JRS: Proposal to send refugees to 'removal hubs' outside UK deeply harmful

Syrian refugees - image: COMECE

Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS UK) have issued the following response to the latest proposals by the UK Government to send appeal rights exhausted asylum seekers to 'return hubs' in Southeast Europe.

Dr Sophie Cartwright said: "At JRS UK, we work with people who have been refused asylum and declared 'appeal rights exhausted'. So often, they have been badly let down by the government's hostile and broken asylum system.

After years of struggle, many people in this situation are eventually recognised as having had a need for sanctuary all along.

Indeed, every year, thousands of people wrongly refused asylum are recognised as refugees following fresh asylum claims. Yet under these new proposals they would be removed from the UK and face incarceration in another country.

The truth is that our asylum system wrongly denies people protection and this situation is only getting worse because people cannot access the advice or support they need. The government must abandon these cruel plans and instead focus on fixing the system, so we offer protection to those who need it."

LINK

Jesuit Refugee Service UK: www.jrsuk.net/