There's No Such Thing As
'Voluntary' Returns
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03 April 2018
See furthest exposure of the Home Office ‘voluntary’ returns process here 22 March 2018
Most recently RAPAR has added its name to a statement, launched by All African Women that opposes the Family Return Process. Click here to read this statement. 27 February 2018
VOLUNTARY RETURNS - THE ROLE OF THE HOME OFFICE RAPAR raises concerns about new Immigration and Voluntary Returns “surgeries in the community” RAPAR is querying the Home Office's new policy of introducing immigration and voluntary returns surgeries into the community. We are currently gathering questions about voluntary returns to send to the Home Office. Questions already put forward, most of them from refugees and people seeking asylum, cover a range of concerns about voluntary returns – including asking how the Government can be sure that people being encouraged to “go home” can be truly safe. The Home Office claims there are now 30 voluntary returns surgeries in the community including one in Manchester which is running twice monthly sessions at the Transformation Community Resource Centre in Longsight. One of the aims of this initiative is to persuade refugees to return to their home countries under a Government scheme which offers up to £2,000 for people to “voluntarily” return. Julie Ward, North West MEP, has added her voice to questions being raised by RAPAR about the surgeries which are also operating in London, Birmingham and Slough. She said: “This new development is very worrying and comes hot on the heels of an insidious government policy that used homelessness charities as a means to identify and deport EU migrants before Christmas. The Home Office has a duty to uphold international norms regarding the treatment of vulnerable people such as refugees and asylum seekers. This should mean ensuring adequate and tailored support for a range of options. By locating voluntary returns surgeries in community spaces government policy may appear to be more benign than it is. “I am very concerned that taxpayers' money is being used in a targeted and unbalanced way, with an emphasis on persuading vulnerable people to return to the very places that they were forced to flee for good reason. We need to question why this is happening in an increasingly hostile and xenophobic environment with a Conservative government that has failed in its basic duty regarding unaccompanied child refugees, let alone wider issues appertaining to the asylum process.” People seeking asylum have pointed out to RAPAR that the Home Office's voluntary returns service is already easily accessible and, if people want to take advantage of it, they can. There is no need for “community surgeries”. Sanctuary seekers in the UK have been forced to flee their home countries because their lives were at risk and they are among the most vulnerable, impoverished and traumatised groups in our society. They should not be pressured into returning to a situation where their safety cannot be guaranteed. Dr Rhetta Moran, from RAPAR, said: “People seeking asylum - and those who have decided to stay in the UK undocumented after their cases have been failed by the Home Office - are here because they feel they are still in danger. Completing a 'voluntary' return form in a 'community' setting does not alter that danger. “We have asked the Home Office to explain how they can ensure people's safety if they return. The Home Office knows it cannot do this. Community immigration surgeries are not offering people a real and free choice. There is nothing 'voluntary' about 'voluntary' returns.” RAPAR also questions how impartial and non directive advice about voluntary returns can be given by Home Office staff in community surgeries when they are employed by a Government department which has been charged with driving down net migration. On Wednesday 28th February 2018, at 1pm, we will be outside the Transformation Community Resource Centre, Richmond House, 11 Richmond Grove, Ardwick, Manchester, M13 0LN to communicate to people who may use the surgery why there is no such thing as a ‘Voluntary’ Return. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Dr Rhetta Moran 07776264646 Kath Grant 07758386208 www.rapar.org.uk |
See this video with RAPAR about why we are questioning the idea of 'Voluntary' Returns in the community:
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22 February 2018
20 QUESTIONS FOR JILL SMITH, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, THE HOME OFFICE
Following the exposure of the Home Office attempt to create a network of Voluntary Return Surgeries in community-based settings around the UK, these questions were publicly collated, and subsequently verified by the range of people who constructed them, during January to February 2018. The host of the first surgery in South Manchester, Reverend Charles of TCRC, has committed himself to asking the Home Office to make an appropriate response to these questions before the next surgery which is scheduled to take place on the last Wednesday of February.
