Alicia Edmund
Alicia joined the Evangelical Alliance as head of public policy in August 2021. Since then, she has worked on a range of issues from asylum resettlement, refugee integration, poverty relief and religious freedom in the UK and overseas.
Alicia leads the advocacy team’s parliament and Whitehall engagement and is focusing all legislative engagement this year on three core themes: identity, freedom and justice.
Government minister: faith communities vital to pandemic recovery
12 January 2022Meetings and particularly events on Zoom can add to pandemic fatigue – but not yesterday. It was great to hear so many church leaders and organisations (including some Evangelical Alliance members) on the call share examples of the different ways they supported the most vulnerable in society to access medical, emotional and practical care during the pandemic. It was also great to see that government advisers from the Department of Education, Number 10, the Departments for Levelling Up, Housing…
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Two-tier asylum system could soon become law
15 December 2021On Tuesday, 7 and Wednesday, 8 December, MPs gave final speeches and contributions to the bill. Listening to the debates, what was clear was a cross-party effort to raise different concerns and propose amendments that would significantly improve the bill and its treatment to those most in need and seeking refuge in the UK. Below are a few examples: New clause 18 proposed by Bell Riberiro-Addy MP (Labour) asked the government to reduce immigration fees from child dependents and to cease payment…
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Protecting asylum seekers and refugees: If not you, then who?
15 November 2021The most contentious principle in the bill is the differential treatment of asylum seekers based on how they entered the UK. The fall of Afghanistan and the resettlement response best exemplifies the failings in this policy. Men, women and children received indefinite leave to remain and the statutory support that goes along with it, as part of the government’s 'Afghan Relocation and Assistance policy' resettlement scheme. But if the bill goes through in its current form, we are gravely…
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