We in the mid-Gloucestershire branch of Amnesty International are pleased to see that the MPs for both Stroud and Cotswold have been among the back benchers pressing the government for a faster and more humane response to those fleeing war in Ukraine. Although the Uk’s response is still well short of that of EU countries the government does appear to have listened.

Amnesty believes the UK’s deeply inadequate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis is evidence of a “corrosively anti-refugee attitude” within the Home Office.

The Government is currently taking its Nationality and Borders Bill through Parliament, which will fundamentally undermine the UK’s asylum system and damage refugee rights globally. It will exacerbate the situation for all those fleeing.

It is not only Ukrainians who are being bombed and starved.

The House of Lords has passed amendments to the bill In particular the Lords wish

• to prevent the detention of those who arrive by “irregular” means such as those who, in desperation, cross the channel in small boats.

• to prevent off-shore detention in places such as Ascension Island.

• to allow asylum seekers to work (as Ukrainians will be)

• to provide more routes of safe passage

• to approve the Lord Dubs amendment where unaccompanied minors seeking to join their families already here are enabled to do so.

We therefore urge our MPs to support these amendments and suggest that those readers who feel the same way write and let their MPs know.

Marina Marvan

on behalf of mid-glos Amnest group.