20 QUESTIONS FOR JILL SMITH, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, THE HOME OFFICE
Following the exposure of the Home Office attempt to create a network of Voluntary Return Surgeries in community-based settings around the UK, these questions were publicly collated, and subsequently verified by the range of people who constructed them, during January to February 2018. The host of the first surgery in South Manchester, Reverend Charles of TCRC, has committed himself to asking the Home Office to make an appropriate response to these questions before the next surgery which is scheduled to take place on the last Wednesday of February.
- You claim that you conducted a community based ‘pilot’ about a Voluntary Returns Surgery, in the City Centre, Manchester, from August to November 2017. In fact, a series of meetings were booked by a Home Office Engagement Officer, advertised as ‘Manchester’s Secular Surgery’, and comprised of Home Office community engagement officers and a single, community based organisation: the Transformation Community Resource Centre. Why did you describe this process as a ‘pilot’?
- Why did you describe your pilot meetings as ‘Manchester’s Secular Surgery’ rather than ‘Manchester’s Voluntary Returns Surgery Pilot’?
- How many people attended your ‘pilot’ meetings to find out about Voluntary Returns, and how many people have subsequently returned, to which countries?
- At your launch event on 24th January 2018 at the Transformation Community Resource Centre, presentations were made by community based organisations working on trafficking, honour based killings and domestic violence. At that same meeting, Jill Smith, an Assistant Director of the Home Office claimed that the surgeries were not targeted at vulnerable people and this claim was reiterated by the National Community Engagement Leads for Nigeria and India who were also present. If vulnerable people are not the focus of your voluntary returns surgery, why did you make such presentations?
- At your launch event on 24th January 2018 at the Transformation Community Resource Centre, Jill Smith, an Assistant Director of the Home Office claimed that 30 surgeries are already up and running in London and Birmingham and publicly committed herself to sending a list of those 30 surgeries to all those who had given in an email when they entered the meeting. When are you sending this list?
- The materials advertising your surgery state that ‘there will be No Enforcement activity during the surgery’. Why do you state this? What about before and after the surgery? Why do Home Office officials want to be present during surgeries?
- If people want to return to their home country, they can fill in the Home Office forms and accept the 2000 pounds that you offer. Why do you want to conduct surgeries in community based settings?
- If people are allowed to work they can earn the money themselves to return home, if they want to. Why aren’t people allowed to work?
- When people seeking safety are left waiting so long for Home Office decisions – 10, 12 even 16 years – they may become very exhausted psychologically. Why are people left for so long before decisions are reached?
- The Government has been explicit about creating ‘a hostile environment’ for people seeking safety from other parts of the world. Are voluntary return surgeries contradicting - or part of - the ‘hostile environment’?
- You are continuing to accept refugees into the country and you are also failing to deal with many people who have been here for a long time. Why is that?
- In light of https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/25/asylum-offices-constant-state-crisis-say-whistleblowers-home-office and https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/11/lottery-asylum-system-unjust-home-office-whistleblowers, why should anyone seeking safety in the UK have any confidence whatsoever in the Home Office?
- The Home Office is contracting the solicitors to be the advisors for voluntary return. How can the service guarantee that the advice given will be impartial? Are the solicitors who are being contracted working on commission?
- Where the Home Office are interviewing a family for voluntary return and there are children who may have spent their most formative years in the UK, does the Home Office inform each child (or the child's representative) that they may in their own right be able to apply for Leave to Remain'?
- You state that the service is designed to avoid solicitors taking financial advantage of people in desperate circumstances. Why is the government investing time and money in a returns service instead of increasing legal aid funding to these people?
- How are you selecting Community based organisations for these surgeries what monies are given by the Home Office to community based organisations to run these surgeries?
- Why is the Home office using its power (different forms of force, including the latest finger scan programme) to make people leave the UK, instead of going through legislative processes to help people to stay?
- What guarantee does this service give to persons that they will be safe upon their return?
- Are there aftercare/follow-up procedures?
