With a general election looming, Safe Passage has published a plan for a new, humanitarian and achievable policy on asylum.

Its five guiding principles are that it:

• saves lives;

• is accessible and efficient;
• is politically feasible and appeals to thegeneral public;
• improves conditions for those awaiting safe routes;
• defends the fundamental right to asylum.Safe Passage suggests opening safe routes to the UK by instigating emergency protection for those who are stranded in EU countries, and a longer term refugee visa to be available to people closer to their areas of displacement such as Iran and Egypt.Routes such as family reunion, resettlement schemes, the two Afghan protection schemes and the relocation of children  all need to be reinstated and properly functioning.

  Co-operation with the EU in general and France in particular should be based on a compassionate approach to border security, such as the ending of camp evictions in France and the funding of food and shelter at borders.

  Safe Passage recommends the scrapping of the Illegal Migration Act and the Rwanda scheme and a complete overhaul of the UK asylum system to restore the right of people to seek safety.

  The charity hopes that this blueprint can be used as a campaigning tool to influence MPs, potential MPs, and those with the power to change the current hostile narrative which criminalises and demonises those who need and deserve our protection.

See the Safe Passage website for a full version of the report: https://www.safepassage.org.uk/