JRS UK are deeply disheartened by plans announced today to further increase immigration enforcement measures, including expanding immigration detention and increasing forcible removals. We see time again how detention subjects vulnerable people to further trauma. Torture survivors compare it to torture.
And any government that focuses on removals at all costs, blind to the human beings affected, has failed to learn the lessons of the ‘Windrush’ scandal. A focus on draconian and punitive immigration enforcement risks repeating these injustices. It drives people underground and leaving them even more vulnerable to exploitation. It will destroy lives. And, in a bid to look tough, it ignores the very real problems with our asylum system. The government must urgently change course, and concentrate on extending protection to people who need it and allowing them to rebuild their lives.
