Some Questions for Parliamentary Candidates on respecting the humanity of forced migrants
- Do you not agree that people seeking sanctuary in the UK should be treated with compassion, dignity and respect?
- Will you work for an immigration and asylum control system which treats forced migrants with dignity and respect?
- Will you work to end the detained fast track processing of applications for asylum and humanitarian protection? Will you seek to ensure that all applicants have access to good quality independent representation and the time and opportunity to prepare their cases?
- Will you work to end the use of indefinite detention? Will you press for a maximum of 28 days detention before a forced migrant is brought before a properly constituted court or released?
- Will you work to ensure that people may not be detained without clear written and legally justified reasons and access to an independent court constituted in accordance with principles of human rights and due process?
- Will you work for people seeking sanctuary to be allowed to seek paid work if they have been waiting six months for a response from the Home Office?
- Would you restore the right to housing benefit to people seeking sanctuary who have been waiting six months for a decision?
- Would you work to increase the powers of local authorities to charge higher council tax on habitable properties left empty for more than six months? Should the proceeds not go towards a fund to purchase empty properties from businesses and individuals in serious financial difficulties and to provide really affordable housing for people in acute housing need including people seeking sanctuary?
- Would you work towards people seeking sanctuary having the same rights to be accommodated as homeless people as other residents?
- Most people seeking sanctuary want to learn both the language and the cultural norms of the country they find themselves in. Would you restore and extend the provision of free access to courses of English for Speakers of Other Languages to people seeking sanctuary? Would you promote the establishment of educational services to enable recently arrived forced migrants to acquire the knowledge and skills to become integrated in British Society?
- Would you work to establish an obligation on the Home Office to monitor what happens to people who are deported. The results would be made publically available.
- Would you ensure the evidence that most immigrants contribute more to the economic and cultural development of the UK than most settled residents is widely publicised? Would you also publicise the fact that fewer immigrants claim state benefits than settled residents?