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As a coalition of 176 civil society organisations representing the human rights, migrant, refugee, asylum, anti-slavery and trafficking, children’s, violence against women and girls, LGBTQI+, disability rights, health, LGBTQI+, housing, racial justice, criminal justice, arts, international development, environment, democracy, pan-equality, faith, access to justice, and other sectors, we call on Parliamentarians to urge the Government to immediately withdraw the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’.
We all deserve to live safe from harm and to be treated with compassion, dignity, and respect. But this shockingly cruel and inhumane Bill turns our country’s back on people fleeing war and persecution, blocking them from protection, support, or justice at a time they need it most.
The Bill is effectively a ban on asylum, extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in the United Kingdom. It will put people seeking safety and a better life at risk of irreversible harm, with life and death consequences.
This Bill attacks the very core of human rights, which is the fundamental belief that we all have human rights regardless of who we are or where we are from. Instead, it separates people into categories of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ of human rights. In stripping the most basic rights from people seeking safety and a better life, the Bill dismantles human rights protections for all of us.
The Bill deliberately and unacceptably excludes an entire category of people from the protections guaranteed under our domestic laws and international obligations. It will almost certainly breach multiple international conventions and agreements, including the UN Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT). The Government has acknowledged that it cannot guarantee the Bill will be compatible with the ECHR, a legally binding instrument.
The Convention represents the rights and values that we hold dear, including the right to life, protection from slavery and torture, and the right to liberty, which are all threatened by this Bill.
Not only does the Bill substantially threaten human rights, it aims to shield the Government from accountability when it does violate those rights by reducing parliamentary and judicial scrutiny.
The Bill includes the unprecedented and alarming proposal to disapply Section 3 of the Human Rights Act, which empowers our judges to interpret laws in a way that protects our rights. Without that protection, individuals affected by this Bill are limited from getting justice when their rights are violated.
The Bill hands vast delegated powers to the Secretary of State, including the power to amend laws in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, despite the fact that human rights are largely a devolved matter. The Bill would also enable Ministers to ignore interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights – a rare yet vital last resort to halt proceedings like deportations when people’s lives are deemed at risk of extreme and irreversible harm.
This Bill would almost certainly be unlawful domestically and internationally. The Bill signals to the international community that the Government intends to commit human rights abuses while evading scrutiny and accountability, setting a dangerous example to other states.
More importantly, these cruel and inhumane plans are a stain on our collective moral conscience, attacking the values we cherish as a democratic, rights-respecting society. This Bill is a dangerous piece of legislation that will most certainly lead to irreparable harm, grave suffering, and possible deaths if enacted.
We stand united in solidarity with the individuals and families who would be directly harmed, and oppose the Government’s divisive attacks on refugees migrants, victims and survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery, and other people who move. We fiercely reject any attempts to undermine the universality of human rights.
We urge all Parliamentarians to urge the Government to withdraw the Bill.
Signed:
- Danielle Roberts, Senior Policy and Development Officer, Here NI
- Andrea Cleaver, CEO, Welsh Refugee Council
- Paul Hook, Director, Asylum Matters
- Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, National AIDS Trust
- Saqib Deshmukh, Interim CEO, Alliance for Youth Justice
- Deborah Coles, Executive Director, INQUEST
- Chris Jones, Director, Statewatch
- Declan Owens, Co-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
- Declan Owens, CEO, Ecojustice Ireland
- David Weaver, Chair, OBV
- Lee Jasper, Co-Founder, Blaksox
- Jess McQuail, Director, Just Fair
