2020 October 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqujy-ehKMA&feature=youtu.be
Home Office outsourcing asylum interviews to private contractors is irresponsible and callous. We have a better alternative.
28.9.2020: The UK Government’s Home Office are planning to outsource asylum interviews to private contractors. They claim that the move is intended to deal with a backlog of over 40,000 cases. The move has sent chills amongst some people seeking asylum, and wider communities with experience of outsourced state services, and especially amongst those who have endured an interview process that was already dysfunctional before the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis.
Outsourcing the interviews would mean that whichever company gets the contract – G4S, Capita, Mitie, Sopra Steria or Serco – would be able to access highly sensitive and confidential information that could put peoples’ lives at risk. Could any of these private companies be trusted with access to sensitive information? Could they be trusted to employ case workers who are capable of creating safe spaces for people to tell their harrowing stories? Could they ask the right questions in the right ways and not intimidate people?
Continue reading “Home Office outsourcing asylum interviews to private contractors is irresponsible and callous. We have a better alternative.”Status Now 4 All backs peaceful demonstrations calling for Leave to Remain for undocumented migrants in UK
18th September 2020 PRESS RELEASE: STATUS NOW 4 ALL BACKS PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS CALLING FOR LEAVE TO REMAIN FOR UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS IN THE UK
A national Day of Action is being held this weekend to call for an end to the Government’s Hostile Environment policy and for Leave to Remain to be given to all undocumented migrants in the UK.
Regularise, one of Status Now Network’s signatories, is organising a peaceful demonstration for the rights of undocumented migrants on Saturday, 19th September. It will be held from 1pm-4pm outside 10 Downing Street to ensure the Prime Minister Boris Johnson hears our call for Status Now.
See https://m.facebook.com/events/2387705671522936? www.regularise.org
Also at 1pm on Saturday September 19th, the human rights charity RAPAR www.rapar.co.uk will be holding a demonstration outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Offices, Manchester M1 4AH.
Continue reading “Status Now 4 All backs peaceful demonstrations calling for Leave to Remain for undocumented migrants in UK”Peaceful demonstration for the Rights of Undocumented Migrants 19.9.2020: London, Manchester, Coventry
Event information for London: https://m.facebook.com/events/2387705671522936?
and Twitter: https://twitter.com/RegulariseUK/status/1303358010111209472
In Manchester: National day of action in solidarity with Regularise
Continue reading “Peaceful demonstration for the Rights of Undocumented Migrants 19.9.2020: London, Manchester, Coventry”Kent Refugee Help – Statement and Message of support for the Dover Action
Kent Refugee Help is a signatory to our call for Status Now 4 All. They produced the flyer below in support of the activity by a collection of organisations in Dover demonstrating a welcome for refugees, in the face of planned Britain First action which is designed to generate racist hatred for asylum seekers who are legitimately seeking sanctuary in UK.
The text of the flyer is as follows:
We stand with You, Saturday 5th September, 11 am, Dover Market Square.
We support the Dover peaceful action for Refugees and Migrants on 5th of September.
Kent Refugee help believes in equal rights for everyone.
We stand by people fleeing war, violence and extreme poverty.
Kent Refugee Help is a charity that assists foreign nationals detained in prisons who are liable to deportation.
Continue reading “Kent Refugee Help – Statement and Message of support for the Dover Action”Welcome Refugees, no to Britain First
While the Status Now Network – SNN recognises that the swinging cuts to local government and health systems over the last decade have had profound impact on cities, SNN does not subscribe to the idea that people seeking asylum are a drain in the public purse. There is ample factual evidence about who is making money out of COVID, and it isn’t the people seeking asylum or the working class communities where they are being placed e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/dominic-cummings-allys-pr-firm-hanbury-strategy-given-covid-19-contracts-without-tenders
Read moRECoverage of yesterday’s SUTR demonstration
25.8.2020: Express and Star: Pro-migrant demonstrators accuse Government of ‘vilifying’ asylum seekers
Dozens of pro-migrant demonstrators have accused the Government of “dehumanising and vilifying” asylum seekers at a protest outside the Home Office.
The demonstration on Tuesday evening, organised by campaign group Stand Up To Racism, demanded that the right of safe passage be given to “desperate” migrants making the crossing between England and France.
Continue reading “Coverage of yesterday’s SUTR demonstration”Mercy Baguma living in ‘extreme poverty’ found dead next to her malnourished baby boy
From the heart:
How many more people will this Government kill? Mercy Baguma is the latest victim in the growing number of people who have died at the hand of the inhumane and immoral “hostile environment” policy instituted by this Government against refugees and migrants.
Organisations in the Status Now Network are witnessing every day the desperation and destitution caused by this policy which has been intensified by COVID-19 pandemic.
We are currently supporting hundreds of men, women and children, who have been made impoverished and destitute because of these punitive and draconian immigration policies. These include 15 Filipino women who are pregnant or with young children, who are destitute and impoverished because they have no recourse to public funds and nor are they allowed to work. Instead they are relying on the support of a small community organisations to survive.
