Victims of torture seeking refuge in the UK are being driven to suicide by the Home Office’s immigration system, which “accuses them of telling lies, even as they try to tell the truth”, according to an open letter to Sajid Javid.

Signed by 30 of the main refugee groups and faith leaders, the letter tells the home secretary:

“Every day, people seeking safety in this country from torture, persecution and other serious harm are accused of lying by the Home Office, despite evidence that points the other way.”

It is the first time that the organisations and faith leaders have written to the government to protest against the systematic misapplication of the standard of proof. The letter is excoriating in its conclusions.

“Our organisations have documented cases of survivors of torture and sexual violence who are not believed despite forensic medical reports; people persecuted because of their faith who are not believed because they cannot answer religious trivia; lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people who are not believed because they do not fit a narrow stereotype; and children who are not believed because they struggle to answer questions far beyond their age and capabilities.”

Lord Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, is among the signatories. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

The letter is signed by, among others: Amnesty International UK; Freedom from Torture; Helen Bamber Foundation; the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants; Liberty; Medical Justice; and Lord Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Home Office Select Affairs Committee published its report on the Windrush scandal on July 3. MPs said they had found a “culture of suspicion and scepticism” at the Home Office that “has led to an environment in which applicants appear to have been automatically treated with suspicion and scepticism and forced to follow processes that appear designed to set them up to fail”.

Javid disowned Theresa May’s “hostile environment” culture in his first outing as home secretary after the resignation of Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal, but the letter maintains the “inhumane approach” is “embedded” in all branches of the UK’s immigration system.



Sajid Javid used his first appearance as home secretary to promise to ‘do right by the Windrush generation’. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

“Home Office mishandling of these life and death decisions can lead people to terrible acts of self-harm, including taking their own lives. The message from the British government that their abuse did not happen, that they are lying, is often too much to bear.”

It criticises the Home Office’s use of immigration deportation centres for vulnerable groups. “Many are rounded up in Home Office vans and transported to immigration detention centres where clear evidence of their vulnerability is dismissed all over again,” the letter states.

“Britain has long prided itself on taking in people who need our protection and helping them to build a life free of danger. Yet, the institutionalised inhumanity that we continue to see has catastrophic implications for all the individuals affected.”

The signatories ask Javid to take two immediate steps. The first is to ensure the terms of reference for the “Windrush lessons learned” review focus on the misapplication of the standard of proof as a problem in Home Office decision-making.

Second, the home secretary is urged to agree to an independent public audit into asylum decision-making.