Festive break

Hi, StatusNow members are always busy, and will continue working behind the scenes for our campaign but please note that we are ‘closed’ from 22 December 2021 to 17 January 2022.

If you email us during this time there may be a delay before you receive a reply.

Status Now newsletter December 2021

SNN Editorial WE know that the Emperor has no clothes 2021’s end of year ‘holiday’ period has to be the strangest ever. In the UK and Ireland an unknown number of people are entering this period of the COVID19 syndemic[2]  without one or more of these fundamentals: safe roofs over our heads, heat and food to warm and fuel our bodies, and internet connected devices that maintain our abilities to communicate beyond our physical placement.  The Status Now Network(SNN) remains acutely conscious that – whether we do or we don’t have precarious immigration status – many people are being denied fundamental human needs. Read more: https://statusnow4all.org/statusnow-editorial-we-know-that-the-emperor-has-no-clothes/ 

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StatusNow editorial: WE know that the Emperor has no clothes

WE know that the Emperor has no clothes[1]

2021’s end of year ‘holiday’ period has to be the strangest ever. In the UK and Ireland an unknown number of people are entering this period of the COVID19 syndemic[2]  without one or more of these fundamentals: safe rooves over our heads, heat and food to warm and fuel our bodies, and internet connected devices that maintain our abilities to communicate beyond our physical placement.  The Status Now Network(SNN) remains acutely conscious that – whether we do or we don’t have precarious immigration status – many people are being denied fundamental human needs. 

This fact, that people in the here and now are being denied access to fundamental human needs, is not new.  The fact that we in SNN and so very many who are around and about us care deeply[3] about that denial, and the fact that we trust in our abilities to expose and resist all attempts to grind away, and thereby blunt, our commitment to achieve StatusNow4All: they aren’t new either.

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How to organise a People’s Tribunal and indict UK immigration policy

A new study of the use that can be made of ‘People’s Tribunals’ to advance the campaigning work of migrant and refugee rights organisations has been published by the steering group which organised the London hearing of a Europe-wide in 2018.

The organisation of People’s Tribunals to indict the policies and practices of governments have been around since the 1960s when they were used to great effect to mobilise public opinion against the role of the United States during the years of the war in Vietnam. Since that time has been developed as a method for uniting diverse campaigns in a common project to denounce human rights violations.

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The Status Now Network (SNN) is looking for a Network Development Coordinator – deadline is 24 January 2021 at 9am

Updated 20 December 2021: The deadline for our receipt of applications has been extended to 24 January 2022 at 9am, interviews will be planned for 31 January 2022.

26 October 2021: Status Now Network (SNN), a coalition of almost 140 migrant and refugee solidarity organisations, has a vacancy for the post of Network Development Coordinator.

SNN is campaigning across the UK for the regularisation and Indefinite Leave to Remain of migrants and refugees who currently have a precarious residence status. It is migrant and refugee-led and works through public education and participatory action research projects which aim to establish precarious migrant residence status – as an access to human rights and social justice issue – across the areas of housing, employment, health, family welfare and race equality.

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STATUS NOW 4 ALL – MIDLANDS: Join us online as we commemorate this year’s International Migrants Day 2021 #IMD2021

StatusNow4All Midlands

STATUS NOW 4 ALL – MIDLANDS: Join us online as we commemorate this year’s International Migrants Day 2021 #IMD2021 This is an online event.

Date: 18th December 2021: Time 1-2PM.

This event is organised by Status Now 4 All signatories based in the Midlands as part of the International Migrants Day 2021. Among other speakers, we will hear from a number of organisations signatories about why they support the Status Now 4 All campaign, how you or your organisation too can be part, and why this campaign is important for all of us. There will also be creative performances.

Here is the recording of the event:

AT and WITHIN the UK’s Borders: StatusNow4All identifies with everyone in transit and everyone who has died in transit

Update 18 December 2021: See here for depth information about home office border security plan: https://corporatewatch.org/home-office-set-to-advertise-385-million-private-border-security-contracts/


StatusNow4All logo
StatusNow logo

Status Now Statement: AT and WITHIN the UK’s Borders: StatusNow4All identifies with everyone in transit and everyone who has died in transit.
People have moved around the world for many reasons through time, and they still do. In their attempts to reach what they perceived to be a toehold where they and their families might begin to become safe, consider how many of these people have died because obstacles have been put in their way on land or in the water.  We don’t know the numbers. 

