Today, 18 December, is the UN International Migrants Day. If you are not a migrant but part of a community or society that is receiving migrants, it is a day to think about offering a hand of welcome and friendship. If you are a migrant yourself, it is a day to think about your experiences of …
Asylum and Migration
From hostility to hospitality
Over the last six months, JPIT has been campaigning for an end to the ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies which are causing destitution, discrimination and distrust in our society. But how can our churches play a part in creating a more welcoming environment for migrants? We begin a …
European church leaders unite for refugees and migrants
European church leaders have affirmed the values of dignity, respect and compassion for refugees and migrants. On 4 December, a Christmas statement, signed by more than thirty church leaders from Europe and beyond, was jointly issued by the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and the …
Should the government’s power ever be used to create destitution?
Twenty Church leaders have written to Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, to call for an end to the Government’s hostile environment immigration policy because “it is inhumane to use destitution, or the threat of destitution, as a policy tool to encourage people to leave the country.” As we outline in …
Church leaders ask Home Secretary for end to hostile environment
Twenty Church leaders have called for an end to the hostile environment in an open letter to the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP. The hostile environment is the web of government policies designed to make life so difficult for people who cannot prove they have the right to live in the UK that they …
Modern slavery and the hostile environment
This week marked the UN’s World Day against Trafficking in Persons. It also marked the announcement of a welcome review into the legislation intended to protect those trafficked into modern slavery. Modern slavery takes many forms. Victims trafficked into Britain come in search of …
Church leaders call for an end to the hostile environment
Responding to the news that the government has temporarily suspended some of the data-sharing measures which form part of its ‘hostile environment’ approach to illegal immigration, leaders of the Church of Scotland, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches issued the following …
Have we been complicit in the hostile environment?
A guest blog by Revd Dr Michael N. Jagessar, Secretary for Global and Intercultural Ministries at the United Reformed Church. Michael is a URC minister, theologian, speaker and author, and has lived and worked in Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada, Curacao, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and, since 1999, in …
MPs Windrush inquiry questions hostile environment policies
Earlier this week, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee released the report on its inquiry into the Windrush scandal. It is highly critical of the government’s actions and confirmed many of the concerns raised in JPIT’s recent report Destitution, Discrimination & Distrust: The Web …
Ed’s story
We spoke to Ed at a drop-in centre run by a United Reformed Church: Ed sought asylum in the UK as a victim of torture. Her first asylum application was denied and Ed was taken into detention: “they came in the night and arrested me… it was like more traumatism in me… I was crying crying crying … …