The Illegal Migration Bill is set to become law after the government won a final series of votes in House of Lords.
Friends of the Earth is part of a coalition of 290 organisations representing the human rights, migrants’ rights, refugee and asylum, anti-trafficking etc which pledges to continue pushing for creative solutions and practical steps and to create an asylum system in the UK which treats everybody with fairness and humanity, regardless of how they have arrived here. They have set out a five-point action plan which ministers could immediately put in place:
- Give refugees and people seeking asylum a fair hearing in the UK, no matter how they arrive, in keeping with commitments to international law.
- Pilot refugee visas which people seeking asylum could apply for at embassies and other official sites around the world, to enable safe routes to the UK.
- Make it easier for families separated by war and violence to reunite by expanding existing schemes, including by letting separated refugee children be joined by their closest family members.
- Deliver on the Prime Minister’s pledge to reduce the backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim.
- Collaborate with the French Government and other EU countries to make it safer for people to seek protection across the continent and to further crack down on people smugglers.
Why is this a climate issue?
The climate crisis is forcing more people to move as extreme weather destroys livelihoods and communities and increases conflict. But the UK government is ramping up attacks on migrants while failing to respond to the real crises of our day: the climate and cost-of-living crises.
War on Want is organising a webinar Indivisible Justice: Migration and the Climate Crisis on Thursday 27th at 18:00 – 19:30. See more details here:
Havant Climate Alliance 