We do know that the overt and systematic militarisation of the European Union borders began in 2004 when Frontex (funded through the European Commission) were contracted.

In July 2021 a condemnation of Frontex’s actions failing to protect asylum seekers rights was published.

Now, in the wake of the most recent drownings in the English Channel, networks up and down Britain are mobilising to communicate their complete condemnation of the Government’s immigration control systems, AT and WITHIN the UK’s borders. Every time people plan and work together through such mobilisations, we strengthen the bonds committed to transforming the way the migration system works and stopping the deaths and the suffering.

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Unhelpful – Review of data sharing: migrant victims and witnesses of crime

15 December 2021: Home Office: Review of data sharing: migrant victims and witnesses of crime

Conclusions

74.The submission of the super-complaint has highlighted the need to continually review and improve upon existing practices to provide confidence and assurances that any allegation(s) of crime will be given full and proper consideration by the police irrespective of the victim’s immigration status. We fully acknowledge the concerns raised around the current data sharing arrangements and wider issues around supporting migrant victims and witnesses with insecure status to regularise their stay if appropriate.

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Zoom event: CARAG 15 December

On Wed, 15 December 2021, 13:00 – 14:30 GMT: Come join CARAG community as we mark this years International Migrants Day. Together We Can Make Change.

About this event: As CARAG community we want to celebrate ourselves through creativity, community and togetherness. Come along and celebrate with us. This zoom session will be full of songs, dances, poetry and spoken word among others.

Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/carag-international-migrants-day-celebrations-tickets-224774966977

Online Event 25 November 2021 6-8pm – These Walls Must Fall: We Want Freedom

Updated 14 December 2021: the video of this zoom event can be seen here, along with many others on their channel:

https://youtu.be/Ho1v53WQ9y4

These Walls Must Fall event: Join us for ‘We Want Freedom!’, a national These Walls Must Fall online event at this crucial time in the fight for migrant justice.

The devastating ‘Borders Bill’ is in Parliament for the second reading right now. It could bring unprecedented changes to the UK immigration system, which already treats people who come to the UK incredibly cruelly.

Speakers from across the movement will discuss the whole system of deportation and detention, how we can fight it at every stage, and how local acts of solidarity can make a difference.

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EDITORIAL: An exponential expansion of the number of people in the UK with precarious status: one potential implication of Clause 9 of the current Nationality and Borders Bill

9th December 2021

An exponential expansion of the number of people in the UK with precarious status: one potential implication of Clause 9 of the current Nationality and Borders Bill

‘“It’s a horrible Clause”. Frances Webber, Institute of Race Relations, London.

The idea that ‘an uncommunicated decision can bind an individual’ is ‘an astonishing proposition’[1].

In August of this year Sky News published analysis[2] of the last three years of ‘complete’ Home Office data relating to migration.  Demonstrating that the people who arrive in the UK in small boats and who generally claim asylum are only a small fraction of the number of migrants arriving in the UK each year, it admitted that ‘These numbers are based on estimates. The real number of unauthorised people in the UK is not known as official figures cannot capture the true reality.’ Sky News then fell back onto the much-cited Pew Research figure dating from 2019 that describes there being between 0.8-1.2 million migrant people in the UK who are ‘unauthorised’[3].  The Status Now Network favours the term ‘precarious’ to describe everyone in the UK without secure status.

On 11th November 2021, a number of media outlets carried the Institute of Race Relations exposure[4] of ‘the dangers posed by a clause inserted quietly into the Nationality and Borders Bill, which will allow some British citizens (mainly dual nationals) to lose their citizenship without being notified in a wide range of circumstances, which could put them at grave risk.’  As of 6th December this Clause, number 9[5], is one of several that make up an additional 88 pages of amendments that have been tabled[6] as the Bill passes through its procedural stages.

Here, IRR’s Frances Webber explains more of the history of Clause 9: 

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Sign on: Survivors voices inclusivity letter

Rhetta Moran of StatusNow writes about the post below: What struck me was the assertion and insistence of inclusivity of its message – it is for EVERYONE who has survived with lived experience of force, fraud, or coercion in the sex trades or other forms of labour. Just as we are for EVERYONE with precarious status in the UK and Ireland.

From new SNN signatory Freedom United : 26 October 2021: Sign on: Survivors voices inclusivity letter

With permission from the survivor-led, grassroots organizers of this open letter, Freedom United is sharing the text of the letter below. Freedom United has signed this letter and we encourage our global community to sign in support.

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