On 10 June, on behalf of my local refugee support group in the Skipton and Ripon constituency, I wrote to the prospective parliamentary candidates for the forthcoming general election to ask about their asylum and refugee policies.
“Dear candidate
I am writing to you on behalf of [redacted] Refugee Support Group, one of the several refugee groups in the Skipton and Ripon constituency.
I would be grateful if you could advise me of the policies your party will introduce, if elected, to ensure:
- the UK welcomes its share of refugees;
- it processes their claims promptly and humanely and upholds the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (as incorporated into UK law); and
- it will counter misinformation about and hatred towards refugees.
I would be grateful to receive them by Wednesday 21 June so that I can collate and distribute them with members of our network prior to the election.”
I received the following replies (presented here in alphabetical order).
Conservative – Julian Smith
Thank you for contacting me about asylum seekers and refugee resettlement.
The United Kingdom has a proud history of supporting those in need of protection; our resettlement programmes have provided safe and legal routes to better futures for hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe.
This includes individuals from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.
In 2023, 102,283 people were offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route to the UK and 9,764 people were granted family reunion visas. The family reunion policy allows a spouse or partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.
There are also separate provisions in the Immigration Rules to allow extended family to sponsor children to come here where there are serious and compelling circumstances. There is discretion to grant leave outside of the Immigration Rules which caters for extended family members in exceptional circumstances – including young adult sons or daughters who are dependent on family here and living in dangerous situations. Adult dependent relatives living overseas are covered by certain arrangements where, due to age, illness, or disability, that person requires long-term personal care that can only be provided by relatives in the UK.
Resettlement is vital as a safe and legal pathway to protection for vulnerable refugees fleeing persecution. I will continue to ensure that the Government continues to offer safe pathways for those truly in need.
The Nationality and Borders Act allows the UK to continue to resettle genuine refugees directly from places of danger and to offer refugee family reunions. It improves support for refugees to help them build their life in the UK, integrate and become self-sufficient members of society. The legislation also introduces a new temporary protection status for those who do not come directly to the UK or claim asylum without delay once here, but who have, in any event, been recognised as requiring protection.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Green Party – Andrew Brown
[Andrew Brown also provided information about wider immigration policies, but I have not included them here.]
The Green Party is the only party in England with courage on this question.
The area of immigration I have issues with is people being charged a fortune to come over in small boats. I therefore favour processing applications promptly and efficiently on the other side of the channel and in embassies. That is the way to stop the boats.
Labour – Malcolm Birks
I am happy to confirm that I support the three objectives set out [at the top of this article].
Liberal Democrats – Andrew Murday
[Andrew Murday also provided information about wider immigration policies, but I have not included them here. I have included policies that run alongside specific asylum and refugee policies.]
- Strengthen the powers of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
- Implement the Windrush Lessons Learned Review in full, without further delay.
- Ensure victims of the Windrush scandal get the compensation they are entitled to by making the compensation scheme independent of the Home Office.
- Repeal the Conservatives’ discriminatory ‘Right to Rent’ scheme that turns landlords into border guards.
- Establish a firewall to prevent public agencies from sharing personal information with the Home Office for the purposes of immigration enforcement and repeal the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act.
- Expand access to immigration legal advice by making the legal aid system simpler, fairer and more generous, as set out in chapter 19.
- Provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees by:
- Expanding and properly funding the UK Resettlement Scheme.
- Creating new humanitarian travel permits that would allow asylum seekers to travel to the UK safely to proceed with their claims.
- Establishing a new scheme to settle unaccompanied child refugees from elsewhere in Europe.
- Reuniting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Europe with family members in the UK. Creating new humanitarian travel permits that would allow asylum seekers to travel to the UK safely to proceed with their claims.
- Expanding the scope of refugee family reunion, including enabling unaccompanied child refugees in the UK to sponsor close family members to join them.
- Funding community-sponsorship projects for refugees, and rewarding community groups who develop innovative and successful ways of promoting social cohesion.
- Offering asylum to people fleeing the risk of violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identification, ending the culture of disbelief for LGBT+ asylum seekers, and never refusing an LGBT+ applicant on the basis that they could be discreet.
- Cancel the Conservative’s unworkable Rwanda scheme and invest the savings in clearing the asylum backlog.
- End the detention of children for Immigration purposes, and reduce detention for adults to an absolute last resort, within a 28-day time limit. Increase the ‘move on’ period for refugees to 60 days, providing vital time for new refugees to prepare for life in the UK while ensuring that other public bodies are not left to pick up the costs of them becoming destitute.
Reform – Simon Garvey
Thank you for reaching out. As a practicing Roman Catholic I feel it’s imperative to help and support our fellow man in their times of need. With this in mind, I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.
- Warfare should never be a resolution to conflict. With that said, I was very happy when the Tory government helped Ukrainians, Hong Kongers and Afghans flee war and persecution with special visas and resettlement schemes.
- Reform UK policy is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. A Reform government will set up off-shore processing centres to ensure asylum claims are processed quickly and efficiently in safe third party countries.
- Hatred of people based on race, religion or nationality has no place in a First World country. Reform UK will not tolerate violence, or incitement to violence, from anyone within the UK.
It is my opinion that mass migration open borders is very destructive and benefits no one long term. Overloading the NHS, schools, and infrastructure, while creating a housing shortage, does not benefit the people coming in. It does not benefit the people already here. Only from a position of strength can we properly help those in need.
When Reform UK forms a government we will need advice and help from organisations such as [redacted] Refugee Support Group to create a firm, but fair & humane asylum and immigration system.
I hope this gives you insight into my candidacy.
Yorkshire Party – Ryan Kett
[This response was added 28 June after the candidate got in touch to say the original email request was lost in the sheer volume of automated requests from lobby groups]
The UK has a long and proud history of welcoming refugees, and refugees have made a huge cultural, social and economic contribution to life in the UK for almost half a millennium, from the point that we gave safe refuge to the French Protestant Huguenots in 1540. I hope that this continues to be the case that we continue to welcome our fair share of refugees fleeing conflict and persecution for the next five hundred years.
Amongst our party leadership we have several people who were heavily involved in providing accommodation to Ukrainians fleeing Putin’s invasion, our co-deputy leader Tim Norman accommodated a Ukrainian family, as did our co-leader Simon Biltcliffe; our Chairman Andy Walker was involved in efforts to help settle Ukrainian families in his hometown of Bridlington.
I understand some of the concerns people have about the current small boat crossings in the channel, particular the security implications, it is a worry that our borders can be so easily penetrated, however the best way to significantly reduce these crossings to find a means of safely accommodating and processing applications in a purpose-built facility in Calais. There should be additional means of safe passage provided, such as the ability to apply for asylum whilst accommodated in official UNHCR refugee camps.
The projected half a billion pounds that the Tories will waste on the failing Rwanda scheme, which amounts to little more than tokenism, could and should have been invested in building appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers, and in recruiting and training additional Home Office Asylum Decision Makers to clear the current application backlogs. A scheme should be established which permits asylum seekers to carry out part-time work in areas where we have an existing national skills shortage whilst they await the processing of their application, in order to give them a degree of independence and potentially the opportunity to progress into permanent employment if their application is success, and credit or points could be awarded to those who accept this opportunity.
I had no response from the Heritage Party or from the independent candidate. Details of all candidates available here.
Read more from Dr Perrott on refugees here, and check out our free Yorkshire Bylines Election Gazette:
