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WHAT IS COSTILITY?

Here's an introduction from Tara, Refugee Action UK

The biggest cost of hostile policies is the damage done to people seeking safety, but the cost in terms of the public money wasted is huge as well. We've got a new word for it: costility.

Costility is the cost of hostility. The public money wasted by governments on being hostile towards refugees and people seeking asylum.

Read more about how money that could be spent on schools and hospitals is being thrown away on deterrents that don't work and are indefensibly cruel. Or watch me talk about costility in our new video (the video is on the web page too).

REFUGEE-ACTION.ORG

Every year, the government makes available a personal tax summary showing what your tax contributions were spent on.

We’ve made our own version for costility. Here are some of the ways that the government is choosing to waste your money on punishing refugees.

Don’t get us wrong, cruelty would not be ok if it came cheaper. Nor would trying to deter refugees be morally acceptable if it were easier.

But costility, the prevailing approach for decades, is the worst of all worlds. Ineffective, immoral and expensive – it combines all three!

The costly deterrents fail, and refugees are forced into danger when they travel and abuse when they arrive. Then the public foots the bill. EVERYBODY LOSES.

But money invested in welcoming and supporting refugees is well spent. Establishing safe routes into the UK, providing appropriate support and accommodation to people trying to rebuild their lives, funding welcoming communities – this approach would save lives and enrich British society. EVERYBODY WINS.

The government fears that the public is beginning to see what a colossal rip off costility is. And eventually, the public will. When they do, it’s important that people also see that there is another way.

We've laid out our vision for a compassionate, accessible and workable asylum system in a new paper that you can now read here 

Your support maintains our belief that this vision is possible.

Thank you,

Tara
Refugee Action UK Policy and Research Manager

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