The Still Human Still Here campaign is dedicated to highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are being forced into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country.
Supporters of the campaign believe that the denial of any means of subsistence to refused asylum seekers as a matter of government policy is both inhumane and ineffective.
The Still Human Still here Campaign is supported by a coalition of charities and church organisations, including Student Action for Refugees, Amnesty international, and the Refugee council. The Campaign is calling on the Government to:
- End the threat and use of destitution as a tool of Government policy against refused asylum seekers
- Continue financial support and accommodation to refused asylum seekers as provided during the asylum process and grant permission to work until such a time as they have left the UK or have been granted leave to remain
- Continue to provide full access to health care and education throughout the same period
You can get the latest news on the campaign below:
So far some of the campaign actions have included
- The launch of Nick Broomfield's documentary for Amnesty International, 'The destitution of refused asylum seekers' at Labour party conference
- Lobbying of the Home Secretary by Refugee Action supporters
http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/campaigns/destitution/default.aspc
- Email lobbying of MPs by Amnesty International supporters http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10918&ArticleID=2894
- The Refugee Council has encouraged it's supporters to lobby their MPs/ write to the editor of the Daily Mail to complain about inaccuracies in coverage of asylum issues and support demonstrations and vigils http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/gettinginvolved/campaign/campaign_with_us/
- STAR (Student Action for Refugees) groups have been lobbying their MPs and sending them copies of the Amnesty DVD on destitution/ orgainising stalls along with speaker and panel events to highlight the issue and win support for the campaign. On March the 5th (2008) over 700 STAR and Amnesty student groups held sleepouts in over 20 different cities across the UK to demonstrate their support for the campaign. http://www.star-network.org.uk/index.php/young_people/index/past_campaigns
A 'Mini Lobby' of Parliament by organised by STAR with STAR and Amnesty members on May the 14th (2008) http://www.star-network.org.uk/index.php/news/comments/still_human_still_here_star_goes_to_parliament/
Church Action on Poverty have been campaigning on destitution through the Living Ghosts campaign. Actions have included lobbying by Church leaders and the infamous Endurance challenge http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/campaigns/livingghosts/
Upcoming Actions include…
Lobbying of councils to pass motions in support of Still Human Still Here by Amnesty groups
Local destitution delegations organised by activists to targeted decision makers.
