In an article on the increasing difficulty of Muslim charities to operate with respect to their banking, Rethink Rebuild cited bank account closures for Syrian individuals and organisations, calling it a discriminatory practice. Banks have been citing sanctions compliance as a reason for denying service to Syrians, which has negatively impacted humanitarian aid work.
RR was approached in early January by Parliament's Treasury Committee to provide evidence of Syrians' negative experience with banks. However, as seen in this press release,we have declined to engage with the Committee's request because it has declined to explain to us how our evidence will be used or how the investigation will proceed.
In light of HSBC's most recent scandal of helping its wealthiest customers evade their tax obligations, we issued this press release to shed light on HSBC's deplorable treatment of its Syrian customers.
Our story was featured in this news article.
RR met with RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research) on 23 March and discussed issues pertaining to the Syrian community such as the bank account closure campaign and the best ways to deal with the police. RAPAR suggested organizing a know-your-rights workshop in the near future for the Syrian community by the Northern Police Monitoring Project
Rethink Rebuild Society
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