- Emma Hutton, CEO, JustRight Scotland
- Chloe Trew, Director, Participation and the Practice of Rights
- Jonathan Senker, CEO, VoiceAbility
- Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, Humanists UK
- Tim Naor Hilton, Chief Executive, Refugee Action
- Victoria Marks, Director, ATLEU
- Clare Moseley, Chair, Care4Calais
- Susanna Revolti, CEO, Borderlands
- Mauricio Silva, IRD Coordinator, Columbans in Britain
- Mia Hasenson-Gross, Executive Director, René Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights
- Amber Bauer, CEO, forRefugees
- Lucy Nabijou, Coordinator, Haringey Welcome
- Jane Lees, CEO, CommunityWorks
- Ruhi Akhtar, CEO, Refugee Biriyani & Bananas
- Naabil Khan, Volunteer Coordinator, STAR Exeter
- Jeremy Thompson, Manager, Restore (a project of Birmingham Churches Together)
- Miranda Reilly, Director, The Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees
- Aisling Playford, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Rainbow Project
- Toni Soni, Centre Director, Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre
- Suleiman Abdulahi, Managing Director, Horn of Africa People’s Aid Northern Ireland
- Jabbar Hasan, Director, Iraqi Association
- Jeannie Tweedie, Co-Director, Elmbridge CAN
- Kayte Cable and Vicki Felgate, Co-Founders, Big Leaf Foundation
- Aderonke Apata, Founder and CEO, African Rainbow Family
- Sampson Low, Head of Policy, UNISON
- Gisela Valle, Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Service
- Aderonke Apata, Founder and Chairperson, Manchester Migrant Solidarity
- Sue Lacey, Founder, Together100
- Eleni Venaki, Director, The Comfrey Project
- Karen Pearse, Director, Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers
- Amos Schonfield, CEO, Our Second Home
- 44. Chloe Crowther, Bristol Defend Asylum Seekers Campaign
- 45. Tom Brake, Director, Unlock Democracy
- 46. Sebastian Rocca, Founder and CEO, Micro Rainbow
- 47. Sheila Mosley, Steering Group member, Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN
- Mel Steel, Director, Voices in Exile
- Ewan Roberts, CEO, Asylum Link Merseyside
- William Gomes, Director, The William Gomes Podcast
- Dr Razia Shariff, CEO, Kent Refugee Action Network
- Andrea Simon, Director, End Violence Against Women Coalition
- Emily Crowley, Chief Executive, Student Action for Refugees (STAR)
- Tamsin Cook, Co-Artistic Director, Mafwa Theatre
- Rose Caldwell, CEO, Plan International UK
- Isobel Ingham-Barrow, CEO, Community Policy Forum
- Clare Moody, Co-CEO, Equally Ours
- Sadia Sikandar, Advisory Board, West End Refugee Services
- Rosie MacPherson, Artistic Director & Joint CEO, Stand & Be Counted Theatre
- Efi Stathopoulou, Programmes Manager, Refugee Legal Support
- Ros Gowers, Coordinator, Evesham Vale Welcomes Refugees
- Margaret Lennon, Director, Bridges Programmes
- Daniel Boyle, Senior Parliamentary and Policy Officer, BEMIS Scotland
- Elayne Hill, CEO, Central England Law Centre
- Angus Clark, Chief Executive, Herts for Refugees
- Liz Needham, Chair of Trustees, St Albans for Refugees
- Jean-Pierre Moussally, community councillor of the agglomeration of Grand Calais Terres & Mers, EELV (French Green Party)
- Nancy Kelley, CEO, Stonewall
- Juliet Harris, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), Director
- Shameem Ahmad, CEO, Public Law Project
- Emma Ginn, Director, Medical Justice
- Pete Ritchie, Director, Nourish Scotland
- Fraser Sutherland, Chief Executive, Humanist Society Scotland
- Alexandra Lopoukhine, Interim Executive Director, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
- Georgina Fletcher, Chief Officer, Regional Refugee Forum North East
- Catharine Walston, Trustee, Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign
- Catharine Walston, Chair of Executive, Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group
- Rev Peta Evans, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan Community Church of North London
- Jenni Regan, CEO, IMIX
- Bridget Young, Director, NACCOM
- Andrew Jackson, Chief Executive, Upbeat Communities
- Sarah Fenby-Dixon, trustee, Refugee Aid Network
- Kat Lorenz, Director, Asylum Support Appeals Project
- Mhairi Snowden, Director, Human Rights Consortium Scotland
- National Committee, Women for Independence
- Will Sutcliffe, Chair, Bradford City of Sanctuary
- Charles Dobson, Chairman, Skipton Refugee Support Group
- Angie Pedley Co-ordinator, Craven Refugee Support Network
- Angie Pedley, Co-ordinator, Craven District of Sanctuary
- Robert Rae, Co-Director, Art27 Scotland
- Amanda Jones, CEO, Shropshire Supports Refugees
- Amy Lythgoe, Trustee, Together Now
- Zara Mohammed, Secretary-General, Muslim Council of Britain
