Modern Slavery sector unites to reject hostile government rhetoric and policy on immigration
ATLEU has joined 32 other organisations across the Modern Slavery sector in a joint open letter urging the government to treat everyone who makes their home in the UK with dignity and respect.
The letter responds to the Prime Minister’s hostile and divisive language about migrants when announcing the Immigration White Paper last week. The White Paper itself is a continuation of misguided policy on immigration, following the trend of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. This threatens to drive exploitation underground, denying survivors access to safety, rights and justice
The letter reminds the government that hostile rhetoric has real-life and damaging consequences in communities. It urges the government to change course by:
Supporting not scapegoating migrants
Committing to a new deal that includes all workers, both national and migrant
Preventing exploitation not driving it.
Above all, as described by ATLEU’s Changemakers lived experience experts, to listen to the “lived realities of people who want to contribute, who want to belong, and who are being held back by a system that sees them as numbers, not as humans.”