campaigns > action matters!
Welcome to the first edition of Action Matters, a new online bulletin that will keep you up to date with Refugee Action's campaigns, advocacy and awareness raising work. We want to share with you the diverse ways in which Refugee Action, and its supporters and volunteers, respond to and influence public debate, and work to ensure that refugees' voices are heard. With your help, we do make a difference.
>19 DECEMBER 2007
RA supports Christmas story with an asylum twist
Destitution debate comes to the Commons
'Darfuri survivors deserve our protection'
Campaign round-up
RA supports Christmas story with an asylum twist
Whatever your religious beliefs, the Christian Nativity story has an obvious resonance with the experience of asylum seekers hoping for refuge in the UK, who find all too often that there is 'no room at the inn'.
So Refugee Action was proud to support 'Liverpool Nativity' - an hour-long BBC production broadcast on BBC3 last Sunday (Dec 16), which updated the story to reflect some of the moral questions facing contemporary Britain.
In the reworked story - repeated next week - pregnant teenager Mary falls in love with asylum seeker Joseph, but their future is threatened by Herodia, a paranoid minister desperate to cling to power who ordered a crackdown on immigration.
To research the role, Kenny Thompson, who played Joseph, spent time with volunteers at our Refugee Awareness Project, which offers local groups the opportunity to learn more about asylum in the UK by talking to trained speakers from the local community, including refugees and asylum seekers themselves.
The show also featured one of Refugee Action's refugee staff members, who joined other singers from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds to play shepherds in a rendition of John Lennon's 'Imagine'.
Liverpool Nativity is repeated on BBC1 on December 23 at 10.45pm and on Christmas Day on BBC3 at 7pm.
More about 'Liverpool Nativity'
Destitution debate comes to the Commons
MPs took Home Office ministers to task about the appalling degradation suffered by refused asylum seekers living destitute in Britain during a House of Commons debate last week (Thurs 13 Dec).
Last March, the all-party Joint Committee on Human Rights published a report - which included evidence from Refugee Action's research report, The Destitution Trap - condemning the policy of enforced destitution of refused asylum seekers. In June the Government issued its response.
Labour MPs including Jon Cruddas, Andrew Dismore, Neil Gerrard and Jeremy Corbyn attended the debate at Westminster Hall, and the questions they raised elicited some detailed responses from Home Office minister Liam Byrne.
Read a full account of the debate here
Meanwhile, earlier this month (4 December) Refugee Action joined campaign partners at the Commons for the parliamentary launch of 'Still Human Still Here', Amnesty International’s DVD showing the plight of failed asylum seekers suffering destitution.
Destitute asylum seekers from Zimbabwe and Iran spoke movingly of their experiences, alongside speakers including Jon Cruddas MP.
Watch the DVD here: www.stillhuman.org.uk
'Darfuri survivors deserve our protection'
Refugee Action is dismayed that a court decision at the House of Lords on 14 November has cleared the way for the forced return of Darfuri refugees to the Sudanese capital. It has been accepted throughout that the respondents have a well-founded fear of persecution in Darfur. All three suffered severe persecution at the hands of militias acting with government support or connivance.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called on Western governments to grant international protection to all non-Arab Darfuri asylum seekers. But of the 670 Sudanese who applied for asylum in the UK last year, just 65 were granted leave to remain.
Too many people who have suffered at the hands of some of the world’s worst human rights abusers are being refused protection in the UK. Rightly terrified of return, they now find themselves on the margins of society, with no recourse to support, and no right to work.
Refugee Action is supporting the campaign against the deportation of Darfuris to Khartoum. However, action is also needed to prevent refused asylum seeking Darfuris from becoming destitute. This means not only better Home Office decisions on Darfuri asylum cases, but also temporary protection in the UK for those who do not qualify for refugee status yet cannot be safely returned.
We will be working hard to highlight the plight of refused asylum seekers from high profile trouble spots such as Darfur, Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo, all of which are very much in the news at the moment. If we can win the moral argument in these cases, pressure will mount on the government to introduce policies that will uphold the rights of all destitute people with unrecognised protection needs.
Campaign round-up
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It's always nice to get a few words of encouragement from a veteran campaigner, so we were delighted when award-winning film maker Ken Loach sent the following message of support:
“Your campaign is very important. It is intolerable for our government to treat people with the cruelty you describe. As well as support for those who cannot return to their country through fear for their lives we need to argue for an authoritative and effective United Nations which can defend human rights and civil liberties wherever they are abused. Your campaign raises big questions. There is a lot to do!”
Refugee Action told Ken about the campaign after attending the UK premiere of his powerful new film, ‘It’s A Free World…’ The film centres on Angie, a young woman who sets up an illegal employment agency for immigrant workers in east London.
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The end of September saw Refugee Action heading down to Bournemouth, where the Labour Party Conference was in full swing. Almost 100 Labour activists packed into a fringe event opposite the conference centre, where the ‘Still Human Still Here’ coalition premiered a hard-hitting new film about destitution commissioned by Amnesty International and produced by Nick Broomfield.
After the screening Refugee Action took part in a ‘Question Time’-style debate on a panel that also included Jon Cruddas MP, one of the prime runners in the Labour Party’s recent deputy leadership contest, Harris Nyatsanza, a refugee from Zimbabwe, film director Marc Hoeferlin, and Donna Covey, CEO of the Refugee Council. The event received coverage on the Guardian website.
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The following month, more than 200 people crowded into a council chamber at Manchester Town Hall to hear testimony from asylum seekers forced into a desperate hand-to-mouth existence after their claims were turned down.
The evidence given at the public hearing into destitution, held by the Independent Asylum Commission, was organised by a coalition of local agencies headed by Refugee Action. Nigel Rose, manager of Refugee Action Manchester, told the Commission there were at least 1000 destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester alone.
Refugee Action worked closely with the Independent newspaper and the story made the front page, with case studies of our clients and comment from our chief executive, Sandy Buchan. A letter from Sandy was also published in the Independent the following day.
The IAC commissioners include Lord Ramsbotham, former Chief Inspector of Prisons, and former High Court Judge Sir John Waite. They will produce a report for the government making recommendations for reform.
Read more about the hand-to-mouth existence of Manchester’s destitute asylum seekers.
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