‘The biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades’ - dangerous, unlawful and inhumane.

Priti Patel’s plans for ‘the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades’ are inhumane, pose clear threat to the rights of individuals seeking protection in the UK, and are in part in clear contravention of international law. The consequences of these proposed policies on people’s lives will be devastating.

Yesterdays policy document is full of half truths and manipulated facts. She has suggested that the asylum system in the UK is crumbling under the pressure of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive here every month, this is simply not true. 

This system is broken because the conservative government have allowed it to do so, providing millions to private contractors to run asylum accommodations and detention centres, whilst thousands wait over a year for their interviews in squalid conditions.  

These plans will punish people fleeing persecution even more, pushing them further into the margins of society with no access to health care, benefits and a fair asylum process.

Patels new plans do nothing but threaten the sense of safety and security which people seeking protection require and deserve. These plans perpetually maintain instability, triggering the traumas created by years of uncertainty and unimaginable experience. They prevent recovery and the chance to rebuild a life considering the rights and entitlements that every person on this planet is entitled to.

They play right into the hands of human traffickers, as people wishing to claim asylum in the UK due to family links, language or others reasons are forced to take even greater risk to avoid being forced to languish for months in reception centres akin to defect detention centres facing deportation. 

Please think carefully about how you would want to be treated if you needed a place of safety, these polices while certainly fall short of this. We are on the precipice of a catastrophic erosion of the right to claim asylum in the UK, and as we have already seen in recent months the Home Office will not stop until they have realised the hostile harmful polices they wish to implement for people seeking safety. Napier Barracks in Folkestone still housing 35 men, with others set to move in has deteriorated the mental health of hundreds housed there, as we have heard and continue to hear from residents there directly. 

Simply, if you believe that people should, regardless of nationality, skin colour, religion or belief system, be able to live a free life, with dignity and respect, then these policies must be prevented.

Over the past year we have documented countless rights abuses within the UK asylum system, have met with many incredible people and supported them to share their experiences for this treatment. Now more than ever we must continue this work to ensure accountability for this treatment is ensured, and to assist in preventing these polices from becoming a reality.