Meeting Dr Rudi Vis At The House Of Commons

Dr Vis, our local MP, is a charming man and kindly takes us (Claire Mandel, Danny Stone who works for the RSPB, Diane Taylor who co-created the Destitute Asylum seeker's Drop-In Centre and myself) to the Commons tea room for coffee.

There are two items on the agenda - environmental legislation and the government's attitude to asylum seekers. We start with the former. Danny, who is superbly well informed asks Dr Vis to support key amendments to the Environment Bill, even though Tories had proposed them. We speak of how wrong it is that air travel should often be so much cheaper that train travel. Surely taxation should be used to promote train travel.

The conversation about asylum seekers is raw. Diane shows pictures of people being tortured after the government deported them. This is an outrage. Surely it must be possible to be more compassionate and more discerning about who is truly at risk in the countries from which they have fled. I speak about how I hear people who work in the field talking about a 'culture of disbelief' so that when asylum seekers tell their stories it is all but assumed that they are lying. Dr Vis agrees, and acknowledges that this is not right. We speak about destitution and Dr Vis says he believes asylum seekers should be allowed to work - this would give them an income, restore a measure of dignity and hope and bring benefits to this country. He promises to pass letters from us on these issues to the Home Secretary.