Two million people have now fled the bloodshed in Ukraine and with many more expected to do so, this could be the worst refugee crisis since the second world war. Seven decades ago in 1951, after the horrors of the world wars, the UK and other nations came together to sign the UN convention on refugees. It sets out that how a person arrives seeking protection does not matter. What matters is why – escaping war, conflict and oppression.
Yet today we have a government that appears to show a callous disregard for the convention. It isn’t giving all Ukrainians fleeing violence the opportunity to come to our country as a refugee (Priti Patel under fire over chaotic Ukrainian refugee policy, 7 March). Instead, by setting up a limited and restricted family scheme and making a vague promise to establish some kind of humanitarian sponsorship programme, its response looks chaotic, heartless and unkind.
At the same time, it is pushing ahead with its cruel nationality and borders bill, which will undermine the right to refugee protection and criminalise Ukrainians, Afghans and others who, through no fault of their own, are forced to make their own way to safety and arrive without all the necessary documentation.
It seems that the government has chosen to send a clear message to refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere that they are not welcome. Now, more than ever, is the time to strengthen, not weaken, our commitment to the UN convention on refugees, and ensure that we provide protection to those who have lost everything.
Enver Solomon Refugee Council, Ben Jackson Asylum Reform Initiative, Jenni Regan Imix, Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah Oxfam GB, Kirsty McNeill Save the Children, Sonya Sceats Freedom from Torture, Beth-Gardiner Smith Safe Passage, Tim Naor Hilton Refugee Action, Sabir Zazai Scottish Refugee Council, Nicole Francis Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and 34 others
• On reading Simon Jenkins’ article (Ukrainian refugees, meet Britain’s ‘hostile environment’. We should be ashamed, 7 March), I wondered why the UK government hasn’t already got an efficient, fair and objective procedure for dealing with asylum claims. There is no excuse for its inadequate response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. It has been self-sabotaged by a deliberately tangled legal and procedural approach towards asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.
It has ignored pleas from advocates for refugee rights to open up safe routes to the UK. Instead, it has spent the last 10 years trying to wheedle out of its responsibilities under the refugee convention by introducing increasingly stringent and inhumane policies that have pandered to ill-informed prejudice.
Now, it is furiously trying to undo the cruel procedures it has put in place. It is trying to unlock a door that has been locked for so long that it’s rusted up. It appals me that it has taken another war to highlight the government’s disgraceful treatment of Middle Eastern and African refugees.
Mike Hodgson
Buckfastleigh, Devon
• Last week, a neighbour in the small French village where I am staying had just finished preparing her house there for holiday lets this summer. But she instead decided to speak to the mayor about making it available to Ukrainian refugees. A Ukrainian woman and her teenage daughter are moving in tomorrow.
Julie Platt
Usclas-d’Hérault, France
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