- Maggie Pearse, Chair, BIASAN (Bradford Immigration and Asylum Support and Advice Network)
- Daniel Tsz Kin Kwok, Director, The Hong Kong Scots CIC
- Gail Heath, CEO, Pankhurst Trust (incorporating Manchester Women’s Aid)
- Steve Newman, Chair, FODI (Friends of the Drop In for asylum seekers and refugees, Sunderland)
- Alphonsine Kabagabo, Director, Women for Refugee Women
- Tim Hopkins, Director, Equality Network
- Gill Tipping, Co-chair, Lewes Organisation in Support of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (LOSRAS)
- Lilian Geijsen, European Director, Ben & Jerry’s
- Sian Summers-Rees, Chief Officer, City of Sanctuary UK
- Chloe Wolfe, Charity Manager, Swindon City of Sanctuary
- Helen Hodgson, Operations Director, Hope at Home
- Lisa Norcross, Project and Fundraising Manager, Kairos Housing
- Alan Gray, Chair, Forth Valley Migrant Support Network
- Amanda Church-Mcfarlane, Co-CEO, Abigail Housing
- Clare Campbell, Operations Manager, Walking With in North Tyneside
- Stroud District Together With Refugees
- Martha Spurrier, Director, Liberty
- Nick Beales, Head of Campaigns, RAMFEL
- Revd Jide Macaulay, Chief Executive Officer, House of Rainbow CIC
- Lade Olugbemi, The Nous Organisation
- Sandy Brindley, Chief Executive, Rape Crisis Scotland
- Dennis Carney, Chair, Black Connection
- Ros Holland, Chief Exec, Boaz Trust
- Ted Britton, Chair of Trustees, WYDAN
- Gwen Hines, Chief Executive, Save the Children
- Jamie Balfour-Paul, Founder, Magic for Smiles
- Avril Sharp, Policy Officer, Kalayaan
- Dania Thomas, Director, Ubuntu Women Shelter
- Mark Courtice, Chair of Trustees, Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group
- Agnes Tolmie, Chair, The Scottish Women’s Convention
- Kate Alexander, Director, Scottish Detainee Visitors
- Simon Tyler, Director, Doctors of the World
- Sacha Deshmukh, Chief Executive, Amnesty International UK
- Dr. Patrick Roach, General Secretary, NASUWT
- James Wilson, Director, Detention Action
- Anna Lewis, CEO, Open Door North East
- Simon Cheng, Director, Hongkongers in Britain
- Jane Grimshaw, Convenor Hastings Supports Refugees
- Julie Bishop, Director, Law Centres Network
- Sattinder Collins, Chair, Tees Valley of Sanctuary
- Elizabeth Long, Partnerships, Refugee, Asylum seeker & Migrant Action (RAMA)
- Stephanie Neville, Project Manager, Stories of Hope and Home
- Alison Pickup, Director, Asylum Aid
- Kerry Smith, CEO, Helen Bamber Foundation
- Ailsa Dunn Secretary Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees
- Reverend Gerard Goshawk, Minister, Six Ways Erdington Baptist Church
- Clare Henry, Management Committee, Exeter City of Sanctuary
- Hayley Nelson BEM, Director, Learn for Life Enterprise
- Sanchita Hosali, CEO, The British Institute of Human Rights
- Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain
- Clarissa Hanna, Chair, Faversham and Villages Refugee Solidarity Group
- Dr Judith Turbyne, Chief Executive, Children in Scotland
- Lucila Granada, CEO, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)
- Marguerite Hunter Blair CEO Play Scotland
- Fizza Qureshi, CEO, Migrants’ Rights Network
- Robert Moore, Company Secretary, North Wales Regional Equality Network
- Mark Kieran, CEO, Open Britain
- Griff Ferris, Senior legal and policy officer, Fair Trials
- Kris Harris, Policy Coordinator, Project 17
- Debbie Ariyo OBE, CEO AFRUCA Safeguarding Children
- Debbie Ariyo OBE, Chair BASNET
- Pierre Makhlouf, Legal Director, Bail for Immigration Detainees
- Chris Minnoch, CEO, Legal Aid Practitioners Group
- Owen Temple, Chair, No To Hassockfield
- Sneh Aurora, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
- Jim McCormick, Chief Executive, The Robertson Trust
- John Good, Acting CEO, ActionAid UK
- Suzanne Swinton, Chief Executive, Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance
- Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO, Oxfam GB
- Hugh Knowles and Miriam Turner, Co-Executive Directors, Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
- Donna-Louise Cobban, CEO, Beyond Detention
- James Pearson, Director of Policy & Practice, Alzheimer Scotland
- Yo Dunn, Director, National Autistic Taskforce
- Enver Solomon, CEO, Refugee Council
- Rev Caz Hague, Methodist Minister, Birmingham Circuit
- Steve Cooke Chair Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity
- Katrina Ffrench, Founder and Managing Director, UNJUST
- Dr Shabna Begum, Director of Research, Runnymede Trust.
- Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director, Human Rights Watch
- Kamran Mallick, CEO, Disability Rights UK
- Rosalind Stevens, Project Manager, Civil Society Alliance
- Jasmine Mohammad, Safety4Sisters Northwest
- Patricia Durr, CEO, ECPAT UK
