Refugees | Carag | Coventry

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Welcome To CARAG

COVENTRY ASYLUM AND REFUGEE ACTION GROUP

CARAG is a grassroots migrant led community organisation based in Coventry. We believe that people affected by a problem are best placed to find the solutions. Our common cause is our lived experience of the UK Immigration system. We focus our energy and effort on dismantling its 'hostile' infrastructure and helping our communities settle in the UK. Join our community and let's achieve Social Justice together.

Our Mission

CARAG STATEMENT

Last week we witnessed with Horror a Far Right Group seek to intimidate and infringe upon the rights of our members who are being accommodated at a Coventry Hotel.

Their actions cannot be tolerated and the Government must act with haste to assure the security of people who come to seek protection in the UK. The British Government is a signatory to the Refugee Convention of 1951, which outlines the Rights of the displaced and the legal obligations to protect them.
The Government ought to act as a matter of urgency lest they breach the fundamental principles in the Articles of the Convention.

Prime Minister Johnson’s Government has a duty of care to ensure our Members safety. For the avoidance of doubt, it is Government Policy that people who seek Asylum do not have the Right to work, the direct effect of this policy position is to deprive our members of the financial means to Rent. Not only is there no Right to Work, the Government has introduced a Right to Rent Law that makes it a criminal offence for people who are awaiting a decision on their Asylum Claim to rent a property.

The Government should as a matter of urgency take steps to assure the security of our Members who already have to live with intolerable restrictions that manifest themselves in poor health outcomes, depression and isolation.
CARAG has always been clear that our members do not want Handouts, but rather a Hand up. Part of our day to day advocacy amongst other things is to impress upon the Government the numerous benefits that will come about if they do the right thing and Lift the ban on work for people who come here to seek protection. The Government so far will not yield to this demand.

Instead what we have seen is the Home Office handing out a £1.2Billion ten year contract to private Contractors who are tasked with finding suitable accommodation for our members. These Contractors Serco and Mears are failing our members, and appallingly so. Those of our members who have been housed, a significant majority live in dilapidated, damp ridden rat infested inhumane conditions. Finally, that we should be making this statement at all is deeply regrettable and as such we implore the Government to respect their Obligations under the Refugee Convention and to immediately put in place measures that assure our members safety as a matter of urgency.