Press Releases & Briefings

If you wish to contact us about a press release or media opportunity, please email us at press@justrightscotland.org.uk or use our contact form.

PRESS RELEASE: Unlocking Support: Age Disputed Young People in Scotland (word)

17/09/2024

Our report reveals critical findings. The findings highlight the immense pressure local authorities are under, with limited resources affecting their ability to fulfil statutory duties. To improve access to justice and ensure young people receive the support they deserve, urgent action is required from the Home Office, the Scottish Government, and local authorities.

Read more: Unlocking Support: A call for action to support age disputed young people in Scotland (justrightscotland.org.uk)

Migrant Homelessness and Advocacy for Reform: our support for Homeless Link and NACCOM’s policy briefing (word)

01/08/2024

Alongside over 75 organisations across the UK, we have supported this policy briefing on migrant homelessness published by Homeless Link and NACCOM. The briefing has been shared with Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Angela Eagle, to advocate for reforms in the immigration and asylum system to prevent homelessness. More details are available here: Homeless Link and NACCOM share new migrant homelessness briefing | Homeless Link

Access the full briefing here.

General Election: We signed a joint letter calling on MP Candidates to Use Humanising and Respectful language When Talking about Migrants and Refugees (word)

27/06/2024

Alongside other human rights and migrant rights and justice organisations, we signed a joint letter calling on all parliamentary candidates to stop using migrants as scapegoats for the
challenges the UK faces, and to refrain from propagating hateful and inflammatory rhetoric against some of the most vulnerable people in the UK.

Read the full letter.

General Election: we signed a joint letter addressed to all Party Leaders calling for comprehensive asylum and immigration reform (word)

25/06/2024

We have joined over 100 organisations in signing a joint letter to all Party Leaders, urging them to implement both immediate and long-term changes in the next government. Our goal is to transform the asylum and immigration system so that it no longer drives migrants into homelessness but instead helps prevent and end homelessness for everyone.

Access the letter here.

General election: we signed a joint letter calling for a renewed commitment to ending modern slavery in the UK and around the world (word)

03/06/2024

Alongside over 60 anti-trafficking organisations, we urge election candidates to prioritise modern slavery. The letter highlights three key priorities for the future government to take action on. It comes as the political parties begin their official campaigning and voters prepare to go to the polls on July 4.
Read more about it on Hope for Justice website.

Rwanda Act: We signed a joint open letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (word)

23/04/2024

Alongside over 250 organisations, following the passage of the UK Parliament’s ‘Safety of Rwanda’ Bill, we wrote to the Prime Minister to express our outrage.
We urge the UK Government to listen to the people, abandon this deplorable deal with Rwanda, and refrain from pursuing similar plans with other countries, instead prioritising the protection of those who need sanctuary.

Read the full letter.

Gaza Family Scheme: We signed a joint letter addressed to the Home Secretary (word)

02/04/2024

Alongside over 70 organisations across the UK, we signed a joint letter — coordinated by The Gaza Families Reunited campaign — asking the Home Secretary to introduce a Gaza Family Scheme.

PRESS RELEASE on Rwanda ruling: We signed a joint statement calling on the UK Gov to abandon this plan (word)

15/11/2023
Alongside a coalition of over 120 organisations across UK, we call on the UK Government to immediately abandon such plans with Rwanda or with any other country, and instead protect the rights of people who have come to our country in search of sanctuary.
Read our press release.
Read our joint statement.
Join our call by asking the UK Government to immediately abandon the deal and protect the rights of people seeking asylum in the UK. 

UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill: we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice (word)

06/11/2023

Alongside Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), we wrote a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice asking the Scottish Government to set out a clear timetable for legislative review; to commit to using specific legislative opportunities to expand the scope of the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) Bill; to commit to minimising future Scottish Parliament amendments to UK Acts; to commit to the continuation of the UNCRC Implementation Programme.

UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill: we signed a joint letter addressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice (word)

31/10/2023

Together with other organisations across Scotland, we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice regarding the progress of reconsideration of the  UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill.
We think it’s a very significant step forwards for human rights in Scotland, and we look forward to the Bill’s commencement, ensuring
that the UNCRC shapes all public decision-making that affects children and their families.

PRESS RELEASE: We call upon the Scottish Government to heed the recommendations of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee’s report and take action to safeguard the human rights of the people attacked by the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (word)

26/10/2023

We call upon the Scottish Government to heed the recommendations of the Committee’s report, reaffirm its commitment to take action, and say clearly and publicly what steps it will take to safeguard the human rights of the people attacked by this egregious Act.

Statutory Instruments allowing for the use of scientific methods to assess age: we signed a joint parliamentary briefing addressed to MPs and Peers (word)

17/10/2023

Alongside the Refugee Council and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, we signed a joint parliamentary briefing outlining our concerns with the UK Government’s intention to authorise the use of biological methods, including X-ray and MRI scanning, in assessing the age of children seeking asylum.

