Press Releases & Briefings

Today, together with over 20 organisations working for equality and human rights in Scotland, we have called for a rethink in Scottish Government plans to change public bodies’ equality obligations.

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.

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.

JustRight Scotland, alongside other 26 organisations, have signed this joint briefing addressing Clause 31 of part 2 of the Nationality and Borders Bill which will change the “well-founded fear test” for determining whether someone is a refugee. If changed, the test will result in protection wrongly being denied to people at genuine risk of persecution.

Ahead of the debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Nationality and Borders Bill,  we’ve worked with the Scottish Refugee Council and Rape Crisis Scotland to highlight the particular impact on women and children and survivors of sexual violence.

We strongly urge MSPs to withhold consent for the Nationality and Borders Bill, as the Welsh Senedd has done already.  The Bill represents the most severe assault on refugee rights in decades. Children have not been spared in this assault.  The Bill treats children just as harshly as it does adults.

Court upholds Census guidance allowing trans men and women to self-identify their lived sex.

Scottish Trans, part of LGBTI human rights charity Equality Network, have been given permission to intervene in a legal case which is seeking to overturn guidance planned for the next Scottish Census in March.

A group of social justice lawyers based in Glasgow have successfully secured an important gain for asylum seekers in Scotland – the right to access legal aid for representation in tribunal appeals, where they face eviction from housing that is provided by the Home Office.

Amnesty International, the Human Rights Consortium Scotland and JustRight Scotland have told a Holyrood inquiry that a ‘comprehensive ban’ on ‘conversion therapy’ practices should be brought forward to protect LGBTI+ people in Scotland.

Court rules that Scottish Government acted lawfully in including trans women in an equal opportunities measure to improve women’s representation on public boards.

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. 

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.