Dear Jacqui and David,

Please talk to each other.  Situations of civil war and human rights abuse create refugees, some of whom end up here in the UK seeking asylum.  The UK Foreign Office takes a strong stand on human rights abuse, for example, in Zimbabwe or Burma, but when survivors of these situations end up here, they’re often denied protection, and instead are forced into destitution.

Please don’t use destitution as a tool to try and make people return to terrible situations. 

Instead, when people are fleeing “indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict”*, please grant them a protected status that will allow them to live productively in the UK until it’s safe for them to return.

* article 15c of the EU Qualification Directive, which sets out the minimum obligations of European states toward refugees. This was incorporated into the Immigration Rules in 2006 yet only 55 people were granted Humanitarian Protection last year.