Quakers urge government to roll-out UN-backed schemes to support asylum seekers
The UK government should broaden access to community-based schemes endorsed by the UN instead of treating asylum seekers with hostility, Quakers said.
This week the long-awaited United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report into a Home Office-funded pilot was released.
The report found the Bedfordshire scheme found it was 'more humane' and less than half the price of putting refugees in detention.
But the government will not endorse alternatives to detention and is instead pushing ahead with expanding the Home Office's detention estate, including RAF bases and barges.
Rooted in the conviction that there is that of God in every person, Quakers across Britain work to welcome people seeking sanctuary.
Quakers are involved in campaigns to prevent the (re)opening of Campsfield and Haslar immigration detention centres in Oxfordshire and Gosport. They oppose the use of barges to house asylum seekers.
Immigration detention has no place in a just and fair asylum system, they say, and supportive alternatives are better and cheaper.
“We detest the inhumane and unjust practice of imprisoning migrants because of irregular status," said Fred Ashmore, of the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN).
Ashmore, who has witnessed firsthand the damaging effects of immigration detention, added: “We long for this country to replace its cruel hostile environment with a supportive environment where people are helped to efficiently resolve their status through positive engagement."
Since August 2020, the Bedford scheme, run by the King's Arms Project in collaboration with the UNHCR and the Home Office, has supported 75 migrants in the community.
The migrants, of 23 different nationalities, were helped with legal advice on their immigration options, mental health support, GP registration and English language learning.
A similar pilot scheme in Newcastle was shut by the Home Office in 2021.