What else you can do Archives

October 17, 2023October 17, 2023

Spotlight on the impact of Statelessness

Updated 17 October 2023: European Network on Statelessness: Are Stateless Claimants Disadvantaged Within Asylum Procedures? New Evidence from the UK Context

Thomas McGee, PhD researcher at Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness (Melbourne Law School) and the MENA Statelessness Network (Hawiati)

This blog post introduces new research, conducted as part of the #StatelessJourneys project, into the challenges faced by stateless claimants within asylum procedures in the UK context. The study focuses on the experiences of stateless Kurds from Syria in the UK, revealing hurdles related to civil documentation, cultural understanding, and language analysis. These findings emphasize the need for more statelessness-sensitive procedures and policy changes, both in the UK and within other countries of asylum across Europe.

June 30, 2023September 16, 2023

Stop the deportations

Updated 30 June 2023: Twitter: NUJ @NUJofficial Thank you @grahamemorris for writing to the Immigration Minister to seek an urgent intervention in journalist Ghazi Gareeb Zorab’s case. There are credible threats to Ghazi’s safety if he is returned to Iraq.

June 17, 2023June 17, 2023

ILPA’s Response to the ICIBI’s Call for Evidence: An Inspection of Asylum Casework

9 June 2023: Immigration Law Practitioners Association – ILPA: Date published: 12 June 2023

With many thanks to all members who contributed to this written evidence, ILPA’s Response to the ICIBI’s Call for Evidence: An Inspection of Asylum Casework 2023 can be read below. [Document Date: Friday June 9, 2023]

The response is here: ILPA’s Response to the ICIBI Call for Evidence: An Inspection of Asylum Casework 2023 (9 June 2023)

April 7, 2023September 16, 2023

Reckless ‘Nationality & Borders’ legislation

We continue to campaign for those who have precarious status to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain and for there to be discussions about how to move forward with the banners of #StatusNow4All and #HealthAndSafety4All.

When the will is there, it can be done – that is our point: there is hope yet … We will collate reports and legal challenges here.

See more information about the Illegal Immigration Bill here: https://statusnow4all.org/illegal-immigration-bill/

Updated 7 April 2023: Gov.uk : This is just mean and unnecessarily cruel to a destitute person: Gov.uk: New crackdown to prevent illegal migrants accessing bank accounts

Data sharing with the financial sector will begin today as the government cracks down on illegal migrants accessing banking services.

Making it more difficult for unlawful migrants to access financial services is an important tool to help deter illegal migration by preventing people from working illegally and profiting from services they are not entitled to.

Having access to a current account can assist those here unlawfully in obtaining work illegally and securing credit. It can help those without permission to be in the UK gain a foothold in society, regardless of their immigration status.

Identifying an unlawful migrant’s current account may also provide evidence of illegal working, helping identify and stamp this out.

December 16, 2022December 19, 2022

International Migrants Day 18 December 2022

On 4 December 2000, the General Assembly, taking into account the large and increasing number of migrants in the world, proclaimed 18 December International Migrants Day (A/RES/55/93). On that day, in 1990, the Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (A/RES/45/158).

This article comes through our signatory organisation Southeast and East Asian Centre (London):

Focus on Labour EXploitation – FLEX: International Migrants Day 2022: A Call for Stronger Protection for All Migrant Workers

To mark International Migrants’ Day 2022, Mariko Hayashi and Luisa Pineda from the Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC) highlight the barriers and risks faced by migrant workers from their community, sharing first-hand experiences of exploitation and calling for workers to be better protected in this guest blog.

December 12, 2022September 16, 2023

Qatar World Cup final on International Migrants Day 2022

What you can do: United Nations International Migrants Day (IMD)will be marked once again this year on 18 December.

This year, IMD will be happening when the attention of millions of people across the world will be focused on the final of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

It is appropriate to remember that the month-long festival of the world’s most popular support on this occasion would not have been possible without the labour of a large migrant workforce.

Qatar has a population of 3 million people, two-thirds of who are migrants. They make up 95% of the country’s workforce. During the 12 years it has taken to prepare the country for the World Cup migrant labour has been essential to the construction of new football stadia, hotels, metro, airport, and other infrastructure related to the competition.

