Campaigning
No way to live
A Jewish community charter to end asylum destitution
On Sunday 22 May at Sussex Limmud, Dr Edie Friedman unveiled JCORE’s No Way
to Live charter. She hopes to gather thousands of signatures from members of
the Jewish community before taking the charter to the House of Commons.
No Way to Live calls on the Government to:
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introduce a single asylum support system to provide cash support to all those who would otherwise be destitute while they are in the UK;
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restore the right to secondary healthcare while asylum seekers are still in the UK;
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grant them the right to work after they have been here for six months.
Six months is the period within which the Home Office aims to resolve asylum applications. In fact, thousands of people wait far longer for a decision, many for as long as ten years. During this time, they are not eligible for support, but are also not allowed to work, surviving on, at best £5 a day.
Amongst those signing the charter was Lord Beecham, (formerly Jeremy Beecham
MP), who said, “Lord Beecham said "As the grandson of people who found
refuge in Britain from the pogroms of Eastern Europe, I warmly endorsee the
campaign to combat destitution amongst this generation of asylum seekers.”
Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE)
said, “Who better than the Jewish community to speak up for vulnerable
refugees? Most of them have fled horrors we can hardly imagine, only to be
forced into misery and marginalisation here. These concessions would, at a
stroke, end their destitution and restore their human dignity.”
She added, “Many rabbis have already signed our Rabbis’ Charter, and we have
two more in the pipeline – one for Jewish employers and one for Jewish
doctors . No Way to Live is for everyone in the community to sign.”
Sign the charter online
Print a copy of the charter
Rabbis Charter
2nd March 2011: Rabbis Jonathan Wittenberg, Danny Rich and David Mitchell
- representing the Masorti, Liberal and Reform movements - signed JCORE's Rabbis' Charter against asylum destitution. This
calls on the government to allow asylum seekers the right to work
after they have been in the UK for six months.
Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, said:
"Treatment of the poor and vulnerable is a fundamental Jewish
responsibility, and JCORE has taken a lead in reminding the
community of this."
The rabbis hope many more will add their signatures to this, the
first in a series of charters from the Jewish community. Next to
come - an employers' charter.
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Read the Rabbis Charter (pdf format)
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