‘Labour cannot shirk its duty to torture survivors by offshoring asylum claims’

We were all heartened when Sir Keir Starmer announced Labour would end the cruel ‘cash for humans’ scheme with Rwanda.

But now, instead of knocking this idea on the head once and for all, he’s looking at other ways of shirking our responsibilities and offshoring people seeking sanctuary elsewhere.

Recent reports that Labour could look to offshore asylum seekers if they come to power don’t mention that mass incarceration of survivors of torture would likely be an essential premise of such a scheme. This is a hammer blow to human rights defenders in this country. 

Torture survivors who have fled the most unimaginable horrors have told us about the terrible toll that the Rwanda policy has taken on them.

Freedom from Torture clinicians have reported that some people have contemplated taking their own life if they were ever served with a removal notice there. The stakes couldn’t be any higher.

With people up and down the country appalled by the Rwanda policy, Starmer would do well to show moral and political leadership by committing to treating people with decency and not sending them thousands of miles away, shirking our protection responsibilities. 

The debate surrounding people seeking sanctuary in the UK has become increasingly hysterical and less evidence-based.

In the last five years alone, we have had numerous Home Secretaries suggesting outlandishly cruel ideas like patrols on jet skis, sending asylum seekers to Moldova, Papua New Guinea and the Ascencion Islands, curbing access to justice, and reducing rights for people crossing the Channel. Now is the time to move away from these sorts of cruel performative policies. 

Politics of hate and division must be abandoned  

People move. And throughout our history, we’ve always moved. When you’re fleeing for your life because you’ve been tortured for writing pro-democracy articles, or because you’ve been standing up for women’s freedoms, even the fear of death doesn’t stop you.

Yvette Cooper, as Shadow Home Secretary, not only needs to come up with a fair plan to resuscitate the asylum system, but also to humanise the current debate surrounding refugees. Because it’s not just the management of the asylum system that is out of control, but also the public discourse around it.  

Three-quarters of all people whose claims are determined go on to get their asylum status granted at the first instance; even more go on to have their claims accepted at appeal.

The people coming to the UK are fleeing things like war, torture, and persecution, from places like Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Eritrea.

These countries all have exceptionally high grant rates, because of the very real risk posed to people’s lives.

Whilst the toxic public debate being played out in Parliament and in the press spirals out of control, we’re losing sight that behind every number is a man, woman or child fleeing autocratic regimes or simply trying to live in safety. 

An opportunity for Starmer  

In recent years, we’ve seen men, women and children who’ve fled the most horrific ordeals being treated with disdain and used as cannon fodder to score cheap political points. They’ve been criminalised, menaced with barge and barrack accommodation, and lived under the threat of being sent to Rwanda.

These virulently anti-refugee policies not only harm survivors and other refugees, but they damage the moral fabric of our society.  

Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer should be championing the rule of law and our fundamental rights and freedoms. Instead of trying to out-do the Conservative’s enforcement posturing, he should be concentrating his efforts on repositioning the UK as the beacon of human rights it once was. 

Now is a real opportunity to finally move away from the divisive scaremongering and politics of hate that we’ve seen over the last few years. 

Most people want this country to offer safety and sanctuary to people fleeing torture and war. Starmer must now show courage and promote an asylum system that has compassion, effectiveness, and protection at its core.

Labour’s commitment to consider the asylum claims of all those arriving on our shores, no matter how they get here, is a vital step towards ensuring this.

Alongside abandoning all plans to offshore refugees, Labour should repeal the Illegal Migration Act 2023 to deliver on its pledge to reverse the asylum ban that denies refugees a fair hearing of their protection claim. 

What happens next? 

Across Europe, populism is on the rise.

Radical elements of the right, even the far right, are no longer confined to the fringes. Some are at heart of government, shifting the political dial and moving debates along to places that don’t seem extreme anymore. We are in dangerous territory. 

For a party committed to championing fairness, equality, and the rule of law, Starmer must now lead by example. The leader of the Labour party must seize the opportunity to bring reason, compassion, and the rule of law firmly back to the centre of the political debate surrounding refugees.

Now more than ever before, we must stand firm with the vital protections drawn up after the horrors of the Second World War, and send a powerful signal to countries around the world that the UK is a beacon for the protection of human rights.