{"id":47138,"date":"2023-02-16T14:04:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/?p=47138"},"modified":"2023-02-16T14:04:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:04:54","slug":"sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield Action Group start petition against \u2018anti-refugee legislation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Sheffield based action group has launched a petition calling on the council to challenge the government regarding migrant and asylum seeker rights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) began to circulate the campaign earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This comes after their demonstration outside Vulcan House last Thursday in solidarity with a member of the group who was threatened with deportation to Zimbabwe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Group member and secretary Stuart Crosthwaite said: \u201cThe threat of detention and deportation hangs over every person who seeks asylum whose claim hasn\u2019t been recognised.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important for people to know that every time people who seek asylum are asked to report to the home office, which is usually every two weeks, there\u2019s a real danger that they won\u2019t come out of it and will be sent to detention in an immigration detention van. These people have lives and families, as you can imagine, that worries people greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The petition specifically aims to call on the UK government to withdraw the UK-Rwanda agreement, repeal the Nationality and Borders Act, and work with Local Authorities to build a refugee protection system treating people with dignity and compassion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe current legislation has a way of putting fear into people so they don\u2019t seek asylum- but that\u2019s their right. This is what people are talking about when they say there is a \u2018hostile environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The petition states that the current Nationality and Borders Act does not address the issues it sets out, and claims the current system punishes people seeking safety based on the journeys they make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aviddetention.org.uk\/immigration-detention-statistics-year-ending-march-2022\">According to Avid detention<\/a> <strong>25,282<\/strong> people entered detention from January to March 2022, which was nearly double the number of the previous year ending in March 2021. In a similar upward trend, <strong>24,918<\/strong> people left detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/05\/image-6.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52226\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">data from Avid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br><br>Marian from SYMAAG (who\u2019s name has been changed to protect her identity) <a href=\"https:\/\/web.sheffieldlive.org\/sheffield-asylum-seeker-fears-deportation\/\">told Sheffield Live! about her fears of deportation<\/a> to Zimbabwe in 2019. She fled due to the repressive government, who have been challenged by Amnesty International for repeatedly \u2018violating\u2019 human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marian claimed that when the Zimbabwean embassy is given the identity of someone who has sought asylum abroad, people can sometimes \u2018go missing\u2019 from the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After almost 17 years in the UK, Marian expressed her fears of reporting for an immigration interview because of the threat of detention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Crosthwaite said: \u201cEvery day in Sheffield people have to experience this fear of being deported as they report at Vulcan House.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just last week, another member of SYMAAG was forced to report at the Vulcan House Home Office reporting centre.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Home Office spokesperson said: \u201cOur ground-breaking Migration Partnership will see those who make dangerous and illegal journeys to the UK relocated to Rwanda, where they will be supported to build new lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur thorough assessment of Rwanda found that it is a safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum seekers. The Court recently upheld this and found that our policy is lawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe remain committed to delivering this policy to break the business model of people smuggling gangs and prevent further loss of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>The link to the petition can be found<a href=\"https:\/\/www.symaag.org.uk\/symaag-starts-petition-calling-sheffield-city-council-to-take-action-on-migrant-and-asylum-seeker-rights\/2735\/\"> here<\/a>: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Sheffield based action group has launched a petition calling on the council to challenge the government regarding migrant and asylum seeker rights.&nbsp; South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) began to circulate the campaign earlier this week. This comes after their demonstration outside Vulcan House last Thursday in solidarity with a member of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":47148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,50,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-top-story-3"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sheffield Action Group start petition against \u2018anti-refugee legislation\u201d - ShefNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sheffield Action Group start petition against \u2018anti-refugee legislation\u201d - ShefNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Sheffield based action group has launched a petition calling on the council to challenge the government regarding migrant and asylum seeker rights.&nbsp; South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) began to circulate the campaign earlier this week. This comes after their demonstration outside Vulcan House last Thursday in solidarity with a member of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ShefNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-16T14:04:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca McPhillips\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RebeccaMcP2\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca McPhillips\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rebecca McPhillips\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/02059949ee82870dd97c02adf427653b\"},\"headline\":\"Sheffield Action Group start petition against \u2018anti-refugee legislation\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-16T14:04:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/\"},\"wordCount\":543,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/sheffield-action-group-start-petition-against-anti-refugee-legislation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Politics\",\"Top Story 3 - 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