Refugee Support

As part of this campaign, the group Vice-Chair, Ben Grant wrote two letters to our local MP, Rebecca Pow explaining Amnesty’s objections. Below are the letters and the responses from the Home Office Minister for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, Tom Pursglove MP. There is a also a link to a Guardian article that describes the considered amendments to the legislation made by the House of Lords that was summarily rejected by the House of Commons.

Letter from Ben Grant to Rebecca Pow MP on 23-Nov-2021.

Reply from Tom Pursglove via Rebecca Pow on 17-Jan-2022.

Second letter from Ben Grant to Rebecca Pow MP on 1-Mar-2022.

Guardian article on second Lords amendments to the bill on 4-Apr-2022.

Reply from Tom Pursglove via Rebecca Pow on 25-Apr-2022.

Although there are many disappointments in the way that the government has chosen to address this subject. The principle issues are:

• The classification of refugees based on their mode of entry rather then their level of need. This has been criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, The British Red Cross,
  and Amnesty International amongst others.
• Lack of evidence of the effectiveness or cost of the new policies.
• The expense and cruelty of the off-shoring policy.
• Lack of co-operation with France and our other European friends and allies.