Justice Together supports the call for protection of Afghans seeking safety in the UK

August 24, 2021

At Justice Together we stand with those organisations who defend the human rights of migrants and refugees and urge the UK Government to respond to the current crisis unfolding in Afghanistan with compassion, fairness and respect for human dignity. We are particularly concerned about the situation facing women and girls, people from the LGBT community and human rights advocates.

We support the call for a wide-ranging package to provide protection to Afghans seeking safety in the UK via resettlement and providing asylum and therefore welcome the government’s announcement of the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme to resettle 20,000 refugees fleeing from Afghanistan to rebuild their lives in the UK.

However, in the long-term, much more needs to be done. Our vision at Justice Together is that people who use the immigration and asylum system can access justice fairly and equally, so that they can get on with their lives. In order to do this the UK needs a timely and accessible asylum system that has at its heart the safety and dignity of those people seeking protection in the UK.

It is very clear from what is unfolding in Afghanistan that the ability of people to escape violence and conflict via official schemes isn’t always possible and people therefore have to seek irregular routes to seeking asylum in order to save their lives and those of their children. We therefore urge the government to rethink the Nationality and Borders Bill and make amendments that more adequately reflect the desperate situation that people fleeing Afghanistan face.