'Indefinite Leave To Remain' for people who are undocumented, destitute, and those in the legal process #HealthAndSafetyForAll
This is our call:
We call upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in *Indefinite Leave to Remain. In this way every human, irrespective of their nationality or citizenship can access healthcare, housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else
It has produced a two page briefing paper (see below) which explains why this is now an urgent matter in the light of recent evidence of the growth of exploitative employment practices in sectors employing large numbers of migrant people. For many migrant and refugee people, immigration conditions attached to their right to stay in the UK will make it difficult, if not impossible, to complain about unfair and abusive employment practices.
The briefing lists five changes to the current version of the Bill which need to be incorporated if migrant and refugee people are to be covered by the protections of the Bill. It also calls for the right to work for people claiming asylum in the UK to allow relief from the extreme poverty that is prevalent and this group.
It is hoped that the briefing will circulate among trade union organisations in particular. It invites requests for SNN speakers to talk about this subject at branch or regional meetings and any other event dealing with the rights workers:
The leaflet is available here:
Continue reading “Migrant and Refugee People: Employment Rights Bill”This is a letter signed by STatusNow4All: In September 2024, the UK Home Office published a contract – it’s offering to pay NGOs in the UK and abroad millions of pounds to help it take people away from their communities and remove them from the UK.
This contract is dangerous, and deeply unethical. Along with 33 other organisations in the UK and overseas, we wrote to the Home Secretary, rejecting this attempt to make NGOs complicit in the Government’s anti-migrant agenda.
Continue reading “NGOs refuse to be complicit in removals”Welcome to the Status Now Newsletter for February 2024.
This is our call:
We call upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in *Indefinite Leave to Remain. In this way every human, irrespective of their nationality or citizenship can access healthcare, housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else
Our campaign continues to be as relevant as ever in this hostile environment, and we stand with those who share our concerns, some of which are reflected in the following news items. We begin with news from StatusNow4All signatory organisations and then point the reader to just a few of the many articles that confirm the need for our existence.
Continue reading “Status Now 4 All Newsletter – February 2024. “Welcome to the first Status Now Newsletter in 2024. We hope the holidays have given you the opportunity to recharge your batteries and are ready for a year of vigorous campaigning in 2024!
Here are a few notes on how 2023 ended with regard to immigration and refugee issues, giving some context on the work we will be doing over the next 12 months.
Winning support from the trade unions
Status Now marked International Migrants Day on 18th December with a social and discussion event held in partnership with Unite the Union. Supporters gathered to enjoy Filipino food provided by the domestic workers support group, Waling Waling and discuss what more could be done to build trade union solidarity with the fight for migrant and refugee rights.
Continue reading “StatusNow4All Newsletter – January 2024”Status Now 4 All joins all refugee and human rights organisations in welcoming the ruling of the Supreme Court that the Government’s so-called ‘Rwanda Plan’ (to remove virtually all people seeking asylum to Rwanda for ‘processing’ through the asylum system with, notably, no possibility of return to the UK) is unlawful.
It is important to note that the ruling was unanimous: five judges ruled the plan unlawful not only under the provisions of European human rights law, but also under domestic British law. Parliament must now also understand that the threat to renounce UK signatory state status to the European Convention on Human Rights, or to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, will not fix the Rwanda plan in the way the UK Government intends, and both would bring about a significant risk to the human rights of everyone living in the UK and to the UK’s standing in international terms
We extend our deep gratitude to the legal team acting for the respondents in this matter, and all the charities and solidarity organisations which have worked with them to bring about this result.
Continue reading “Status Now 4 All welcomes the defeat of the Government’s Rwanda Plan in the Supreme Court“====Status Now 4 All Newsletter===
++++++ November 2023 ++++++
On the 12th October our Friends of Status Now organised a meeting of supporters in Birmingham.
Hosted by Birmingham Asylum and Refugee Association (BARA) participants shared their experiences of living as migrants and refugees with precarious status and looked ahead to the campaigning they expect to be involved in in the coming months.
Foremost in the discussion was the role that migrant and refugee activists can play in the general election campaign which will take place in 2024. What opportunities will exist for people with precarious status to intervene in public debates over the treatment of people seeking refugee and a better life in the UK?
Continue reading “StatusNow4All Newsletter – November 2023”In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, a group of organisations working in solidarity with migrant and refugee people issued a call for ‘Status Now 4 All!’ in order to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of people who were in positions of exceptional risk as a consequence of having a precarious right of residence in the UK.
