Hastings Puts Out Welcome Mat
Hastings’ branch of Amnesty International celebrates the town’s attitude to refugees
A huge welcome mat was placed at the Hastings Museum and Gallery and the Hastings Borough Council Offices to show support for people seeking asylum.
The 5ft by 3ft mat inscribed “Refugees Welcome” was placed on Friday 14 July 2023 to show support to people fleeing conflict and persecution. Hastings Community of Sanctuary (HCoS) and local Amnesty International UK (Amnesty) supporters gathered with several councillors including leader Paul Barnett and deputy leader Maya Evans.
The UK government’s latest immigration bill aims to shut down the UK’s asylum system and is damaging to refugee rights globally. Following the UK Court of Appeal’s recent and vital ruling that the government’s plan to send people seeking asylum on a one-way trip to Rwanda is unlawful, Amnesty is calling for the government to scrap the current immigration bill speeding through Parliament.
Amnesty and Community of Sanctuary activists highlight the numerous unjust issues in the asylum system that need to be abandoned – from the draconian immigration bill to the chronic backlog of cases that need to be processed, and the use of former military barracks and de-commissioned cruise ships that the government plans to use for people fleeing violence and persecution.
Despite the government’s divisive policies and rhetoric, local Amnesty members and Hastings Community of Sanctuary made it clear that Hastings welcomes people fleeing conflict and persecution.
The negative comments and headlines from ministers are being used to distract from the urgent need to decide people’s asylum claims fairly and efficiently, which the UK government is still failing to do.
The impact and harms of the latest immigration bill will fundamentally undermine the UK’s asylum system, damage refugee rights globally and is a blatant breach of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention which the UK played an important part in creating.
Amnesty International Hastings & Rye joins Hastings Community of Sanctuary in calling “for a just and fair asylum system based on human rights, the UK’s international obligations and treating asylum-seekers as human beings, respecting their humanity and dignity. We believe that detention camps are not the answer. We believe in Communities, Not Camps.”
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