100 signatures reached
To: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood
Don’t leave refugees in limbo: Scrap the 20-year wait
Scrap the planned changes to migration rules that will force refugees to wait 20 years to settle in the UK and restrict refugee family reunion.
Why is this important?
We are a group of refugees and people seeking asylum. We have fled crisis and disaster and came to the UK for safety, with some leaving their beloved children and families in a third country, waiting to reunite as a family in the UK. When we heard about plans to force us to wait at least 20 years to know if we can stay safely in the UK, many of us could not sleep. We faced nightmares about what is going to happen to us and our families.
Now we face the mental health impact of potentially decades in limbo, not knowing whether we are going to be granted leave to remain.
These proposals don’t just delay paperwork; they delay lives, hopes, and dreams. For some of us, our children have been born and/or raised in this country and know no other home. For others, our children are trapped abroad, and these plans could make it impossible to reunite with them. We want to work and be productive, but we cannot do this if we are refused support and constantly threatened with having to leave.
Applying these policies retrospectively, to people who’ve already spent years on what they thought was a path to settlement, is particularly cruel. But this is not only about us: it is also about future generations and everyone affected.
Our lives are already challenging; why make them even harder? It’s time to stop scapegoating refugees and other migrants, and start helping people rebuild their lives and reunite with their families.
Please sign to show the Government that the public chooses compassion, and does not want refugees’ lives to be left in limbo.
Now we face the mental health impact of potentially decades in limbo, not knowing whether we are going to be granted leave to remain.
These proposals don’t just delay paperwork; they delay lives, hopes, and dreams. For some of us, our children have been born and/or raised in this country and know no other home. For others, our children are trapped abroad, and these plans could make it impossible to reunite with them. We want to work and be productive, but we cannot do this if we are refused support and constantly threatened with having to leave.
Applying these policies retrospectively, to people who’ve already spent years on what they thought was a path to settlement, is particularly cruel. But this is not only about us: it is also about future generations and everyone affected.
Our lives are already challenging; why make them even harder? It’s time to stop scapegoating refugees and other migrants, and start helping people rebuild their lives and reunite with their families.
Please sign to show the Government that the public chooses compassion, and does not want refugees’ lives to be left in limbo.
