'Indefinite Leave To Remain' for people who are undocumented, destitute, and those in the legal process #HealthAndSafetyForAll
25th March 2021
Dear Sirs
RE: ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE, HOUSING AND FOOD FOR ALL
On March 27th 2020 we called upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in Leave to Remain. (Copy enclosed)
Continue reading “Open Letter(2) to the Prime Minister of the UK and the Taoiseach of Ireland”“Not having my status limits my joy, my happiness, nothing makes me excited. People take advantage.
I cannot even work. The pain is terrible. Terrible. People cry at night. There are suicides.
In limbo, I cannot do anything I want to do, and I don’t know what is going to happen to me.
Locked down all the time, not just now. Let us have a chance.”
(Voices of people without status)
Who we are: The Status Now Network is a unique coalition of almost 130 organisations and community action groups, alongside individuals, who are campaigning for Status Now 4 All. Our member organisations are listed on our website: https://statusnow4all.org.
Continue reading “The Status Now 4 All Calling Card for All Communities of Faith”27 March 2020 An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of the UK and the Taoiseach of Ireland
We call upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in *Indefinite Leave to Remain. In this way every human, irrespective of their nationality or citizenship can access healthcare, housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else.
[*The word ‘Indefinite’ was added to the call in our second letter, dated 27 March 2021: https://statusnow4all.org/open-letter2-to-the-prime-minister-of-the-uk-and-the-taoiseach-of-ireland/]
This is the letter in full below – we have not yet received an answer:
Continue reading “Status Now 4 All – this is our call”DEEP-ROOTED institutional and cultural problems undermine the UK Home Office’s performance and approach to crime, immigration, and asylum seekers – and are neglected by ministers at their peril, warns a new Institute for Government (IFG) report.
The report, Home truths: Cultural and institutional problems at the Home Office says that Suella Braverman is wrong to have watered down the Home Office’s commitment to reforms set out in Wendy Williams’ Windrush scandal lessons learned review.
The new IfG report calls on:
The new IfG paper assesses the Home Office’s size, budget and morale – with the Home Office’s staff engagement the second lowest of any core Whitehall department – and examines policy problems, from small boats to Windrush schemes. It also explores the cultural and institutional problems which repeatedly undermine the department’s performance.
Continue reading “Home Office’s institutional problems require urgent reform”The UK government is actively compounding the human suffering that intrinsically racist immigration laws inflict on people seeking asylum.
In fact, our participatory action research over the last 15 months about what is happening to the displaced people who have been placed in ‘contingency hotels’ simply reinforces our certainty that, from the government’s perspective, the more demonising and suffering inflicted on people seeking refuge here, the more the public hears about that suffering, and the more that government’s contractual cronies, such as Migrant Help, get away with not only doing nothing to stop it but actually heaping injury on top, the better.
It is essential, in fact, that the demonising – and coverage of it – continues.
Where does the buck stop? UK Home Office and other statutory body responses to allegations of human rights violations in two Serco-run hotels housing people seeking asylum by Rhetta Ann Moran and Gráinne McMahon for the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice is available on the Bristol University Press website here.
Exclusive: ministers plan to exempt asylum seekers’ landlords from rules including minimum room sizes
Ministers are removing basic housing protections from asylum seekers under new rules designed to move tens of thousands out of hotels and into the private rented sector.
The changes would exempt landlords from regulations governing everything from electrical safety to minimum room sizes, leading campaigners to warn that the government is preparing to cram people into small spaces in an effort to alleviate the crisis in asylum seeker accommodation.
Continue reading “Illegal Immigration Bill”
They want to share how they are feeling seeing what is happening in their home country. This is what they had to say: https://gmiau.org/letter-to-immigration-minister/…
UNISON North West: @NorthWestUNISON Twitter:
You can join the UNISON Migrant Worker Network to get targeted advice, support and information and raise the issues that are important to you
Go to https://bit.ly/454lG3E to sign-up
Motion text: That this House believes the proposals in the Illegal Migration Bill contravene international law, including the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; considers that the Bill will effectively close the UK’s asylum system and undermine the ability of trafficking victims to access protection; regrets the rushed timetable for the Bill’s passage through the House, including the lack of a bill committee, and the short committee stage; regrets the failure of the Government to allow proper scrutiny of its policies, including by failing to publish its impact assessment; notes that there was no mention of any proposals resembling those found in the Bill in the general election manifesto of any party represented in the House; and in light of the grave consequences of the Bill and the failure of scrutiny by this House, calls on Members of the House of Lords to vote against the Bill.
This post follows on from the initial post which became very long, but can be found here Here we update the post with reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation and hotels, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites.
See also posts regarding ‘Detention Centres‘ such as such as Hassockfield/Derwentside, and also the post regarding plans to export people seeking asylum to Rwanda
Re: children: https://statusnow4all.org/article-39-seeks-legal-protection-for-highly-vulnerable-children-housed-in-home-office-hotels/
an in-depth report of the experiences of men held in quasi-detention at Napier Barracks
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
The Jesuit Refugee Service UK (JRS UK)’s report ‘Napier Barracks: the inhumane reality’ shines a light onto the experiences of people placed in the asylum camp at the disused Napier Barracks in Kent.
