Government Consultation on Migration

Message From the Archbishop's Council

You may well have seen the announcement of the government’s New Plan For Immigration, which is a set of policy announcements about the future of asylum, refugee, modern slavery and removals policy. They have set up a website (https://newplanforimmigration.com/en/pages/information) which explains the full policy and also contains a public consultation where you can have your say. The full policy and questions are also available here if you do not want to sign up to that site: https://ilpa.org.uk/new-plan-for-immigration-consultation-documents-24-march-2021/. As you would expect several of these policies have been quite controversial and have generated a lot of media coverage and concerns from some groups in the refugee sector, while others have been welcomed.

We will be providing an official Church of England response from the MPA Council and from Bishop Paul Butler as lead bishop on refugee and asylum, but we would also like to encourage as many churches, faith based organizations and individuals who work with asylum seekers, refugees and victims of modern slavery as possible to respond with reflections based on their own experience and expertise. This is an opportunity for everyone who has a heart for this issue to respond and to try and shape the future of this policy area.

To help with that I have produced the attached guide to the consultation and how (in practice) to respond. We would greatly appreciate any responses you might be able to provide and would encourage you to ask your networks and churches within your diocese to respond so that as many responses can be gathered as possible. The consultation is only open for the next few weeks. If you would like any further advice or guidance please be in touch. If you would be happy to share your response with me I am always keen to hear what churches and diocesan groups are saying and can try to feed that into the work the bishops will be doing when the policies become a parliamentary bill and reach the House of Lords.

As part of the ecumenical work in this field Welcome Churches are also trying to run a quick audit of all the work being done by churches with refugees and asylum seekers. If you have time to have a look or to pass the survey on to churches in your network that again would be hugely appreciated. The link is: https://forms.gle/8rw5owr2bb2hC3Mc7

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ryan

Home Affairs Adviser

Mission and Public Affairs Division

Archbishops’ Council

Church House

Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3AZ