Protest on 1 December 2023: Profiting from Misery

21 November 2023: Some people from our signatory organisation RAPAR will be participating in this event on 1 December 2023.

DPAC: Profiting from Misery: Disability and Migrant justice campaigners protest at the companies profiting from depriving people of essential needs.

Profiting from Misery: Disability and Migrant justice campaigners protest at the companies profiting from depriving people of essential needs.

At 4pm on December 1st (two days before international day of disabled people) a coalition of disability and migrant justice organisations, including a group of disabled refugees will meet outside the Home Office to call for a stop to the obscene profits made by private corporations depriving people of human needs.  Clearsprings and Serco are among the private corporations profiting from the government’s outsourcing of asylum accommodation to private corporations.

Continue reading “Protest on 1 December 2023: Profiting from Misery”

We Dare to Dream – film

Event: We Dare to Dream 

We Dare to Dream is the story of refugee athletes from Iran, Syria, South Sudan and Cameroon who swim, run and fight their way to opportunity and safety in host nations across the world. Spanning a breadth of backgrounds, personal stories and Olympic sports, the film reveals their lives and hopes as they train to compete on the world stage, showing the fire and the drive of young people forced to leave their families, homes and countries of birth to build new lives out of nothing.

You can see the trailer here: https://youtu.be/-KvH55DDNzQ


The film We Dare to Dream is coming to Birmingham on Sunday 10 December 2023:

2: 40pm at Mockingbird Cinema, B9 4AA, with Director Q&A. Book your ticket here https://www.mockingbirdcinema.com/production/we-dare-to-dream/

Continue reading “We Dare to Dream – film”

Detention Centres — IRCs

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


19 September 2023: Guardian: I warned ministers about our disgraceful UK detention centres. Their solution? Stop the inspections….

David Neal

The report on Brook House mirrors concerns I raised as chief inspector, but Suella Braverman’s Home Office lacks the will to address them

  • David Neal is the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration

Read More: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/19/ministers-detention-centres-inspections-brook-house-suella-braverman-home-office


The Home Office and Government must be held accountable for this, and for all the work that is carried out in its name:

Brook House Inquiry: The Brook House Inquiry Report

On 19 September 2023, Kate Eves, the Chair of The Brook House Inquiry, published her report into the mistreatment of individuals who were detained at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre. You can download the Report or view it online on the website.

Inquiry’s report reveals “toxic” culture at Brook House IRC
The Brook House Inquiry, established to investigate the mistreatment of individuals detained at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), published its report on the 19 September 2023. The Chair, Kate Eves, makes 33 important recommendations which she said, “need to be implemented to ensure that other detained people do not suffer in the same way as those at Brook House did.”

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ROAR PUBLIC MEETING: 7th Sept. at 6.30pm

RAPAR: ROAR (Raising Our Asylum Rights)

ROAR is developing out of the actions taken by hotel residents whose bravery has brought some of the human rights violations in asylum hotels to national media attention. Beginning with our first public meeting on 7th September, ROAR wants to make information-sharing and organising spaces where people seeking asylum, supported by allies from trades unions and civil society, safely expose human rights violations, participate in constructing alternative solutions, and openly campaign for those solutions (event flyer). 

ROAR PUBLIC MEETING: 7th Sept. at 6.30pm

ACCESS THE EVENT FLYER FOR DISTRIBUTION ROAR: RAISING OUR ASYLUM RIGHTS
RESISTING RACISM IN HOTELS

PUBLIC MEETING, 6.30PM, 7th SEPTEMBER 2023: FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, 6 MOUNT STREET, MANCHESTER M2 5NS

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Some Refugee Week events 2023

Refugee Week 2023: 19-25:

Read more here: https://refugeeweek.org.uk/events


19 June 2023 6-8pm London: Migrant Voice: London film screening: “MATAR” and “AYMAN”

 Migrant Voice - London film screening: "MATAR" and "AYMAN"

To mark Refugee Week, Migrant Voice and the University of Westminster are hosting an evening of award-winning film and discussion on 19 June at the University’s Regent Street campus. We will screen two powerful short films, MATAR and AYMAN, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.

