Resources

As we head towards a General Election, we are proud to have added our name to the Fair Begins Here promise from the coalition campaign Together With Refugees.

The Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention Statutory Guidance (AAR SG), a policy meant to protect vulnerable people in immigration detention, was significantly watered down by the government in April 2024. As experts in the field, we are concerned that the changes will lead to vulnerable people remaining in detention for longer, exposing them to increased risk of harm.

In a first of its kind research study in the UK, clinical psychologists at the Helen Bamber Foundation have found that the age assessment process has a profound and harmful impact on the mental health of unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

We are dismayed at the passing of the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which declares Rwanda to be ‘safe’ despite the opposite finding by the Supreme Court, and in doing so allows the UK government to put people seeking asylum at great risk by sending them there.

On 20 March 2024 the government laid two 'Special Development Orders' (SDOs) granting temporary planning permission for the accommodation of people seeking asylum at two former RAF sites at Wethersfield in Braintree and Scampton near Lincoln.

The Gaza Families Reunited campaign (@GazaFamReunited on Twitter/X) coordinated a joint letter to the Home Secretary, in consultation with migrants’ rights (including refugee rights) organisations as well as Palestinians seeking to bring their family members to safety from Gaza.

This submission looks at the consultation on reforms to social housing allocations, proposed by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities.

Last week, the Home Office shamefully discredited the findings of our report, written jointly with Humans for Rights Network, which provided detailed evidence of the irreparable and profound harm caused to residents housed in the asylum camp at Wethersfield airfield.

As representatives of medical humanitarian and healthcare organisations, we call on the government to urgently abandon its plans to push through its ‘Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill’, which risks exposing men, women, including pregnant women, and children to irreparable harm.

A key component of HBF's holistic model of specialist care is legal protection. This response outlines the problems we see and the key changes needed to ensure people seeking asylum and survivors of trafficking can access legal advice and representation.

This research involved speaking to refugees and asylum seekers at different stages of the asylum process in the UK about the full trajectory of their health-care journeys in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the current barriers to healthcare as well as of who and what helps refugees and people seeking asylum facilitate access to and navigate the health system.

HBF and Asylum Aid submitted evidence to the UN Human Rights Committee as part of its examination of the UK under the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The submission focuses on the UK government's upholding of the ICCPR with respect to survivors of trafficking, refugees and those seeking asylum and stateless persons.