Hundreds of charities have said they will refuse to cooperate with “immoral” government plans to force refugees to undertake mandatory volunteering as a condition of being allowed to settle in the UK.
The charities said that compelling refugees and asylum seekers to volunteer would be exploitative, bureaucratic and un-British – and would undermine a fundamental principle that volunteers give their time and skills freely.
The government is expected imminently to publish outline detailed proposals for mandatory volunteering as part of a formal consultation on a wider “contribution-based settlement model” aimed at reducing immigration.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said in a speech to Labour party conference in September that in future people would have to prove they had made a social “contribution” – such as volunteering for local causes – to qualify for leave to remain.
Volunteering was one of a number of proposed new settlement conditions flagged by Mahmood to emphasise the government’s tough approach to immigration. Others included learning English “to a high standard”, having a “spotless criminal record” and not relying on social security benefits.
More than 320 voluntary organisations, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Charity Retail Association representing more than 8,000 charity shops, and local branches of Age UK and Citizens Advice, have signed a letter to the home secretary saying they cannot accept the “unworkable” proposal.
“Effectively making volunteering compulsory undermines its many benefits, and would create a population of people forced to work for free, under threat of having their lives in this country ripped away from them,” the letter says.
“As organisations that work with hundreds of thousands of volunteers every year, we tell you now: we will not work with coerced volunteers. We will not report to the Home Office on the time people give freely, to us and to their communities. We will not allow our volunteers’ valuable work to be used against other migrants and racialised people who are not able to volunteer.”
Many of the charities who signed the letter work directly with refugees and asylum seekers. They said they were “proud” that so many immigrants already volunteered to give back to their local community and warned this freely given contribution “must not be enforced with threats”.
The letter adds: “Making volunteering a condition of belonging in this country is both immoral and impractical.”
Voluntary organisations are concerned mandatory volunteering would impose a huge burden of costly, time-consuming reporting bureaucracy on already stretched charities. They also fear pressurising traumatised survivors of war or human trafficking into unpaid work could damage their recovery.
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Louise Calvey, the director of Asylum Matters, which coordinated the letter, described the government’s proposal as “nonsensical”: “It should be very clear to the home secretary that organisations across the voluntary sector, the people who would have to enforce this unworkable policy, will not accept it.”
Sarah Wilson, of PERN (Penrith and Eden Refugee Network), said: “Many of our volunteers are asylum seekers and refugees. They volunteer because they are kind and care … Volunteering is at the heart of British values and should not be weaponised to prove ‘contribution’ to the UK.”
Leigh Brimicombe, the director of voice and impact at NCVO, said: “The idea of mandating volunteering as a condition for those seeking indefinite leave to remain fundamentally undermines the idea of volunteering.”
The Home Office was approached for comment.
