The last decade has posed enormous challenges to the human rights that establish a humane, just and dignified life for people reaching British shores. Policies in the UK have created an ever more hostile environment to migrants and refugees. A new detention centre for women opened in 2021, the Nationality and Borders Act has criminalised refugees based on how they reach the UK, and made support for modern slavery even harder to come by and the previous plan to detain and deport anyone who arrives to the UK on a small boat to Rwanda. Although the Rwanda plan has been cancelled, the government continues to expand its plans to detain and deport anyone who arrives here on a small boat, regardless of their plight, in the Border, Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. This same system will ban these individuals from accessing modern slavery support. 

Jewish bloc at Manston protest, 2022

At René Cassin we believe that the British public, and the Jewish community, have an important stake in maintaining a domestic protection system for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Throughout history, the ability to seek refuge has been essential to Jewish survival. The horrors of the Holocaust led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention).

For this reason, René Cassin has built- and continues to build- a Jewish challenge to the hostile environment. From a network of Jews challenging immigration detention to workshops with synagogues on how to spot the signs of modern slavery, in our campaign towards promoting a more compassionate asylum system.