Hello,
Update on Refugee Action's legal challenge on asylum support
Since the judgment in Refugee Action's case on asylum support rates was handed down in April, there has been a lot of activity. We've been meeting with our legal team, many voluntary sector partners and, of course, with the Home Office to discuss what the judgment really means for people living on asylum support.
We want to ensure that the Secretary of State complies with the Judge's ruling by appropriately re-assessing support rates by 9 August 2014 and we are continuing to call for asylum support to be raised to at least 70% of income support, to ensure it meets asylum seekers' essential living needs. You can read on our website the full judgment and a summary briefing [Moderator's note: Please find all relevant links at the end of this email].
Our Bring Back Dignity campaign
We've been overwhelmed by everyone's efforts to help keep asylum support on the agenda. More than 1,200 people have joined our Bring Back Dignity campaign, signing and sharing a petition to the Home Office for lawful and fair asylum support rates. There's also been coverage of the judgment and campaign across a range of media outlets including The Independent, the Guardian, Huffington Post, and Politics.co.uk. If you have not done so already please consider signing the petition - if you have already signed it, thank you. We would be enormously grateful if could share details of the petition with your colleagues and among your networks. We will be handing the petition into the Home Office on Wednesday 16 July.
This Monday, 9 June, we will also be holding an online day of action. We are asking people to spend £5.23, the current daily rate of asylum support, on something they would normally need, like food, toiletries or a train ticket, and then take a picture of what they bought and tweet, email or Facebook message it to Refugee Action. Find out more on our website and read our latest blog about the campaign.
With best wishes
Dave
Dave Garratt | Chief Executive
Refugee Action | Victoria Charity Centre | 11 Belgrave Road | London | SW1V 1RB
Links
Full judgment: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2014/1033.html&query=refugee+and+action&method=boolean
Summary briefing: http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/assets/0000/9775/Refugee_Action_Judgment_Summary_FINAL_2.pdf
Petition: http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/actnow
Twitter: https://twitter.com/refugeeaction
Email: [log in to unmask]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RefugeeAction
Website: http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/
Blog: http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/about/blog/1205_bring_back_dignity_-_how_far_are_we_from_fair_asylum_support
News articles:
The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/defeat-for-theresa-may-in-legal-battle-over-threeyear-freeze-in-money-granted-to-asylum-seekers-9249297.html
The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/09/high-court-home-secretary-asylum-seekers-theresa-may
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sarah-teather/sarah-teather-asylum-seekers_b_5119253.html
Politics.co.uk: http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/04/09/high-court-theresa-may-is-irrational
________________________________________
People seeking asylum are forced to survive on as little as £5.23 a day.
The High Court just ruled that this Home Office policy is unlawful. Join our campaign to Bring Back Dignity
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