As we all know, people flee from their own countries, seeking sanctuary, because they are fleeing from war and terror. Our asylum seekers are only here because of such flights. If we had genuine peace in our world, there would be no need to flee.
Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary began at Spring Conference 2 years ago, when Janet King, Philip Latham, and myself decided we needed an organisation to stand up for those seeking sanctuary in the UK, and one of our aims was to work to formulate new party policy.
We have come a long way since then, and are now a membership based organisation that has AO status within the party, and a governing council of 11 committed people.
One of the strands of our work has been the working group to formulate Liberal Democrat Policy on asylum issues, as well as immigration and social cohesion. I have represented LD4SOS on this working group, and over 9 months have done my best to get into the policy paper policies that are reflecting our aim of treating asylum seekers with compassion, humanity and dignity. Not every word in the policy paper or the motion is necessarily as we would have chosen, but we are proud to have some radical and key policies included. These include :
As well as a fringe meeting on the Saturday lunch time in the Hilton Library Suite (Asylum: Achievements, Aspirations and Actions) we are holding a fringe meeting on the Friday evening, where as well as listening to speakers, there will be the opportunity to discuss the policy paper. The meeting is at 7.45 for 8.00 p.m. Where ? where better than the Friends Meeting House on Friargate!