- What are the follow-up procedures for each country?
- If no procedures exist, how do you know that people are safe?
- When will voluntary returns be ended, so that we may finally find our dignity and the rights that this great nation has granted to us?
- When are you taking the border down?
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You can download these questions here:
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Short description of meeting questioning ‘Voluntary Return Surgeries’, 130218 at TCRC Manchester M13OLN
- The meeting was hosted by Reverend Charles of TCRC and facilitated by Dr Moran from RAPAR.
- The meeting ran from 6 to 8pm and over 35 people, including one child and some babies, attended.
- The overwhelming majority of people in attendance were displaced people from around the world, covering all continents, from a range of Manchester based organisations including: BOAZ Trust, City of Sanctuary, Manchester Refugee Support Network, Rainbow Haven, RAPAR, Revive, Medical Foundation (North West), WAST.
- There were also representatives from Churches/Congregations and from the Migration and Destitution Action Group.
- The questions that had been submitted, prior to the meeting, from around the country and through email, were read out and those present accepted those questions as valid for submission to the Home Office.
- During the discussion that followed further questions were crafted and captured.
- At one point the discussion centred around the option of using the same space - TCRC - at the same time as the surgeries that have been advertised – and, instead of going ahead with the surgeries, asking people to come and share their concerns with a selection of people from those present. People indicated their preparedness to offer themselves as such resources. In this way, it was suggested, the problem of people being deported without dignity could be addressed from within the communities ourselves, as a collective and without the Home Office.
- The discussion also explored the divisive nature of the attempt to locate surgeries in communities. The history of collective action was briefly described. How the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns – the original Right to Remain – was launched out of Manchester. How this sector in Greater Manchester formed a network that was gradually taken over by the City Council who then renamed it MARIM, and then closed down MARIM as part of the cuts in the City. This current meeting was recognised as historic, in so far as it was the first meeting for several years where people involved in the City’s spectrum of refugee related organisations were sitting together to talk.
- The meeting was advised that Right to Remain have been approached about the Voluntary Return surgery development but, as yet, have no knowledge or information about it.
- Rev Charles was asked directly if he was prepared to stop any further planned surgeries until such time as the Home Office responds to the satisfaction of the questioners. Reverend Charles committed himself to asking the Home Office to respond within the next two weeks – i.e. before the next surgery scheduled for the end of February.
- Reverend Charles was asked if he approached the Home Office to host the surgeries, or if they approached him. Rev Charles described having been at an event where he made a presentation about trafficking and then a conversation developed with Home Office officials after that presentation.
- Reverend Charles confirmed that he is receiving room hire monies from the Home Office for hosting surgeries. (It was not asked during the meeting but... how much is the Home Office paying TCRC to host surgeries?)
- Reverend Charles agreed to pass the email for his Home Office contact, Sara Rathore, to Dr Moran.
- Dr Moran agreed to send out a draft of the questions, for validation by those present, before sending them to the Home Office.
QUESTIONING ‘VOLUNTARY’ RETURNS
Open invitation to TCRC, Tuesday 13th February 6- 8pm.
Dear Friends,
TCRC and RAPAR invite all voluntary/third sector/charitable groups and organisations to join us, at:
TCRC's offices, 1st Floor, Richmond House, 11 Richmond Grove, Ardwick, Manchester, M13 0LN,
Tuesday, 13th February, 6pm - 8pm
to sit together, talk through, write down, agree and send our questions and concerns about voluntary return surgeries in the communities for the Home Office to respond in writing.
If any group in Greater Manchester - or from elsewhere in the UK - who can’t be at this meeting, have any clear questions/concerns already written down, please email them to [email protected] or [email protected] and we will bring those forward into the meeting.
N.B. There will not be any Home Office or police representatives present at this meeting. On 24th January at TCRC, the Home Office claimed that 30 voluntary return surgeries-in-the-community are already 'up and running' in the UK and promised to send the list of those surgeries to us. Having the list from the Home Office, as promised, by our meeting next Tuesday would be very helpful.