A lot about the predicament of migrants in British society that emerged during these months conflicted with dominant prejudices that existed over their position as workers and fellow members of local communities. It became widely understood that migrants earned their livings as key workers across many sectors of services and industries, and were obliged to continue working in high-risk occupations. As health and care workers, working in public transportation, and employed in other vital roles for fulfilling supply chains in the distribution of food and other essential goods, migrants, therefore, formed a large proportion of the newly-named group: ‘essential workers’.
Continue reading “Status Now 4 All! Renewing our Call!“
Hello. I’m Rhetta Moran. Thank you for asking me to come here tonight on behalf of the SNN to consider a call for anti-racist immigration and nationality laws.
The views I’m about to share are best summed up through the words of Angela Davis: Racism cannot be separated from Capitalism.
Before I outline what the Status Now Network is I want to ask a fundamental question:
What do laws tell us about the society that has produced them?
If we agree an understanding of what the existence of any law means, including the “Illegal” Migration Act then it becomes possible to collectively, do one of at least three things:
1. Get rid of that law
2. Introduce a new one
3. Abandon the process of law formation altogether, in favour of another way entirely of going about the business of creating a world that is safe for people – and every other living thing.
Continue reading “SNN at TUC Conference fringe”See below the list of signatory organisations, and you can click on the links to access more information about those that have a social media presence.
Information about how to join us is here https://statusnow4all.org/join-our-network/
The list is here:
Continue reading “Signatory Organisations to the Status Now Campaign”INTRODUCTION
The Status Now Network (SNN) was set up at the beginning of the pandemic when it became clear that many migrants would be badly affected and that the risk to their lives and livelihood would be huge. The founding organisations were very concerned that undocumented migrants would not seek access to healthcare for fear of being reported to the Home Office, detained and deported. We started to hear about migrants dying alone at home from Covid-19. We also knew that many would go hungry, especially those who rely on cash in hand to survive and those who do not have access to public resources. Due to the lock down, we knew that many migrants had lost the little but sometimes vital support from NGOs as well as the support they were getting from friends and contacts.
Continue reading “SNN STRATEGY WEEKEND REPORT Spring 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. |
12 March 2023: The “illegal migration bill” places a legal duty on the home secretary to remove anyone who arrives on a small boat, either to Rwanda or another “safe third country”, “as soon as reasonably practicable”.
For this plan to work it will be necessary to detain each and every person arriving in a small boat until their removal can be affected. The logistical problems here are immense. Last year the total entering by this route was 45,756. The figure for the current year is likely to be as high, with over 3,000 arriving since January.
According to the Oxford University Migration Observatory the immigration removal centre estate has a capacity for detaining people in the region of 2,500 places. A further 500 people have been detained in regular prison establishments but the scope for making greater use of these facilities is limited. The statistics provided for the UK in the World Prison Brief shows the prison system already in an overcrowded state, with more than 83.000 people being held across an estate with an official capacity of just over 77,000.
Continue reading “Sunak’s ‘stop small boats’ plan is a desperate gamble he seems unlikely to win”| 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 analyses the government ‘s responsibilities for the racist riot in Knowsley. The second highlights how four reviews of the hostile environment recently published by the Home Office show that this policy is racist. The fight for antiracist workplaces and our call for status now for all is the focus of our third article, while the fourth article shows the strong support of the BFAWU (Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union) to our campaign and reports an important motion approved by its executive committee. |
Status Now Network joined the Stand Up to Racism and TUC’s national conference Fighting for Anti-Racist Workplaces held at SOAS, University of London, last February 4th. The conference highlighted the role of the trade union movement to combat racism in the workplace, the hostile environment that targets migrant workers and refugees, and the various community interventions to prevent the rise of the far-right movement across the UK.
Refugees and SNN campaigners Loraine Masiya Mponela and Rogelio Braga were invited to participate in the workshop session #Stop Rwanda #Refugees welcome -don’t let scapegoating divide us , where Braga was one of the speakers. He highlighted that the plight of undocumented migrant workers should also be at the agenda of the British union movement. Undocumented migrants with their precarious migration status are subjected to exploitation, racism, and unfair labour practice with limited protection and support from institutions.
Below is Braga’s speech in the Conference.
Continue reading “Status Now Network and the fight for antiracist workplaces“