This briefing is supported by the Refugee and Migrant Children Consortium (RMCC), a coalition of over 80 organisations working together to promote and protect the rights of young refugees and migrants.

Illegal Migration Act: We signed a statement addressed to local authorities (word)

12/10/2023

Alongside other organisations across UK, we have signed a joint statement addressed to local authorities as this Act will impact them – in terms of local cohesion, local services, support for people facing homelessness, and impacts of exploitation. In many cases, it may also conflict with local authorities’ duty to safeguard and support children in need, children in care, care leavers, and other vulnerable groups across our communities.

 

Supporting and respecting the lives of LGBTQ+ and Women Migrants: we signed a joint letter addressed to the UK Prime Minister (word)

04/10/2023

Alongside other organisations including Amnesty, End Violence Against Women Coalition, Refugee Council and Women For Refugee Women, we have written to UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, asking him to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to protect LGBTQ+ people and women around the world, following comments by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, last week.

Read the full letter: Letter-to-Rt-Hon-Rishi-Sunak-PM-FD.pdf (justrightscotland.org.uk)

Read our press release: 246 Human Rights Organisations Urge PM: Respect the Lives of LGBTQ+ and Women Migrants | Stonewall

Scottish Trans joins legal challenge to UK Government’s veto of Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (word)

09/08/2023

The charity says that the Secretary of State’s block of an improved gender recognition process achieves nothing other than to “force trans men and women to continue to have to use an intrusive, difficult and expensive process simply to live their lives with the dignity we all deserve.”

Scottish Trans is represented pro bono by our Scottish Just Law Centre. Kay Springham KC and David Hay are instructed as advocates.

Read the full press release here.

#RefugeeBanBill: We signed a joint civil society statement on the passage of the Bill (word)

18/07/2023

Alongside a coalition of 290 organisations representing the human rights, migrants’ rights, refugee and asylum, anti-trafficking, children’s, violence against women and girls, LGBTQI+, disability rights, health, LGBTQI+, housing, racial justice, criminal justice, arts, international development, environment, democracy, pan-equality, faith, access to justice, and other sectors, we condemn the passage of the [Illegal] Migration Act today, and stand in solidarity with all who will be affected.

#RefugeeBanBill: we signed an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling on the UK Government to scrap plans to lock up refugee children (word)

11/07/2023

Together with UK’s top children’s charities, we signed an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling on the UK Government to scrap plans to lock up refugee children as part of the [Illegal] Migration Bill, as the child detention aspect of the Bill is due to be debated today in the House of Commons.

The 152 signatories to the letter, coordinated by the Together With Refugees campaign coalition, include NSPCC, Save the Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society,  Coram and Children England, as well as the BMA, MSF, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Choose Love, Freedom from Torture, Refugee Council, Safe Passage International, Citizens UK and Plan International UK.

PRESS RELEASE: Scottish Government must show ‘real leadership’ to stop UK Government’s attack on human rights (word)

22/06/2023

Alongside Scottish Refugee Council and Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, we call on the Scottish Government and public bodies to use their powers and fulfil their human rights obligations to mitigate rights violations in the controversial [Illegal] Migration Bill.

 

For further information, please refer to:

– The Legal Opinion on the Legal Implications of the Illegal Migration Bill in Scotland instructed by JustRight Scotland, the Scottish Refugee Council 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.

– A summary of the Legal Opinion on the Legal Implications of the Illegal Migration Bill in Scotland.

– Our Case Studies: Impact of the Illegal Migration Bill in Scotland.

House of Lords, Second Reading: our joint civil society solidarity statement on the #RefugeeBanBill (word)

10/05/2023

Together with a coalition of 176 civil society organisations representing the human rights, migrant, refugee, asylum, anti-slavery and trafficking, children’s, violence against women and girls, LGBTQI+, disability rights, health, LGBTQI+, housing, racial justice, criminal justice, arts, international development, environment, democracy, pan-equality, faith, access to justice, and other sectors, we have submitted a joint statement ahead of the House of Lords’ debate, calling on Parliamentarians to urge the UK Government to immediately withdraw the [Illegal] Migration Bill.

Maryhill Integration Network and JustRight Scotland shortlisted for national charity award (word)

10/05/2023

We have been shortlisted – together with Maryhill Integration Network, in the Community Action category for this year’s Scottish Charity Awards!

In 2022, alongside Maryhill Integration Network (MIN) we highlighted that many students in Scotland were being excluded from accessing higher education due to their immigration status. These students were from families who came to Scotland as refugees, yet despite settling and studying here, were treated the same as international students, subject to much higher fees to further their studies. This unfair system was the focus of the #OurGradesNotVisas campaign which led to changes within Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) regulations allowing more students to access funding and creating more equitable treatment for students in Scotland from refugee backgrounds.

