Dear Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, we are a group of campaigners who have been forced to leave our home countries and are now seeking safety in the UK. Our housewarming gift to you is one simple message: Please scrap the Immigration and Asylum bill, and build a system that welcomes people seeking safety and helps create stronger communities for everyone.
Moving into Number 10 marks the beginning of your new chapter. For many of us at campaign group RAS Voice, starting over in Britain came after losing the homes, lives, and futures we once knew. The refugee journey is one of leaving everything familiar behind in search of safety, dignity, and the chance to rebuild.
We remember meeting you in 2019 at an event in Manchester where you spoke passionately about the city as a city of welcome, and about the importance of ensuring that people arriving here are treated with dignity and compassion.
That is why we are writing with deep concern following your support for the Immigration and Asylum Bill at its second reading in Parliament. It is difficult to reconcile this decision with the support and solidarity you have previously shown to refugee communities. We are concerned that these measures risk causing further hardship to people who have already endured so much.
We are particularly asking you to reconsider the plan to make people who have been granted asylum repay up to £10,000 for their accommodation and support. People seeking asylum are already prevented from working while their claims are considered. Asking people who have finally found safety to begin their new lives with significant debt risks pushing newly recognised refugees into poverty at the very moment they are trying to rebuild. Can you imagine starting your life in Number 10 with that debt hanging over your head?
We believe Britain needs an asylum system founded on dignity, fairness, and evidence. As people who have rebuilt our lives here after fleeing conflict and persecution, we ask you to show the compassionate leadership we know you are capable of.
Please scrap the bill and create a country of welcome.
Yours sincerely,
RAS Voice - supported by Refugee Action and thousands of co-signed names who support us.
