Written evidence submitted by Oxfam GB (CHA0013)

Introduction

1. Oxfam welcomes this inquiry. The ongoing Channel crossings and the UK Government’s response has led to heated public debate and increased scrutiny on UK asylum policy, including renewed calls for more safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the UK. This occurs in the context of record numbers of people being forcibly displaced globally, which is at its highest level since the Second World War (79.5 million).[1]

2. Oxfam provides support for refugees, people displaced within their own countries and migrants who have been exploited and abused. The coronavirus pandemic has added an additional challenge for refugees, many of whom live in overcrowded and higher-risk environments without sufficient clean water or health facilities. In response to coronavirus, Oxfam teams are increasing the delivery of soap, sanitation services including handwashing facilities, and clean water to people in refugee camps.
    
3. This short submission responds to 4 of the questions posed by the Committee; 1) Reasons behind the increase in irregular or illegal channel crossings, including economic and political drivers; 2) The legal position of migrants crossing the English Channel and the obligations of UK and French authorities and other parties to ensure their safety under UK and International (Maritime) Law; 3) Future arrangements for safe, legal routes for family reunion and claiming asylum in the UK, and the effectiveness of current Government initiatives to re-unite families; and 4) Conditions in migrant camps in France and other states such as Italy and Greece.

Section 1. Reasons behind the increase in irregular or illegal channel crossings, including economic and political drivers.

4. Migration, defined as the movement of people within and across borders, has been a normal feature of human existence for millennia. Migration is complex, and there are often multiple reasons that people may be on the move.

5. The number of forcibly displaced people has increased for the eighth year in a row and in 2020 there are now a record 79.5 million people displaced from their homes due to conflict, violence, persecution, natural disasters and poverty across the world[2]. There are many different causes, which can often be interconnected, ranging from the ongoing conflict in Syria, repression in Eritrea and climate change-related drought in the Sahel.

6. It is important that discussions and policy decisions on displacement recognise that the large majority of displaced people remain in their own region - according to UNHCR, 73% of refugees are hosted in neighbouring countries[3]. There are more internally displaced people (45.7 million), many of whom are hosted in unstable countries, than refugees (26 million)[4]. While addressing the needs and respecting the rights of displaced people are first and foremost the responsibility of the governments who host them, the international community should work together to support durable solutions for people who have fled their homes.

7. The movement of refugees should be managed effectively for the benefit and safety of all involved, and in full respect of human rights and the specific rights of refugees; but never at the cost of stifling mobility or restricting people’s access to protection from persecution or harm.

Recommendations

8. The UK Government should work with the international community, and itself support durable solutions for people who have fled their homes. A focus on stopping migration in response to the challenges faced by transit and receiving states distracts from addressing the real root causes of threats to well-being, peace, security and prosperity.

9. UK Government policies should target the root causes of displacement, as well as interventions to provide for the safety, rights and dignity of people affected by them.

Section 2. The legal position of migrants crossing the English Channel and the obligations of UK and French authorities and other parties to ensure their safety under UK and International (Maritime) Law.

10. International Maritime Law, by which the UK is bound, dictates that any person in distress at sea must be rescued and taken to a “place of safety”. This includes the duty to conduct search and rescue operations and to rescue any person who is in distress at sea, regardless of their nationality or any other factors[5]. The UK should take this humanitarian duty very seriously.

11. Oxfam welcomes the extra resources being deployed for search and rescue operations in the English Channel. It is important these resources are used to save lives, rather than as a deterrent. Evidence from other parts of the world suggests that sea crossing becomes more deadly when search and rescue operations are motivated by a desire to return people to where they are travelling from.

Recommendations

12. When migrants arrive in the UK and claim asylum, the UK Government should assess their case fairly and in accordance with the rules. This process should be followed regardless of whether people arrive at an airport or by sea.

13. The UK Government must ensure that everyone has access to a fair asylum process. There are robust rules and processes for determining whether a person is granted protection in the UK. These depend on a range of factors, such as where they came from and why they left, but not the route by which they arrived in the UK. To presume the outcome of the asylum process, or to influence it as a deterrent to others, would be illegal.

Section 3. Future arrangements for safe, legal routes for family reunion and claiming asylum in the UK, and the effectiveness of current Government initiatives to re-unite families.

14. In order to avoid dangerous journeys, safe and regular routes for people to claim asylum are needed. The current system, based on deterrence, is not fit for purpose. Policies that provide for a range of safe and regular channels for entry into the UK are an essential part of responsible and humane migration management.

15. Furthermore, the current UK rules on family reunification are unfair for many. According to legal analysis undertaken by Amnesty International, the Refugee Council and Save the Children, the current rules contradict international law through their failure to guarantee a child’s right to family reunification under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[6]. The right to respect private and family life is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which was transposed into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998. While it is a qualified right, which can be interfered with for the purposes of immigration control, that interference must be proportionate.

16. Determinations from UK immigration tribunals have criticised the UK Government’s stance on the rights of child refugees to family reunion[7]. These decisions have emphasised the failure of the Home Office to abide by its legal obligations to children, including in relation to family reunion[8].

Recommendations

17. The UK should improve access to international protection for those fleeing conflict and persecution, including through humanitarian visas, more flexible family reunion policies and resettlement, as a matter of urgency. None of these policies substitute or preclude the acceptance and full examination of spontaneous applications for asylum at the border.

18. As a matter of urgency, the UK should re-start its resettlement programme, which has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to data from the Home Office[9], there have been 37% fewer grants of protection through resettlement from January – June 2020 than in the same time frame of 2019. This is almost entirely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

19. The UK should amend its rules on family reunion by allowing children with refugee or humanitarian protection status to sponsor their parents or other adult responsible for their care; allow children to join extended family members in the UK, including siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, when it is in the child’s best interest; and extend the types of family members that refugees can bring to the UK so that refugees can sponsor siblings, parents and adult children up to the age of 25.

Section 4: Conditions in migrant camps in France and other states such as Italy and Greece

20. According to Michael O’Flaherty, the Head of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, the situation of asylum seekers in Moria camp in Greece is “the single most worrying fundamental rights issue we are confronting anywhere in the European Union” [10]. 

21. The refugee camp of Moria in Lesbos is just one of the island hotspots set up to process asylum seekers by the EU and the Government of Greece. Designed as reception centres to register and fingerprint asylum seekers before transfer to the mainland where their claims can be processed, these camps have become long-term detention facilities, which are overcrowded, under-resourced and uninhabitable.

22. In Moria, over 18,000 people have been crammed into a space designed for 3,000 people. Thousands of men, women and children have been forced to live in flimsy tents, unsanitary conditions and often without access to clean water or basic healthcare. There is a high risk of gender-based violence[11].

23. Since 2015, Oxfam has worked with asylum seekers in Greece to provide clean water, sanitation, food and non-food items. Since April 2020, Oxfam has partnered with the Greek Council for Refugees to provide protection and legal advice to asylum seekers on Lesbos.

24. The fires in Moria on 9 September 2020 have destroyed most of the refugee camp and caused more than 6,000 people to become homeless. The fires have destroyed both parts of the official camp and the tents in the over-spill areas surrounding the camp, and the facility for unaccompanied children in the camp has been completely destroyed. This tragedy serves as an urgent reminder that the UK and its international partners should be doing their fair share for people fleeing conflict and persecution.

Recommendations

25. The UK should restart its resettlement operations and provide other adequate safe and legal routes for refugees to reach the UK, including by amending its regulations on refugee family reunion, allowing more refugee families to be reunited in safety in the UK.

September 2020