While a judging panel will determine the winners under nine distinct categories, members of the public can have their say by voting for their favourite overall entry in the People’s Choice Award – by visiting scvo.scot/vote – before 5pm on Wednesday 24 May 2023.

House of Lords, Second Reading: our joint briefing on the #RefugeeBanBill (word)

04/05/2023

Alongside a large coalition of organisations working across human rights, migrant justice, asylum, modern slavery, healthcare and many more civil society sectors in the UK, we have provided our contributions for a single joint briefing on the [Illegal] Migration Bill in view of the House of Lords’ debate on the 10th of May.

Collectively, we oppose the Bill in its entirety. While some of us have proposed specific amendments, our view is that tweaks will not alter the substance of this Bill, nor limit its extremely damaging impacts.

We, therefore, call on Parliament to reject this Bill in its entirety.

PRESS RELEASE: Experts call for political parties to pledge to better protect refugee victims of sexual and gender-based violence in 2024 manifestos (word)

26/04/2023

British political parties must promise to better protect victims of forced migration and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in their 2024 general election manifestos.

A coalition of organisations and experts working with these vulnerable groups have sent letters to the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru parties, to raise concerns about the impact the Illegal Migration Bill will have on victims of SGBV seeking refuge in the UK and calling for parties to commit to protecting survivors in their manifestos.

#RightsRemovalBill: we signed a joint letter addressed to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (word)

24/04/2023

Alongside other organisations across the sector, we have signed a joint letter calling on the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) to highlight our concerns about the UK Government’s attempts to undermine human rights protections by weakening Section 3 of the Human Rights Act.

Read the full letter here: joint letter.

The JCHR responded to this letter and highlighted two references to Section 3 in its recent work including its call for evidence on the Refugee Ban Bill.

Read the full letter here: JCHR response.
More details are available here.

Good Friday Agreement anniversary: we signed a joint letter asking the UK Government to take forward its responsibility to deliver a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights (word)

05/04/2023

Together with other organisations across the sector, we signed this letter calling on the UK Government to take forward its responsibility to deliver a Northern Ireland Bill of Rights, protect the Human Rights Act and guarantee full access to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Read the full letter here: Signed letter

Children missing from Home Office hotels: we wrote to the Prime Minister (word)

26/01/2023

Together with over 100 charities we have written to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for action on children going missing from Home Office hotels at risk of trafficking and exploitation.
We asked to end this practice immediately and to ensure that separated children are cared for and protected as all other children within our legal and well-established child welfare framework.

Read our full letter and our press release.

Joint Statement of UK Civil Society Organisations following the Universal Periodic Review of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (word)

15/11/2022

On Thursday 10 November member states of the UN Human Rights Council called on the UK Government to take action to better realise rights in the UK during the Universal Periodic Review.
JustRight Scotland, together with other civil society organisations across the UK, has written a joint statement asking the UK Government to accept the recommendations made during the Universal Periodic Review.

Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: JustRight Scotland and Amnesty Scotland submit joint briefing to MSPs of the Scottish Parliament (word)

25/10/2022

 

Together with Amnesty International Scotland, we submitted a joint briefing to MSPs of the Scottish Parliament, to support the Stage 1 Debate regarding the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

We hope to see the draft bill progress through the parliamentary process and become legislation as soon as possible.

This proposed Bill would make vital improvements to the current legislation and remove breaches of fundamental human rights experienced by many trans people embedded within the current process.

Read the full briefing here.

PRESS RELEASE: Access to Higher Education – A court case that has changed the rules for migrant students across Scotland (word)

13/10/2022

The Right to Education is a human right protected by Article 2, Protocol 1 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 14 ECHR prevents the government discriminating against people exercising this right, or any other right for that matter.

However, the Scottish Government’s Students’ Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2007 have been found to violate Article 2 Protocol 1, and Article 14 ECHR. The Court of Session Outer House found that they prevented a category of migrant young people, living lawfully in Scotland since their childhood, from accessing college or university alongside their peers.

The Scottish Government must now take urgent steps to change the law.

Reform of the Gender Recognition Act: JustRight Scotland and Amnesty International Scotland write to the Cabinet Secretary (word)

07/10/2022

Together with Amnesty International Scotland, we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Shona Robison about reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA). We restated our support for the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. In our analysis, there is no conflict between the rights of trans people and women or any other group in Scotland.

We hope to see the draft bill progress through the parliamentary process and become legislation as soon as possible.
Read the letter here.

