HIAS+JCORE joins call to resume Syrian asylum claims

HIAS+JCORE has joined over 200 organisations and more than 500 individuals in signing an open letter to the Home Secretary, raising concerns over the Government’s decision to suspend Syrian asylum claims.

The letter, coordinated by Asylum Matters, stresses the impact that this indefinite pause is an “unprecedented step in recent asylum policy”, and highlights that many Syrians have been left in limbo for years while waiting for an asylum decision. It goes on to state that “further suspending their claims will have a detrimental impact on the mental health and wellbeing of these individuals whose claims should be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Alongside calling for claim processing to be resumed in the UK, the letter also urges the Government to:

• Grant all people seeking asylum the right to work after six months of awaiting a decision on their asylum claim, lifting people including Syrians out of limbo.
• Commit to no forced returns or coercive repatriations of Syrians in the UK.

The UK government is not alone in making this move, with other European countries, including Germany, home to around one million Syrians, and Sweden, the second highest host of Syrians in Europe, taking similar measures. Finland, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium have all also suspended Syrian asylum claims.

Within this context, our partner organisation HIAS has also released a statement, stressing that “our Jewish values compel us to respond with empathy, history, and responsibility” at this moment. Click here to read the full statement.

Full Asylum Matters letter text:

Dear Home Secretary,

We are writing to you as organisations and individuals grounded firmly in our communities across the UK, many on the frontline of stepping in to support people who have been targeted and brutalised by hostile anti-refugee policies in recent years. We are proud to welcome people seeking safety, and many of us are signatories to the Fight the Anti-Refugee Laws pledge that seeks to defend the right to seek asylum in the UK.

We are writing to you today to express our deep concern and opposition to your decision to suspend asylum claims for Syrians just days after the fall of the Assad regime.

The reasons given by government ministers for pausing all asylum claims by people who have fled Syria have, in our view, been inconsistent. Whilst the Minister for Border Security and Asylum told Sky News that the suspension was down to claims being based on “fleeing the brutal Assad regime that has just collapsed” which seems to suggest Syria is now safe for those who have fled, the Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons that “Assad’s demise brings no guarantee of peace” and that this is “a moment of danger”.

We feel strongly that it is far from clear that Syria is safe for those who have or are seeking sanctuary. The Foreign Office continues to advise against all travel to Syria, ‘due to the ongoing conflict and unpredictable security conditions’, all British Embassy services in Damascus remain suspended, and as things stand there has been no return of British diplomats to Syria. We feel this shows the British Government’s acknowledgement that Syria is not yet a safe place, and therefore asylum claims should not be suspended. Announcing an indefinite pause for a specific  nationality group is an unprecedented step in recent asylum policy, and given the fact that you have a range of temporary leave mechanisms at your disposal we feel there is no need to stop processing claims.

Whilst we acknowledge that the UK is not alone in taking this step, following some European countries – there is an acute and substantial backlog already present in the UK following the passage of the Illegal Migration Act which effectively halted all asylum claims. In the UK many Syrians have already been kept in limbo for years awaiting a decision on their claims, all the while banned from working, warehoused in barracks and hotels and forced to live on just £8.86 a week. Further suspending their claims will have a detrimental impact on the mental health and wellbeing of these individuals whose claims should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

We are urging you to reconsider the decision to suspend Syrian asylum claims and urgently:

• Ensure access to the asylum system for Syrians and re-start consideration of their claims
• Grant all people seeking asylum the right to work after six months of awaiting a decision on their asylum claim, lifting people including Syrians out of limbo
• Commit to no forced returns or coercive repatriations of Syrians in the UK

We also urge you to defend the right for all fleeing persecution and war to seek asylum in the UK and build a compassionate refugee system as set out in the blueprint sent to the Prime Minister in July, as published in The Guardian.

Visit the Asylum Matters website for a full list of signatories.