UK immigration strategy increases risk of exploitation, say charities

30 August 2024: Guardian: UK immigration strategy increases risk of exploitation, say charities

Home secretary urged to to make it easier for undocumented migrants to regularise their immigration status

The government’s policy of ramping up immigration raids and detaining and deporting undocumented migrants is driving more people underground and increasing their risks of exploitation, dozens of charities have warned.

In a letter on Friday, coordinated by Migrant Voice, more than 80 organisations including Care4Calais, City of Sanctuary UK, Anti-Slavery International, Doctors of the World UK and Safe Passage International are calling on the home secretary to make it easier for undocumented migrants to regularise their immigration status so they can work with less risk of falling prey to exploitative employers and human trafficking gangs.

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JCWI statement on the racist attacks across the UK

6 August 2024: JCWI: Our statement on the racist attacks across the UK

The escalation of far-right, racist and Islamophobic violence against our communities in recent days is horrifying. These targeted attacks on migrants, Muslims and people of colour do not occur in isolation – they are the direct result of years of racist, dehumanising policies and language being peddled by our politicians and the media.  

The far right has been emboldened by hateful media narratives and a race to the bottom in migration policies, with established parties battling it out to see who can enact the most cruelly and publicly.  

Now, we see the results – people up and down the country are scared for their lives, terrified that they have a target on their backs because of the colour of their skin or the way they speak. That fear is very real, because the violence is very real. Look at events in Rotherham – an attempt to burn down a hotel housing people seeking sanctuary is an attempted mass murder, and it’s time we named that.  

For too long, politicians and the media have scapegoated our communities to distract from the very real issues we all face. We’re living through a cost-of-living crisis that makes life harder for all of us, huge NHS waiting times and the ever-growing impacts of climate breakdown. Those in power, and those who support them, have preferred to distract us from these issues by demonising people who move, and targeting Muslims and people of colour. 

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Immediately suspend in-person immigration appointments

6 August 2024: It’s a matter of safety

Right to Remain and other organisations are calling on the Home Office to immediately suspend all in-person immigration reporting and all other appointments, on account of the overwhelming fear of violent racist attacks in our communities.

There are people travelling all the way to reporting centres on a weekly basis who are only inside for 2 minutes – and in the current situation this is very stressful. In person reporting should be stopped immediately as it was during Covid for different safety reasons..

Read more: Suspend immigration reporting now!

We call on the Government to actively protect and uphold all of our human rights. 

5 August 2024: Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association – ILPA: ILPA Statement in Response to Racist, Anti-Migrant Violence and the Targeting of Immigration Lawyers

“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the racist, anti-migrant, Islamophobic, and far-right violence and aggression we have witnessed in the past week. It is designed to threaten and intimidate members of our communities.

We stand in solidarity with migrants to this country, including those who have fled dangerous places to seek safety here, only to be met with violence. We stand in solidarity with those targeted based on their appearance. We stand in solidarity with all those who are supporting targeted communities, through the provision of legal and other services. 

We call on the Government to actively protect and uphold all of our human rights. 

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Hate has no place in our communities

5 August 2024: Migrant Voice: It’s time to change the narrative. Hate has no place in our communities

The violence and hate we have seen run riot through our communities with the far right did not come out of nowhere. The tragic and hideous attack against children in Southport has been used as an excuse, but it is just that, an excuse. At a time when we should be thinking about the young children who were brutally murdered, we are faced with far right thugs, as the Prime Minister rightly called them, attacking people on the streets and attempting to burn them where they live.

They have targeted minorities, migrants, people based on skin colour and perceived religion. They are spreading division and hate. Calling for violence against those they perceive as different, but it is our very diversity in this country which will show that they do not stand for the majority of people

We have seen hate like this in the past, and it is in the past which it should remain. Instead though it has been emboldened by years of hostile rhetoric from politicians, and misinformation about migration in the media.

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Official statement on Southport attack and Far Right riots

5th August 2024: Show Racism the Red Card release crucial statements, following the ongoing violence that has occurred the past few days in the UK.

First of all, our Honorary President, Shaka Hislop has important words he would like to share, in light of recent events:

See the website here: https://www.theredcard.org/news/official-statements-on-southport-attack-and-far-right-riots/

Following Shaka’s message, Chief Executive of Show Racism the Red Card, Ged Grebby, shares:

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Home Office will decide asylum claims of thousands stuck in Rwanda scheme limbo

22 July 2024: Guardian: Failed Rwanda deportation scheme cost £700m, says Yvette Cooper

Home secretary describes Tory policy that Labour has axed as ‘the biggest waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen’

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/22/failed-rwanda-deportation-scheme-cost-700m-says-yvette-cooper


19 July 2024: Guardian: Home Office will decide asylum claims of thousands stuck in Rwanda scheme limbo

Previous UK government had built up backlog of 90,000 people whose claims it deemed ‘inadmissible’

Thousands of asylum seekers left in limbo for more than two years as they awaited a decision on the Rwanda scheme will now have their cases decided in the UK.