Continue reading “Some Refugee Week events 2023”

North African migrant solidarity organisations convene in Morocco to mark the anniversary of the Melillia-Nador massacre

15 June 2023: North African migrant solidarity organisations convene in Morocco to mark the anniversary of the Melillia-Nador massacre

Civil society action in solidarity with migrants in the Maghreb (North Africa) region has increased over the last year, with activity in Tunisia and Morocco in particular strengthening in response to negative developments on the part of the respective national governments.

The development of this work will take a big step forward over the coming week as representatives of migrant and North African diaspora associations convene in the Moroccan city of Nador for the fifth Maghreb Social Forum on Migration. Gathering under the slogan: “Never again “Bario Chino”, the Forum will coincide with the first anniversary of the massacre at the border crossing between Morocco and Spanish enclave city of Melilla in which at least 37 migrants died in a crush resulting from an attach of the Moroccan police.

Calling for a Maghreb “free of hatred, xenophobia and racism” this Forum follows similar events mobilising migrant and antiracist activists in North Africa and across the European diaspora. Previous sessions took place in Brussels (2010), Oujda (2012), Monastir (2014) and Tangiers (2016).

Three main themes have been selected for the Forum.  These are:

Continue reading “North African migrant solidarity organisations convene in Morocco to mark the anniversary of the Melillia-Nador massacre”

Rights and risks: migrant worker exploitation and the barriers to support

Updated 12 June 2023: Mayor of London: Mayor announces £750,000 new funding to support migrant workers as report reveals ‘shocking’ levels of exploitation

  • New report commissioned by the Mayor of London uncovers shocking levels of bullying, racially motivated harassment, and exploitation of migrant workers consistent with modern slavery across London.
  • Mayor confirms extension of funding for specialist advice and support services to ensure the most vulnerable migrant Londoners can access their rights – including protection from employment rights violation and exploitation.
  • Sadiq urges Government to do more to ensure migrants access their rights, identify abuses, and have access to the support they need

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced more than £750,000 additional funding to boost support for migrants in London and tackle the exploitation of migrant workers following a ‘shocking’ report which uncovered widespread abuse.

The new report, commissioned by City Hall, uncovers shocking levels of bullying, racially motivated harassment, and the exploitation of migrants in the workplace consistent with modern slavery.

This investment by the Mayor will support migrants in London with independent immigration advice and support services to help ensure they can access their rights, including protection from employment rights violation and exploitation.

Continue reading “Rights and risks: migrant worker exploitation and the barriers to support”

Children and the Hostile Environment

12 June 2023: Guardian: Data undermines Jenrick’s claim about asylum seekers saying they are children

Minister said up to a fifth of adult males seeking asylum pretended to be children, but Home Office figures say it is 1%

A claim made in parliament by the immigration minister that up to a fifth of adult male asylum seekers pretend to be children when they arrive in the UK has been undermined by the Home Office’s own data, which shows the actual figure is just 1%.

The factchecking organisation Full Fact has obtained new freedom of information data that shows that between 1 January and 7 November 2022 only about 1% of all males arriving on small boats at Western Jet Foil claimed to be under 18 but were later found to be over 18.

Full Fact has written to Robert Jenrick asking him to correct the parliamentary record or to provide data which supports his claim.

Continue reading “Children and the Hostile Environment”

Support all Asylum Seekers/Migrants: Resist Racism March and Rally London 18th March

Updated 19 March 2023 with photos from the day:


Guardian: Protests against illegal migration bill held in London, Glasgow and Cardiff

Thousands attended march through capital to condemn home secretary’s legislation, say organisers

Protesters have marched against the government’s illegal migration bill in cities across the UK on Saturday, with organisers claiming thousands had attended.

Demonstrators carried signs and banners, some reading “no human is illegal”, as they matched towards Downing Street in central London.

Organisers Stand Up To Racism and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) also held protests in Glasgow and Cardiff against racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, fascism and the far right.

The legislation introduced by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, means that refugees who arrive in the UK through unauthorised means, such as crossing the Channel in a boat, will have their asylum claims deemed inadmissible.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/18/protests-against-migration-bill-held-in-london-glasgow-and-cardiff

Continue reading “Support all Asylum Seekers/Migrants: Resist Racism March and Rally London 18th March”

UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Building the United International Resistance

Online: Tue, 21 March 2023, 19:00 – 21:30 GMT

RACISM and inequality have never been starker in Britain and abroad.