We call for the regularisation of these vulnerable people.
We hold the Government responsible for Mercy’s death and the destitution and suffering of hundreds of other women like Mercy Baguma who are undocumented in the UK, and their children.
Continue reading “Mercy Baguma living in ‘extreme poverty’ found dead next to her malnourished baby boy”Migrant Rights Centre Ireland raises concern
12 August 2020: ‘Definitely undocumented workers in meat sector who may not have a PPS number’ – Migrant Rights Centre
The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) has said that there are “definitely undocumented workers in the meat sector who may not have access to a PPSN [Personal Public Service Number]”.
Following concerns raised by trade union SIPTU over sick pay for workers in meat factories in Ireland, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has said that, under its department, all workers are entitled to claim the Covid-19 Illness Benefit payment, irrelevant as to whether a company has a sick pay scheme or not.
Continue reading “Migrant Rights Centre Ireland raises concern”We have a struggle to win and a life to live.
4.8.2020: Inquirer: Filipino playwright seeks asylum, receives prestigious UK theater grant
In his London flat, Rogelio Braga was busy typing on his laptop, in between answering emails, queries, and interviews from his caseworker. Rogelio was writing a play entitled Miss Philippines. No, it is not about statuesque beauties whose feet barely touched the earth. It is about real women, lesbian, and transgender women, barely surviving the life in the slums under Duterte’s war on drugs.
It is the same play he submitted to the Yellow Earth Theater earlier in 2020 and has been awarded £2000 seed commissions to develop new plays as part of the Professional Writers Programme 2020-22.
Continue reading “We have a struggle to win and a life to live.”YOU ARE THE BAGONG BAYANI: YOU DESERVE TO BE SAFE
“I was working in the UK as a domestic worker. Things were hard.” Watch this video to hear Leila’s story, from https://www.stopthetraffik.org/
Early Day Motion: Leave to Remain in UK
Coventry City of Peace and Reconciliation: It is estimated there are around 1 million undocumented workers living in the UK. Because of COVID-19, many of them are now unable to work and, because they are undocumented, they cannot claim government benefits. They are therefore going without food.
Moreover, because they often live in overcrowded conditions they are highly susceptible to COVID-19. Despite government assurances that the NHS does not carry out immigration checks in hospitals, many undocumented workers are nevertheless worried that seeking medical help will result in their being removed from the UK.
For more information see the BBC report Coronavirus: Undocumented workers an ‘invisible public health risk’.
CARAG therefore requests the people of Coventry to ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion EDM #658 – LEAVE TO REMAIN STATUS, the text of which is shown below. There is also the suggested text of a letter. [Read more …]
PAIH: Deadly accommodation crisis for Glasgow’s hotel asylum seekers & Refugees for Justice Manifesto
From one of our co-signatories: DEADLY ACCOMMODATION CRISIS FOR GLASGOW’S HOTEL ASYLUM SEEKERS – WE DEMAND A PUBLIC INQUIRY
In his response yesterday to an urgent question from Alison Thewliss MP about support for asylum seekers, Chris Philip MP, Home Office Minister stated that
“among those people accommodated in hotels there has not been a single confirmed case of coronavirus and therefore the steps taken to to safeguard the public and safeguard the asylum seekers in particular, have been successful.”
Mr Philps failed to mention that no-one had been tested, or acknowledge that asylum seekers in the hotels had complained of being denied medical attention and being confined to their rooms. He also failed to acknowledge that the mentally ill asylum seeker who attacked six people including a police officer in the Park Inn Hotel in Glasgow was reported to be isolating from suspected Covid 19 and had been confined for 20 days in one of the hotels.
Mr Philp’s argument seemed to be ” it turned out good so we must have done something right”.
Continue reading “PAIH: Deadly accommodation crisis for Glasgow’s hotel asylum seekers & Refugees for Justice Manifesto”Homelessness returning: SNN restates our call
Housing: As the Government announces further lockdown relaxation measures, SNN is receiving reports from the length and breadth of the UK which are indicating that the State intends – it may have already begun – to evict people previously homeless, or in short term NASS accommodation, back into destitution. SNN condemns any such intention or action and restates our call for housing healthcare and food for all: only collective action, based in reality rather than ideology, may enable rational planning for effective pandemic management in the future.
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Inside Housing: 23.6.2020 Charities warn hundreds of asylum seekers are at risk of homelessness as Home Office ends eviction ban
The government has begun the process of evicting hundreds of refugees from Home Office accommodation after deciding not to extend its ban on asylum seeker evictions, Inside Housing can reveal.
Continue reading “Homelessness returning: SNN restates our call”Coronavirus: London’s undocumented workers could be among the most vulnerable in society
24 June 2020: BBC: There are an estimated one million undocumented workers in the UK. The coronavirus pandemic has presented them with a new set of challenges and fears over how to maintain an income, remain healthy or even stay alive.
[…] As the lockdown eases across England, charities have said they fear London’s undocumented workers could be among the most vulnerable in society.
Read more here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52919418