Month: October 2021

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30 October 2021 Status Now Network newsletter

Work with Status Now Network

The Status Now Network (SNN) is hiring a Network Development Coordinator (NDC). Application deadline is 5pm, Friday 19 November 2021.

The NDC will be central to the SNN’s work in the coming period as it makes its transition from a bottom-up alignment of concerned groups into a focused and efficient campaign body with the potential to make an impact on government policy.

The post will initially be a 3 day a week position with potential for becoming full-time in the near future. Much of the organising work will be online so location in the UK is flexible.

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Is personal data of those seeking access to NHS services shared with immigration enforcement authorities.

Updated 20 October 2021: The Information Commissioners Office has commented recently about The Data Sharing Code of Practice, which is a statutory code made under section 121 of the Data Protection Act 2018 that was first published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in December 2020 and came into force on 5 October 2021 saying that “data sharing must engender trust in how personal data is used in order to drive innovation, economic growth and the delivery of more efficient and targeted services.

In the ICO’s view, data sharing will be central to the United Kingdom’s recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.”

Status Now notes that the absence of firewall between health and immigration data and the Government’s drive to implement its ‘status checking’ project undermines any potential for engendering trust.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-sharing-information-hub/

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Event: Coventry on 20 October 2021: Oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill: No to hostile environment

Event in Coventry: Oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill: No to hostile environment Wednesday 20 October 2021, 13:30-14:30 Broadgate, Coventry, CV1 1, United Kingdom: Please join StatusNow signatory organisation CARAG – Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group and other Coventry local groups as we continue to oppose the anti-Refugee Bill. We will also remember Henok.

The Tories planned Nationalities and Borders Bill will make the mere act of seeking asylum illegal, contrary to the UN Convention on Refugees and Human Rights Acts. We say Refugees Welcome Here, No One Is Illegal! Come and join us to show your support for the right to asylum.

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This system is very cruel

11 October 2021: BBC: Are asylum suicides an unfolding national tragedy?

After fleeing his native Eritrea as a child and living for years as a refugee, Henok Zaid Gebrsslasie hoped to make a life for himself in the UK. Aged 23, he was found dead at a mental health facility in Coventry, West Midlands, and is thought to have taken his own life. His death is one of a growing number among young asylum seekers which a charity said could just be the “tip of the iceberg”.

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Border Violence and Private Profit with These Walls Must Fall

Event: On Thursday 14th October 2021 Register Now People & Planet is hosting a free online workshop with These Walls Must Fall about the companies that profit from UK immigration enforcement government contracts, many of which UK universities are also invested in. These Walls Must Fall campaigners will speak from personal experience about private companies’ behaviour in immigration detention, deportations and asylum housing.

The workshop is for students who want to action and start a Divest Borders campaign to get their universities to divest from the border industry – but it’s also open to all.

https://one.peopleandplanet.org/civicrm/event/info

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Trade Unions: Organising and Promoting the Rights of Workers who do not have Settled Status

7 October 2021: Trade Unions: Organising and Promoting the Rights of Workers who do not have Settled Status

Why do we call for StatusNow4All?
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.

There are many people working precariously in UK and at real risk of exploitation by unscrupulous ‘employers’, due to not having settled status.
Visas expire and personal circumstances change. Without settled status – Indefinite Leave to Remain – people are very much at the mercy of uncertainty as employees, and of employers. See the StatusNow4All website for a wide variety of posts about why people need settled status, and about the racist and hostile environment that puts them at risk.
• People become undocumented when they do not possess an authorisation to be in the country they are in. Some may have been born here, or lived here for many years (think of Windrush), others may have been trafficked, and most have had authorisation at some point. Their precarious situation may be due to a change in the law that complicates their situation, or an asylum application for international protection that has been refused in this deliberately hostile environment, or their visa is no longer valid so maybe someone whose student visa has finished, or lost their job whilst on a work visa, or suffered domestic abuse whilst on a spousal visa
• They may be domestic workers, care workers, or working in the garment trade, in a carwash, a sweatshop, the local takeaway, nailbars, prostitution, for gangmasters etc. etc.
• There are others who have been given a Deportation Order for what may have been a miscarriage of justice, or a crime in order to survive, and they are living indefinitely without permission to work

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Ethical of reporting of the Afghan crisis, asylum and refugees

Organised by the national office of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ] Ethics Council – Ethical of reporting of the Afghan crisis, asylum and refugees: the NUJ ethics council would like to invite you to an online public meeting this Thursday 7 October starting at 17.00.The event is focused on the ethics of reporting on the Afghan crisis, asylum and refugees. Speakers include –

  • Farhad Mohammadi – BBC journalist in Kabul and now in the UK
  • Michelle Stanistreet – NUJ general secretary
  • Daniel Trilling – journalist and author
  • Jeremy Dear – IFJ deputy general secretary
  • Chris Frost – chair of the NUJ ethics council

To details of how to attend on the night, please contact the Manchester Branch of NUJ who are StatusNow signatories: NUJManchester@nuj.org.uk

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Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ suggestion needs Activation and Expansion

StatusNow logo

3 October 2021: The flyer below was distributed outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester by members of Status Now

StatusNow outside the Conservative Party Conference

2 October 2021: Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ suggestion needs Activation and Expansion

The Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ about allowing asylum seekers to work while their claims are being processed needs activation and expansion. Dominic Raab, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, reportedly said that allowing asylum seekers to work would assist with integration and contribute to resolving the country’s labour shortages. His remarks are supported by some senior Tories which may indicate a growing recognition that the current law, banning people who seek asylum from being contracted in paid work while they wait for a Home Office decision, is morally and practically wrong. It is irrational that we have tens of thousands of residents in this country who can contribute to alleviating the current labour crisis but are denied the right to work and forced into years of unemployment and poverty while employers are desperate to fill job vacancies.

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Why We Stand for StatusNow4All: An Invitation for You to Join Us.

StatusNow4All North West

Why We Stand for StatusNow4All: An Invitation for You to Join Us

The North-West Regional group of Status Now is delighted to invite you to join us on Monday, the 4th of October from 6pm to 7.30pm when, with a keynote contribution from the MP for Rochdale, the Rt Hon Tony Lloyd, we Stand4StatusNow4All to the NW signatories.  Please see the programme below:

Why We Stand4StatusNow4ALL: 4th October 2021 at 6pm 

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We call for an inquest into Harvey Wittika’s death

Updated 1 October 2021: Glasgow Live: Calls for inquiry into death of migrant who fell from Glasgow flat block

Harvey Wittika had been living and working in the UK for more than a decade before his status was revoked – he died alone in Glasgow just months later.

An organisation campaigning for the rights of migrants has called for an inquiry into the death of a man in Glasgow.

Harvey Wittika died after falling from the second floor of his flat building in Glasgow on August 6.

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