Government hostile environment policies continue to scapegoat migrants, refugees, and the Muslim community.

The Liberation Movement (TLM) believes the fightback must be led by people of colour, who are at the sharp end of such hatred.

Unity with allies in organisations, including trade unions, community, and faith groups, is essential.

Continue reading “UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination”

StatusNow4All Newsletter March 2023

Welcome to this edition of SNN newsletter where we are covering a number of items that will be of interest to everyone involved in migrant and refugee solidarity work.

The first article comments Sunak’s ‘stop small boats’ plan with the ‘illegal migration bill’.

The second highlights how the government’s aim is not to ‘stop the small boats’, but to stop people asking for refugee status in the UK and invite the workers’ and antiracist movements to further mobilize together against the government’s cruel antirefugee policy.

Our third article reports the result of a recent research that shows how the 10-year route is a ‘punishing process’ that reduces immigrants in misery.

Children and the hostile environment is the topic of our fourth article that invite to a webinar organized by our signatory Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment.

Finally, we publish a call from our signatory Migrant Voice to contribute to their forthcoming report on the conditions of asylum seekers in London hotels
Continue reading “StatusNow4All Newsletter March 2023”

Barriers and Bridges to Wellbeing

Updated 25 February 2023: Vulnerable asylum seekers ‘prisoners in their own homes’ after fleeing war zones

As many asylum seekers say they have been placed in unsuitable properties littered with tripping hazards, an expert blamed the system which she says ‘creates a hostile environment’

Alimony Bangura, a disabled asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, is living in Manchester (

Disabled asylum seekers who fled war zones for the safety of Britain say they have been left as prisoners in their own homes.

Many claim they have been placed in unsuitable properties that are littered with tripping hazards and have broken lifts.

One disabled man told how he fell while trying to reach his upstairs bathroom.

And a blind refugee said he could only go out once a week with the aid of carers.

Their misery continues despite a 2020 court case which found the Government failed to provide disabled-friendly digs.

Campaigners say they have warned Home Secretary Suella Braverman of a string of cases across the country.

Worryingly, there is no official record of how many asylum seekers are disabled.

Continue reading “Barriers and Bridges to Wellbeing”

Channel Crossings

See also https://statusnow4all.org/concerns-about-the-use-of-army-barracks/


Updated 1 February 2023: Gov.uk: Leadership of small boats operations returns to the Home Office

The Small Boats Operational Command (SBOC) will bring together the government’s response to small boats with 730 additional staff.

Read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leadership-of-small-boats-operations-returns-to-the-home-office

Telegraph: Stop migrant boats or face defeat, Suella Braverman tells Tories

Home Secretary tells The Telegraph the party’s reputation for competence is ‘on the line’ and crossings must be tackled to win election

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/01/30/suella-braverman-tories-wont-forgiven-fail-stop-channel-migrant/

Continue reading “Channel Crossings”

Concerns about the use of army barracks, hotels, housing

This post is being updated with reports of examples of atrocities around the army camp accommodation and hotels, and other Home Office housing

For information about Detention Centres – IRCs – Hassockfield/Derwentside please see here: https://statusnow4all.org/detention-centres-ircs/

For information about off-shoring/exporting people seeking asylum/Rwanda please see here: https://statusnow4all.org/exporting-people-seeking-asylum-rwanda/:


Update 16 December 2022: from our signatory organisation RAPAR:

PRESS RELEASE from @raparuk 16th Dec. 2022: Whistleblower speaks out about safeguarding, racism and scabies at Serco’s asylum “hotel” in Warrington

https://buff.ly/3hygtgQ

and:

Please help raise money for Shay Babagar and @RAPARUK to build on Shay’s 35-day hunger strike to challenge Serco’s treatment of ‘hotel’ residents seeking asylum.
Justgiving: https://buff.ly/3BDx5dO

Campaign flyer: https://buff.ly/3j4CG6D
About campaign: https://buff.ly/3VYnZ3B


Continue reading “Concerns about the use of army barracks, hotels, housing”