The Immigration Bill is expected in the Commons next Monday 25 April 2016. Would Friends please ask their MPs to support these five amendments?
The titles of those amendments is in the text below, or you can find the full list of amendments here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2015-2016/0159/16159.pdf
Many thanks to those – especially Jessica Metheringham – who have drafted a short letter/email which we encourage Quakers to use as a template to send to their MP. It’s also intended as a template, so we can encourage Friends to put their own particular stamp on it.
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To: [your MP via email – find the email address on www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/]
Dear [name of MP]
I am writing to you regarding the Immigration Bill, which was recently amended by the House of Lords and is expected to return to the House of Commons on Monday 25 April.
Will you support the Lords’ amendments to the Immigration Bill? In particular, I urge you to support:
· Amendment 59: Asylum Seekers: permission to work after six months
· Amendment 60: Overseas domestic workers
· Amendment 84: Immigration Detention time limit and judicial oversight
· Amendment 85: Guidance on the Detention of Vulnerable Persons
· Amendment 87: Unaccompanied refugee children: relocation and support
The original Bill, before these amendments were suggested, deliberately sought to create a hostile climate for refugees. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain and the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network wrote to Peers in January to ask for changes to the Immigration Bill around family life, the right to rent, criminalisation of technical offences, the right to work and immigration detention. We are pleased to see that many of these concerns were considered and have resulted in changes to the Bill.
As Quakers, we seek to live out our belief that there is that of God in everyone. The Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network has been working with other organisations on issues such as ending indefinite detention for many years. It is a nationwide network of Quakers who have experience of working with asylum seekers and refugees. The network seeks to ensure that justice and compassion are the guiding principles in the treatment of asylum seekers, forced migrants and refugees.
Please support these amendments when they are considered in the House of Commons on Monday.
In Friendship
[Your name and address – so the MP knows you are a constituent of theirs]
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The letter is here as a word document: 2016 April 18 Immigration Bill amendments sample letter to MPs