PRESS RELEASE: Over 1,800 Ukrainians have contacted the Ukraine Advice Scotland helpline. New data highlights the value of the Ukraine Humanitarian scheme in Scotland (word)

04/10/2022

Since March our Ukraine Advice Scotland team have answered over 1,800 enquiries by providing legal advice to those who arrived or are due to arrive in Scotland, along with those acting as hosts.  
Tfind out how service users had found the process of seeking safety in Scotlandover the past two months, our team have conducted a survey to gain valuable insight into the reality faced by those who had contacted UAS. 

This research is available on our website here

Joint statement on the urgent need to safeguard unaccompanied children (word)

15/08/2022

JustRight Scotland, together with over 70 organisations, has written a joint statement in response to ECPAT UK’s new report Outside the Frame, which gives chilling statistics on how many children arriving in England without a parent or guardian in the last year were denied the urgent care the state owes them.

We ask the UK Government to cease the use of Home Office hotel accommodation and invest in proper care for children, so that local authorities can accept and support every child who arrives on our shores without a parent or guardian, as the law dictates.
We want children in the UK to be seen as children first and foremost and to be protected and cared for safely and without discrimination.

You can read the full statement here.

PRESS RELEASE – 125 Scottish organisations – united against the Rights Removal Bill, ask UK Government not to scrap the Human Rights Act (word)

01/07/2022

Today, 125 representatives from across Scotland’s third-sector have united in their condemnation of the UK Government’s Rights Removal Bill.
These organisations have asked the UK Government to reconsider this Bill and instead, consider what can be done to better protect human rights for all in Scotland, and across the UK, in a statement signed by over 100 leading and grassroots women’s, children’s, refugee and trafficking, housing and homelessness and human rights organisations, and to send a clear message that the Human Rights Act must be protected.

You can read the full joint statement here.

Joint Statement on UK Rights Removal Bill (word)

29/06/2022

The UK Government has introduced a ‘Bill of Rights’ to Parliament that will scrap the Human Rights Act and will diminish human rights protections in law for all of us, and will particularly impact people whose rights are most at risk.

We know that the recent consultation on proposals for this Bill showed huge support for keeping the Human Rights Act, but the UK Government are still pressing ahead with the Bill.

We oppose this Rights Removal Bill and want the UK Government to reconsider.

We are asking civil society organisations from across Scotland to sign this joint statement produced in partnership with Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, Amnesty International, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), Making Rights Real, Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Church of Scotland and Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities.

If your organisation is happy to be listed as supporting this joint statement, please email your logo by 5pm Sunday 4th September to our email address: jrfa@justrightscotland.org.uk

 

Nationality and Borders Bill: Fix family reunion (word)

18/03/2022

We – together with other organisations, urge Members of Parliament to vote in favour of Lord Dubs’ amendment to open a new safe route to family reunion for refugees in Europe.

The UK’s current family reunion rules are broken. They are failing some of the most vulnerable refugees. Just this week Safe Passage staff met with an unaccompanied 15-year-old Afghan child, Hakim, who recently fled the Taliban. Alone in a dangerous camp in Dunkirk, Hakim is trying to join his uncle in the UK. He had already tried to cross the Channel three times. The current rules don’t provide a safe route for this child to reunite safely with their family in the UK. In fact, none of the unaccompanied children Safe Passage supported in France in 2021 were able to reunite with family here under the UK’s family reunion rules.

Had Lord Dubs’ amendment been law, Ukrainian children and partners would have faced far fewer challenges in safely and quickly reuniting with family here in the UK. The process for family reunification for Ukrainians has been slow, chaotic and ineffective. It is the same for other refugee families every day. It’s time the Government fixed family reunion for all.

Open Letter from the Anti-Trafficking Sector Regarding Situation in Ukraine (word)

16/03/2022

We have signed a joint letter – alongside non-governmental organisations who work to end human trafficking and modern slavery, to declare in solidarity that we condemn the invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia and the impact it is having on the risk of human trafficking in the region. We call to End the Invasion and Protect Civilians from Human Trafficking.

PRESS RELEASE: Survivor Engagement: Assisting Integration in Human Trafficking   (word)

15/12/2020

Today, we held an online event to share the results of a 2-year EU AMIF funded project which has focused on the long-term integration of trafficked women recovering from sexual exploitation as well as empowering survivors of human trafficking to play a leadership and mentoring role in our responses to human trafficking at an operational as well as strategic and policy level in Scotland. 

PRESS RELEASE: Scottish Trans joins legal challenge to protect gender equality on public authority boards (word)

11/12/2020

Scottish Trans (ST), part of the LGBTI human rights charity Equality Network, have been given permission to intervene in a legal case which is seeking to throw out legislation passed two years ago, ensuring greater involvement of women in public life in Scotland. The Scottish Just Law Centre at JustRight Scotland is supporting Scottish Trans to prepare the legal intervention.