people who have already been forced to wait in limbo for far too long with little control over their lives but who continue to hope that they will get the decisions that will allow them to build a future on stable foundations.
Each week, we witness the impact of instability and insecurity on people’s ability to settle and to rebuild. We see how Home Office policy puts up every barrier possible to prevent people from laying down roots. The decision to make refugee status temporary will only perpetuate a state of limbo and deny people the ability to plan for their futures. It is a cruel change to the system which will undoubtedly cause further stress and uncertainty to a community that are already experiencing widespread hardship and that have come seeking sanctuary.
Some of our greatest days in the centres are when clients come in to introduce family members to us, from whom they have often been separated for years. It is shocking to hear that this government wants to make this even harder to achieve.
As an organisation we navigate an increasingly challenging financial climate but hope to receive your continued support in challenging these changes by the Home Office.
Our work at SDCAS is already hard and we know it will become even harder if these proposals become legislation. Organisations like ours will be the ones left to pick up the pieces of the decisions this Labour government makes.
Yours truly,
The SDCAS Team