February 2022 - Status Now 4 All

February 20, 2022March 3, 2022

Deportation in this cruel hostile environment

StatusNow4All: This cruel hostile environment has given rise to yet another Home Office plan to deport people to Zimbabwe on 2 March 2022. StatusNow4All abhors this decision made in the name of the Home Secretary, Priti Patel.

It is immoral:

These are just some of the factors of note in relation to those who are being rounded up for deportation right now:

· Some have been here a long time, as many as twenty years;

· Some will have had Refugee Leave, such was the compelling case they presented on arrival in UK, but the law allows the Home Office to strip them of this due to a conviction for particular offending behaviours [para 339 Immigration Rules].

· Deportation Orders are automatically made against people without British or Irish citizenship who have been given a prison sentence of more than a year

· Some of these people will have served their time in prison and on license like any other person with a conviction, and have subsequently lived in the community for years without re-offending

February 11, 2022February 13, 2022

Plan to reform the Human Rights Act

Updated 9 February 2022: Upholding human rights in the UK: EDM (Early Day Motion) #974: tabled on 09 February 2022

Motion text

That this House notes that the Human Rights Act 1998 gives expression to values that are fundamental to the way of life in the UK, such as protecting the right to protest, freedom of expression and respect for privacy; is concerned by warnings from human rights organisations such as Amnesty UK, Justice and Liberty that the Government is undermining basic rights and liberties enshrined in the Act; notes with alarm that the Human Rights Act Review is taking place within the context of a series of other legislative moves by the Government to enhance the power of the Executive, including measures to curtail judicial reviews, which will reduce scrutiny of Government behaviour and opportunities for legal redress; believes that any growth in Declarations of Incompatibility with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights would lead to lengthy delays in human rights concerns being addressed and restrict access to justice; and therefore calls on the Government to continue to uphold human rights and ensure that everyone can seek timely redress in the UK courts if rights are breached.

February 9, 2022February 19, 2022

What The Nationality and Borders Bill Really Means

9 February 2022: A STATUS NOW NETWORK BRIEFING

This Status Now Network briefing is from the standpoint of migrant communities across the UK who live with precarious residence status: a legacy of the hostile environment.

Why is the government proposing this bill?

This Bill is intended for purely political purposes. It amounts to an attempt to recoup ground lost to hostile environment policies through negative public perception about Government action in both the Windrush scandals and other revelations of injustice in immigration policy that have emerged in recent years.

During the Covid-19 period, as migrant people have been profiled as key workers in health and social care, transport and supply chains, providing the wider population with vital goods and services, public perception of immigration has undergone changes. The measures set out in the Borders and Nationality and Borders Bill are intended to disrupt this growing solidarity and identification with hard pressed migrant communities. It consists of talking up an existential threat via small boat arrivals and types of British citizens who are not considered worthy of that status when no threat of this nature exists. Refugee and asylum procedures for routes of entry without grave risk to life are completely achievable. Criminal law exists to address criminal activity by any British citizen without any distinctions that rely on ethnic or immigrant origin.

February 9, 2022September 16, 2023

People falsely accused of cheating on TOEIC tests, threatened with being removed from UK

9 February 2022: Status Now signatory Migrant Voice exposes another Home Office process that violates people with precarious status:

Migrant Voice: A preview of international student Noman ‘Nomi’ Raja speaking to BBC Newsnight about the turmoil caused by the UK government’s #HostileEnvironment after he was falsely accused of cheating on a #TOEIC test, arrested and threatened with deportation to Pakistan. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=361018352218599

BBC News report on a BBC Newsnight investigation by correspondent Richard Watson into new evidence revealing international #TOEIC students accused of cheating were falsely targeted, arrested and threatened with deportation. The special in-depth report will feature on #BBCNewsnight on Wednesday 9 February, at 10.45pm (BBC TWO).

February 9, 2022February 19, 2022

Individual control over our own bodies is a precondition for the individual exercise of rights and responsibilities.

We don’t need a consultation. The current Human Rights Act – albeit imperfect – is based on the European Convention for Human Rights. We need to continue adhering to this, not tinker unilaterally and in the process erode rights.

There is nothing to prevent the Government from adding protective laws.
In the meantime, there is no personal responsibility – or individual rights – without everyone of us being able to exercise personal control over what happens to our own bodies and the bodies of those who we care for where no harm is done . No rights or responsibilities are meaningful without the power to exercise this most fundamental control – over our own bodies

February 8, 2022July 31, 2022

EDM #1442: Undocumented migrants and covid-19 vaccination

Early Day Motion 1442 tabled on 3 February 2021: Undocumented migrants and covid-19 vaccination

Motion text: That this House believes that access to essential healthcare is a universal human right; regrets the continued existence of structural, institutional and systemic barriers in accessing NHS care experienced by undocumented migrants and those awaiting determination of their asylum, visa and immigration applications; considers that an effective public health response to the covid-19 crisis requires that the most vulnerable can afford to access food, healthcare, and self-isolate where necessary; understands that some of the most vulnerable people in society will not access vaccination against the virus, since to disclose their identity to the authorities would risk their arrest, detention and deportation; fears that without urgent Government intervention this will lead to further avoidable premature deaths, especially in the African, Asian and Minority Ethnic population; and therefore calls on the Home Office to grant everyone currently in the UK at this time who are undocumented migrants and those awaiting determination of their asylum, visa and immigration applications indefinite leave to remain, and to be eligible in due course to receive the covid-19 vaccination.