The decision, revealed during a high court challenge on Friday, is a sharp shift in position from the previous government, which had passed various laws declaring that the claims of those who arrived after January 2022 were “inadmissible” – and so could not be processed in the UK.

But on Friday, the court heard how the new home secretary had pledged to process the claims of those threatened with removal under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) in Britain. Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda scheme upon entering Downing Street.

A preliminary hearing in London had already been scheduled, however, in order to hear the progress of the claims of two asylum seekers who had claimed the Home Office had acted unlawfully by delaying its decision over their applications.

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Government fails to monitor firms with £4bn contracts to house asylum seekers

20 July 2024: Open Democracy: Revealed: Investigation finds Home Office has no complete record of companies housing almost 100,000 asylum seekers

The government is failing to monitor private firms holding asylum accommodation contracts worth billions of pounds, openDemocracy and Liberty Investigates can reveal.

A joint investigation has found that the Home Office holds no centralised data on the performances of its three main accommodation providers – SercoMears and Clearsprings Ready Homes – which together house almost all of the 100,000 asylum seekers in government accommodation.

In 2019, these firms were awarded public contracts initially estimated to be worth £4bn over 10 years, though costs have since spiralled. Earlier this year the National Audit Office said it expects the Home Office to have spent “£3.1bn on hotels” in the financial year ending in March 2024 alone.

The three companies often act as middlemen – placing asylum seekers in hotels or other accommodation owned by firms in their networks. But our investigation has revealed that the Home Office’s most recent lists of all the subcontracted providers are five years out of date.

One think tank said the Home Office’s admissions, made between November 2023 and May 2024 in response to Freedom of Information requests submitted by Liberty Investigates, are evidence of a “systemic failure” that has seen taxpayers’ bill for asylum housing spiral despite accusations that people are routinely being held in sub-standard accommodation with inadequate care.

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‘Sheer torment’: Home Office apologises after asylum approvals retracted

15 July 2024: Guardian: ‘Sheer torment’: Home Office apologises after asylum approvals retracted

Some asylum seekers told to cut up residence permits after believing they had been granted leave to remain

The Home Office has apologised to asylum seekers granted leave to remain in the UK who then had their decisions retracted.

In some cases applicants were sent residence permits before being told by officials to cut them up.

Charities said they had seen a number of cases where people celebrated getting leave to remain and believed they were safe at last only to be told days or weeks later that a mistake had been made. Officials declined to say how many people had been affected by this error.

In one case an asylum seeker was jubilant after receiving a letter from Home Office officials stating: “Your claim for asylum has been successful and you have been granted refugee status and five years permission to remain in the UK.”

“I was so happy to receive this letter,” the asylum seeker said. “I and my family had been left in limbo for two years not knowing what was going to happen to me. But then a few weeks later I got another letter telling me the Home Office had made a mistake, that I hadn’t received refugee status after all and that I had to destroy the biometric residence permits they sent me.”

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Conditions at UK immigration removal centre ‘worst inspectors have seen’

9 July 2024: HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor: Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre: drugs, despair and decrepit conditions

Report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (12–29 February 2024)

A copy of the full report, published on 9 July 2024, can be found on the HM Inspectorate of Prisons website at: Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre – HM Inspectorate of Prisons (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

Inspectors returning to Harmondsworth IRC found the worst conditions they have seen in immigration detention.

Much of the accommodation was decrepit, violence and other unacceptable behaviour such as drug use had substantially increased and there had been numerous serious attempts at suicide in the centre.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor was so concerned that he wrote to the then Home Secretary shortly after the inspection setting out the many failures at the centre. He has received no response.

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JCWI: We Move A manifesto for migrant justice

JCWI: We Move A manifesto for migrant justice:

Right now, migrants in our communities are under attack. But we know that things don’t have to be this way.

We can and must fight for justice for people who move. This manifesto lays out a roadmap towards achieving the fairer society we all deserve.

This manifesto calls for:
1. Rights – Everyone should be able to thrive, no matter where we’re from
2. Safety – We must welcome people who seek sanctuary on our shores
3. Dignity – We all deserve to live with dignity and feel safe in our homes
and workplaces
4. Justice – We should all be able to defend our rights and hold the government
accountable
5. Community – We all deserve to find care and belonging

Read more here: https://jcwi.org.uk/manifesto/