JustRight Scotland and Scottish Refugee Council have joined forces to launch the first step of a Scottish campaign which aimed to stop the #RefugeeBanBill and get other organisations involved in this call to reject the UK Government’s Refugee Ban Bill.
We’re calling for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to scrap her cruel [Illegal] Migration Bill. The UN Refugee Agency has called this bill an ‘asylum ban’. We agree. That’s why we’re calling it the Refugee Ban Bill.
You can read our joint statement in full here: our joint statement
You can read our most updated joint statement in full here: joint statement (last update 15.05.23)
What we’re doing to oppose the #RefugeeBanBill
- We rejected the UK Government plan to proceed with a new Illegal [Migration] Bill
- We publicly expressed our views against this “cruel, unnecessary, and unlawful” Bill on BBC Good Morning Scotland, BBC The Nine, and in the Herald Scotland.
- We joined others by raising our voices in local and national protests
- We have submitted joint letters, legal briefings and statements alongside other civil society organisations across Scotland and UK. You can read more here
- We launched the first step of our campaign, alongside the Scottish Refugee Council to:
- call for all MPs, especially those representing constituents in Scotland, to work together to reject this bill in its entirety
- call on the Scottish Government and all MSPs in the Scottish Parliament to bring a motion for debate to withhold legislative consent for the Bill, reject the Bill as a whole, and outline a plan to protect refugees and trafficking survivors
- We signed a joint briefing – together with Human Rights Consortium Scotland, to highlight that this Bill must be scrapped.
- We ask people and organisations across Scotland to publicly reject the #RefugeeBanBill, in its entirety, and ask others to do the same.
- We have joined forced with Liberty, NACCOM, Praxis, Rainbow Migration, Rene Cassin and Women for Refugee Women to collect signatures across UK through a joint petition against the new [Illegal] Migration Bill.
- We have launched the second stage of our campaign as the Bill is debated in the House of Lords. You can read our press release here.
- Together with a coalition of 176 civil society organisations across UK we have submitted a joint civil society solidarity statement on the [Illegal] Migration Bill.
- We have launched the first episode of Our Rights Stories podcast which looks at the [Illegal] Migration bill as it’s being discussed in the House of Lords at the committee stage, with our guest speakers Andy Sirel, Legal Director at JustRight Scotland and Graham O’Neill, Policy Manager at the Scottish Refugee Council. We are focusing on how we can build a better future for welcoming refugees in Scotland. Listen to our episode here: Our Rights Stories | a podcast by JustRight Scotland (podbean.eu)
- We took part in the Scottish Government-led summit on the [Illegal] Migration Bill (21/06/2023), attended by Cosla, Police Scotland and the Crown Office as well representatives from the voluntary sector.
- We published a summary of the Legal Opinion on the Legal Implications of the [Illegal] Migration Bill in Scotland instructed by JustRight Scotland (JRS), the Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland in June 2023. The legal opinion was funded by a contribution from the Strategic Legal Fund, managed by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association.
- We published our Case Studies on the impact of the [Illegal] Migration Bill in Scotland.
What you can do to help stop the Refugee Ban Bill
If you are an organisation
- add your organisation’s name to our joint statement
There is still time for your organisation to add its name to our joint statement. If you would like to be included, email jrfa@justrightscotland.org.uk
- take a stand on social media
Show your opposition to the Refugee Ban Bill on social media and ask others to do the same.
If you would like to receive our social media pack, please email comms@justrightscotland.org.uk
If you are an individual
- ask Scotland’s MPs to oppose the bill
Make it clear to Scotland’s MPs that you oppose the bill and want them to vote against it.
We can all use Twitter to publicly and politely call for all Scottish MPs to do the right thing. You can take part by tagging them in a Twitter post calling for them to vote against the #RefugeeBanBill
If you’re not sure what to write, you can copy and paste the suggested wording below.
I’m calling for [tag in your MP] to do what is right for Scotland and vote against the #RefugeeBanBill
As the current proposal makes clear, the UK Government plans to
- Establish a ban on people claiming asylum, trapping victims of modern slavery and human trafficking into indefinite exploitation.
- Set the dangerous new precedent that a government can override people’s fundamental Human Rights – as well as cut across areas of devolved competence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – through primary legislation to meet short term objectives.
