A STATEMENT FROM REFUGEE ACTION

After months of speculation, the Prime Minister has resigned. Yet another leader who failed to stand up for people seeking safety and fix a broken system.

His departure shows that continuing to blame refugees and people seeking safety does nothing to fix the root causes of our problems.

Instead, this blame fuels division in our communities. The people we support then bear the brunt of it.

Many are still forced to risk their lives in the Channel to seek safety, only to be villainised and othered. They are left to live in appalling conditions and denied the chance to rebuild their lives.

Successive governments, including Sir Keir Starmer's, have failed to take the bold action needed to create a fairer and more humane asylum system.

A system you’ve been helping us fight for.

Now we are calling on the next Prime Minister to choose a different path.

➡︎ A path that defends the right to seek asylum. We want to see an end to the dangerous, dehumanising language that is stoking division and creating hate on our streets.

➡︎ A path that creates safe routes so that no-one – not one more parent, child, sister, brother – drowns in the Channel while exercising their right to claim asylum.

➡︎ A path that gives people seeking asylum the right to work.

➡︎ A path that invests in local leaders, public housing and public services for all. We want to stop the wasting of billions of pounds on an accommodation system run by private companies.

We want our leaders to recognise the role our colonial legacy and more recent foreign policies have in generating displacement.

People seeking safety are not the cause of our problems.

They deserve leadership that takes proper responsibility to support and include people seeking asylum in our communities and society.

In short, the next Prime Minister must do better.

We know a fairer system is possible.

You've helped us champion refugee rights and fight for a fairer asylum system. Now its time for a new Prime Minister to hear our calls for a better future.

Thank you for continuing to support people seeking safety.

Colin - Campaign team

Refugee Action