JRS UK ran an outreach service to Napier for two years from October 2020. What we saw on the ground was deeply troubling: the site was bleak and rundown, the setting was securitised, the accommodation was crowded. This all took a serious toll on mental health. The report draws from the accounts of 17 forcibly displaced people supported by JRS UK held in Napier Barracks between July and November 2022.
Continue reading “Concerns about the use of army barracks, hotels, offshoring etc etc. continued 2023”Life Seekers Aid is a charity for asylum seekers and refugees, run by asylum seekers and refugees.
Founded in 2021, Life Seekers Aid is a successor to Camp Residents of Penally—CROP—an organisation established in 2020 by asylum seekers inside Penally Camp in Wales.
CROP worked for the welfare and rights of asylum seekers housed in this military camp during the pandemic, cooperating with local and national charities, legal and medical organisations, and official bodies.
Read more and see the artwork: https://www.lifeseekers.org/
We continue to campaign for those who have precarious status to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain and for there to be discussions about how to move forward with the banners of #StatusNow4All and #HealthAndSafety4All.
When the will is there, it can be done – that is our point: there is hope yet … We will collate reports and legal challenges here.
See more information about the Illegal Immigration Bill here: https://statusnow4all.org/illegal-immigration-bill/
Data sharing with the financial sector will begin today as the government cracks down on illegal migrants accessing banking services.
Making it more difficult for unlawful migrants to access financial services is an important tool to help deter illegal migration by preventing people from working illegally and profiting from services they are not entitled to.
Having access to a current account can assist those here unlawfully in obtaining work illegally and securing credit. It can help those without permission to be in the UK gain a foothold in society, regardless of their immigration status.
Identifying an unlawful migrant’s current account may also provide evidence of illegal working, helping identify and stamp this out.
Continue reading “Reckless ‘Nationality & Borders’ legislation”There are many many examples of racism in UK and beyond, coming to our attention daily and it is racism that has enabled the hostile environment to take hold such that people are left in a situation where they fear the potential threat to their safety from the Home Office more than they fear the threat to their own lives of the Covid pandemic.
Below, you will find just a small selection of reports about the way in which racism shows itself.
In February 2021, the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) was awarded funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, through their Power and Accountability programme, to fund a project to identify and begin to address structural racism in UK journalism. The resulting policy report, published in March 2023, provides an overview of the challenges that Black journalists are facing in the British news media. Browse the report by chapter and download the report below.
The report, written by Dr Aida Al-Kaisy and based on 27 in-depth interviews with Black journalists and stakeholders who have or are currently working in national mainstream media newsrooms across print, online and broadcast media, provides an overview of the challenges that Black journalists are facing in the British news media.
Although the proportion of Black African and Caribbean journalists has increased in recent years, and there has been a heightened sense of the possibility for change since 2020 with the increased momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, Black journalists interviewed confirmed that newsroom processes continued to be exclusionary and racism was commonplace.
Continue reading “Racism underpins the hostile environment”This includes Rwanda ‘Country of Origin’ information that guides the Home Office staff in decision-making, trafficking, contingency accommodation, treatment of people arriving by small boats, age assessments, and adults at risk in detention
Updates will appear below.
Continue reading “ICIBI Inspection Plan 2023 – 24”Presenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
It was the first time the home secretary had come into our studio live and there was plenty to talk about – and plenty of headlines from what she had to say.
First off, Suella Braverman was resolutely determined to defend her plans to send migrants to Rwanda, saying repeatedly that in her view it is, contrary to the United Nations’ view, a safe country for refugees.
There’s no question that there’s public desire to stop the terrible trade of people trafficking across the Channel. Many governments, not just the UK, are grappling with what to do. But there are plenty of practical and political problems about the home secretary’s approach, and huge jeopardy in her and the prime minster’s slogan to “stop the boats”.
Continue reading “Exporting people seeking asylum – Rwanda”See also updates about the tireless campaigning of Daisy and family here: https://statusnow4all.org/enabling-nurse-daisy/
See posts regarding contingency accommodation which is sometimes quasi-detention
Frank Ospina’s death followed by reports of suicide attempts by other detainees at immigration centre
Lawyers and charities have predicted an unfolding crisis in immigration detention after the death of a detainee and reports of subsequent suicide attempts by others.
The Home Office confirmed that investigations had been launched by police and the prisons and probation ombudsman into the death of Frank Ospina on 26 March. He was being held at Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow next to the adjoining Harmondsworth immigration detention centre. He is believed to have been 39 and from Colombia. Detainees said he took his own life, although this has not been confirmed.
A notice to detainees from the centre manager Paul Rennie dated the day the man died states: “It is with respect that I have to announce that resident Mr Frank Ospina sadly passed away today.”
It adds: “Please be assured we are doing all we can to reduce the risks of such incidents happening again in the future.”
The Guardian received reports from several detainees that shortly after reports of Ospina’s death circulated, a number of detainees attempted suicide, and that some detainees staged a protest at the centre earlier this week.
Charities have also highlighted delays in carrying out what are known as rule 35 reports, which assess vulnerabilities of people in detention such as whether they are a suicide risk. The Home Office did not comment on these reports.
The detention problems come at a time when the Home Office has announced it will be expanding the use of immigration detention. In a fact sheet published on 31 March officials said that under the new rules “it is for the home secretary rather than the courts to determine what is a reasonable time period to detain an individual”
Continue reading “Detention Centres — IRCs”