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022

Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK

UK Parliament: Inquiry Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK

Wednesday 16 November 2022, Start times: 2.45pm (private) 3.00pm (public) Formal meeting (oral evidence session): Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK Committee Human Rights (Joint Committee)

At 3.00pm: Laura Dubinsky Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers

Rachel Bingham Clinical Advisor at Medical Justice

Rudy Shulkind Policy and Parliamentary Manager at Bail for Immigration Detainees

At 4.00pm: Charlie TaylorHM Chief Inspector of Prisons at HM Inspectorate of Prisons

Information about watching this can be found here: https://committees.parliament.uk/event/15701

September 30, 2022September 16, 2023

PICUM: A Snapshot of Social Protection Measures for Undocumented Migrants

PICUM: A snapshot of social protection measures for undocumented migrants

Conclusion
Social protection is intended to protect people against particular economic and social exclusion, including homelessness, that can be the result of life changing events, such as unemployment or reduced ability to work due to health reasons (including work-related injuries) or changes in families and households, such as birth of a child or death of a partner or parent. It is intended to ensure that all people maintain a minimum level of income to meet their basic needs, and that older people can retire and maintain a decent quality of life. Some of these life changes are inevitable for everyone to go through, while others only impact some people – but in any case, can happen to anyone.

July 7, 2022September 15, 2022

StatusNow4All newsletter July 2022

Welcome to this edition of SNN Newsletter!
We are covering a number of items in this issue that will be of interest to everyone involved in migrant and refugee solidarity work.

First up is the report on our campaign for better asylum seeker accommodation. Our SNN colleagues in the North West are particularly active in this area and after a first online event during Refugee Week are now planning new initiatives to fight for better provision of safe and decent homes for people in the asylum system.

The second article is dedicated to the campaign “Our place is here” developed by Kanlungan together with other organizations in defense of the rights of domestic workers.

The third item reports on the SNN event organised during Refugee Week which assembled a roundtable of activists to discuss where we have got to with the campaign against the hostile environment and the steps that need to be taken for this to go forward. The key idea is the project underway to organise a People’s Tribunal on Migration Justice over the course of the next 12 months which will draw on the evidence of violation of the rights of migrant people to indict Government policies and help forge the sort of alliances we will need to bring about change.

The appalling news about the deaths of at least 37 people at the border between the Spanish enclave of Melilla and Morocco is the subject of our fourth feature. In response to this massacre at the hands of the Spanish civil guard and the Moroccan police authorities the Transnational Migrant Platform has launched an appeal for solidarity and action to force an inquiry into how the tragedy happened.

Finally, our fifth article focuses on the important role assumed by the Union, particularly by the Public Services and Commercial Union (PCS), in the fight against the Rwanda offshore plan and stresses the need to fight all together for the rights of migrant and native workers in the UK.

In addition to these items we also have information on the call for a public demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice on 19 July to coincide with the opening of the judicial review hearing on the legality of the Home Office’s Rwanda refugee removal plan. Do join us at this protest if you can.

July 4, 2022September 16, 2023

In solidarity with the family of those who have died at the borders of Melilla on 24 June 2022

1 July 2022 :Transnational Migrant Platform – Europe: Massacre of Migrant and Refugee people at Europe-Africa border (Communique working group of the 45th session Permanent Peoples Tribunal)

In solidarity with the family of those who have died at the borders of Melilla on June 24 2022 and with those who organized the actions on July 1 in Rabat and in Melilla

This massacre in Melilla of 29 persons on Friday June 24^th is the latest most visible instance of the unacceptability of Europe’s border externalization and militarization policy and its outsourcing of its responsibility in immigration and refugee policy to its neighbouring countries.

A Relentless spiral of deaths

December 18, 2021September 16, 2023

AT and WITHIN the UK’s Borders: StatusNow4All identifies with everyone in transit and everyone who has died in transit

Update 18 December 2021: See here for depth information about home office border security plan: https://corporatewatch.org/home-office-set-to-advertise-385-million-private-border-security-contracts/

StatusNow logo

Status Now Statement: AT and WITHIN the UK’s Borders: StatusNow4All identifies with everyone in transit and everyone who has died in transit.
People have moved around the world for many reasons through time, and they still do. In their attempts to reach what they perceived to be a toehold where they and their families might begin to become safe, consider how many of these people have died because obstacles have been put in their way on land or in the water. We don’t know the numbers.

