About
us
ARC
members
believe that people seeking asylum should be treated
justly with dignity and fairness. The current debate
and treatment of people seeking asylum is damaging
not only for vulnerable individuals but for the
fabric of our society.
ARC
functions as an information sharing network that
informs the campaigning work of its members.
It is also a forum for discussion with campaigning
strategies in mind.
ARC
was set up in 1993 in order to co-ordinate and facilitate
campaigning efforts of a number of organisations
in response to the government's legislative attempts
to restrict the right to asylum and curtail rights
and entitlements of people seeking asylum already
in the UK.
What
do we do?
ARC
members
meet once a month to share information about developments
and research
in the field and coordinate their responses in terms
of lobbying and campaigning. Occasionally members
decide to act as ARC and make statements, write
press releases and letters to government ministers
or departments. We also have specialist
sub-groups on a number of key concerns.
In
order to provide a joint platform for strategic
campaigning ARC members
fundraise, commission and have jointly worked on
a strategic policy and practice document called
Providing
Protection in the 21st Century - Refugee rights
at the heart of asylum policy, originally
produced in 1997 and updated in 2004. The aim of
the report was to move from the mere criticism of
the governments policies and instead provide a positive
and practical alternative vision for a UK based
asylum system.
Why
do we do it?
ARC
believes that access to a credible, fair and just
asylum determination procedure is an essential mechanism
in the exercise of fundamental human rights, as
defined by international human rights law and norms.
ARC
members
are concerned that in the past decade, there have
been 5 Acts of Parliament and a raft of measures
that have eroded these rights to the point of being
unobtainable.
Equally, the treatment of those people seeking asylum
who have been able to overcome all the obstacles
erected by the Governments, has become intolerable.
They are denied:
- means
to survive
- the
right to work
- access
to legal advice
They are often forcibly dispersed or detained, for
merely administrative purposes.
The
media coverage on the issue of asylum, has deteriorated
from the uninformed to the grotesque through the
use of openly hostile and abusive language. People
seeking asylum are demonised and dehumanised and
blamed for every problem in British society. A recent
Article
19 study recorded 51 negative label used
by the British media to describe people seeking
asylum.
Public
sentiment towards people seeking asylum has moved
from occasional harassment towards a marked increase
in racially motivated attacks, with extreme cases
ending in murder.
We
believe that in addition to all the hard work member
agencies do on a day to day basis we need to focus
on campaigning in order to encourage the government,
the media and the general public to treat people
seeking asylum with dignity and fairness and to
counteract the negative stereotyping and further
stigmatising of vulnerable members of our society.
What
can you do?
ARC
members
together as well as individually, inform, campaign
and lobby for the rights of people seeking asylum
. We welcome and encourage support from around the
country and would recommend you contact
them to offer your support.