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Report shows UK is turning a blind eye to suffering on its doorstep


The UK is failing in its responsibility to protect some of the world's most vulnerable people who have been displaced by conflict, violence, persecution and poverty, say a group of 13 aid and refugee agencies, including CAFOD, in a report out today, called 'A Safe Haven?'

The lack of adequate response from the UK and European governments to the more than a million refugees and migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015 has compounded the suffering and created a humanitarian crisis on Britain's doorstep.

Anne Street, CAFOD's Head of Humanitarian Policy said: "It's not enough for the UK government to provide aid for refugees in countries like Lebanon and Jordan. The UK has an obligation to offer a safe haven, to take its fair share of refugees and do all it can to ensure protection for people on the move, whatever their legal status."

In the report 'A Safe Haven?', 13 agencies including CAFOD, Oxfam and Christian Aid, lay out the steps the UK needs to take to respond to the global displacement crisis, including:

· Expand the safe and legal routes to reach protection in the UK

· Improve the humanitarian response in Europe including humane reception conditions at borders and in transit countries

· Ensure access to a fair, effective and humane asylum system

· Improve conditions in countries hosting large numbers of displaced people, and

· Tackle the causes behind forced displacement.

Next week it will be a year since up to 800 people drowned trying to reach Lampedusa, a tragedy that spurred the EU into holding its first summit on the migrant crisis. But successive summits have done little to improve the situation - the deal struck between the EU and Turkey to deport migrants from Greece is the latest callous attempt to shut the door on desperate people who have already fled their homes and risked a treacherous sea crossing.

The 13 aid agencies behind the report are: Action Aid UK, the British Refugee Council, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Doctors of the World, Freedom from Torture, IRC-UK, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, Plan UK, Refugee Action, Scottish Refugee Council and World Vision.

Read the full report here: http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/a-safe-haven-britains-role-in-protecting-people-on-the-move-605192

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