Looking forward to seeing you.
All good wishes,
Charles and Rhetta (on behalf on TCRC and RAPAR)
* The leaflet attached has 2 copies for downloading and printing, 2 to a page, for distribution
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30th January 2018
We are here at 1pm tomorrow, outside the Transformation Community Resource Centre, Richmond House, 11 Richmond Grove, Ardwick, Manchester, M13 0LN to communicate more widely about why:
There is No Such Thing as ‘Voluntary’ Returns
Open invitation to TCRC, Tuesday 13th February 6- 8pm.
Dear Friends,
TCRC and RAPAR invite all voluntary/third sector/charitable groups and organisations to join us, at:
TCRC's offices, 1st Floor, Richmond House, 11 Richmond Grove, Ardwick, Manchester, M13 0LN,
Tuesday, 13th February, 6pm - 8pm
to sit together, talk through, write down, agree and send our questions and concerns about voluntary return surgeries in the communities for the Home Office to respond in writing.
If any group in Greater Manchester - or from elsewhere in the UK - who can’t be at this meeting, have any clear questions/concerns already written down, please email them to [email protected] or [email protected] and we will bring those forward into the meeting.
N.B. There will not be any Home Office or police representatives present at this meeting. On 24th January at TCRC, the Home Office claimed that 30 voluntary return surgeries-in-the-community are already 'up and running' in the UK and promised to send the list of those surgeries to us. Having the list from the Home Office, as promised, by our meeting next Tuesday would be very helpful.
Looking forward to seeing you.
All good wishes,
Charles and Rhetta (on behalf on TCRC and RAPAR)
* The leaflet attached has 2 copies for downloading and printing, 2 to a page, for distribution
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30th January 2018
We are here at 1pm tomorrow, outside the Transformation Community Resource Centre, Richmond House, 11 Richmond Grove, Ardwick, Manchester, M13 0LN to communicate more widely about why:
There is No Such Thing as ‘Voluntary’ Returns
- The first community surgery in Manchester is happening tomorrow and RAPAR decided it was necessary to publicly intervene – immediately - to begin to expose why there is no such thing as ‘Voluntary’ return. We know, and respect the fact, that there are other organisations in Manchester, and up and down the country, with serious questions and concerns about these surgeries. RAPAR wants to become part of any grouping or coalition that may develop over time where different groups and individuals meet together and explore what this Home-Office-in-the-Community development means for them. Please contact us, as soon as is practically possible for you, so that we may all move forward together. Please email [email protected].
- Voluntary’ Return is a fundamentally flawed concept. Currently, everyone in Britain who has always been, or become, undocumented or ‘illegal’ is unable to openly and legally earn money or shelter them/ourselves. The population being targeted by the ‘Voluntary’ Return processes, including people currently seeking asylum, are physically insecure, traumatised and impoverished: They/We are acutely vulnerable. The Home Office are currently offering “up to £2,000 which you can use to find somewhere to live, find a job or start a business in your home country.” (Direct quote from Home Office Voluntary Returns Service). Real choice is essential for any action to be “Voluntary”. Under current circumstances, no return to Their/Our Home Country can be freely chosen, and this monetary offer demonstrates how completely the Home Office know this.
- Inviting Home Office Immigration Officials into community settings to guide people through a “Voluntary” Return process ignores the fact that these Officials are employed by the Department charged with implementing Government Policy to drive down net migration. As such, they are incapable of offering impartial, non-directive advice.
- The lead Home Office representative speaking at the Manchester Immigration and Voluntary Returns Surgery launch event at the Transformation Community Resource Centre on 24th January 2018, publicly committed herself to sending the complete list of the “30 surgeries” that she described as already up and running in England to all those present who had given a contact email. Trust is only possible when actions demonstrate that organisations and individuals are Trustworthy. We are waiting for this list as promised.
Click the link below to download today's Press Release
| final_300118_press_release_voluntary_returns.doc |