We do know that the overt and systematic militarisation of the European Union borders began in 2004 when Frontex (funded through the European Commission) were contracted.

In July 2021 a condemnation of Frontex’s actions failing to protect asylum seekers rights was published.

Now, in the wake of the most recent drownings in the English Channel, networks up and down Britain are mobilising to communicate their complete condemnation of the Government’s immigration control systems, AT and WITHIN the UK’s borders. Every time people plan and work together through such mobilisations, we strengthen the bonds committed to transforming the way the migration system works and stopping the deaths and the suffering.

December 14, 2021September 16, 2023

Online Event 25 November 2021 6-8pm – These Walls Must Fall: We Want Freedom

Updated 14 December 2021: the video of this zoom event can be seen here, along with many others on their channel:

https://youtu.be/Ho1v53WQ9y4

These Walls Must Fall event: Join us for ‘We Want Freedom!’, a national These Walls Must Fall online event at this crucial time in the fight for migrant justice.

The devastating ‘Borders Bill’ is in Parliament for the second reading right now. It could bring unprecedented changes to the UK immigration system, which already treats people who come to the UK incredibly cruelly.

Speakers from across the movement will discuss the whole system of deportation and detention, how we can fight it at every stage, and how local acts of solidarity can make a difference.

December 10, 2021September 16, 2023

The Power of Art

On Human Rights Day 2021: I have seen peace by Loraine Masiya Mponela

This is original work by Loraine Masiya Mponela. While sharing is encouraged and appreciated, please do acknowledge accordingly.

I have seen peace by Loraine Masiya Mponela

I cry for justice

and equal rights

the right to be treated fairly

in front of the law

December 9, 2021June 5, 2023

EDITORIAL: An exponential expansion of the number of people in the UK with precarious status: one potential implication of Clause 9 of the current Nationality and Borders Bill

9th December 2021

An exponential expansion of the number of people in the UK with precarious status: one potential implication of Clause 9 of the current Nationality and Borders Bill

‘“It’s a horrible Clause”. Frances Webber, Institute of Race Relations, London.

The idea that ‘an uncommunicated decision can bind an individual’ is ‘an astonishing proposition’^[1].

In August of this year Sky News published analysis^[2] of the last three years of ‘complete’ Home Office data relating to migration. Demonstrating that the people who arrive in the UK in small boats and who generally claim asylum are only a small fraction of the number of migrants arriving in the UK each year, it admitted that ‘These numbers are based on estimates. The real number of unauthorised people in the UK is not known as official figures cannot capture the true reality.’ Sky News then fell back onto the much-cited Pew Research figure dating from 2019 that describes there being between 0.8-1.2 million migrant people in the UK who are ‘unauthorised’^[3]. The Status Now Network favours the term ‘precarious’ to describe everyone in the UK without secure status.

On 11^th November 2021, a number of media outlets carried the Institute of Race Relations exposure^[4] of ‘the dangers posed by a clause inserted quietly into the Nationality and Borders Bill, which will allow some British citizens (mainly dual nationals) to lose their citizenship without being notified in a wide range of circumstances, which could put them at grave risk.’ As of 6^thDecember this Clause, number 9^[5], is one of several that make up an additional 88 pages of amendments that have been tabled^[6] as the Bill passes through its procedural stages.

Here, IRR’s Frances Webber explains more of the history of Clause 9:

November 23, 2021November 23, 2021

The immigration detention estate for women

Updated 23 November 2021: Re: Hassockfield/Consett/Derwentside immigration detention centre to house women will open by the end of 2021!

iNews: As migrant channel crossings hit a new record, insiders says centres like Yarl’s Wood can never be humane

For 20 years, Yarl’s Wood has been holding asylum seekers without time limits. Now a controversial new centre is replacing it to hold women. Is it time to call an end to detention?

Agnes Tanoh still remembers the fear of being taken into Yarl’s Wood, nearly a decade on. “You walk through the gates,” says the 65-year-old Ivorian refugee, “and the tunnel you take to reach the first office destroys your mind. I thought, ‘I am going somewhere I may never leave.’”

It was March 2012 when Tanoh was arrested and taken to the notorious immigration detention centre in Bedfordshire. After the disturbing ordeal of fleeing her home country the previous year, with her life at risk, she was incarcerated indefinitely as she awaited news of her fate.

“You haven’t defended yourself at trial,” she explains. “Being taken to a detention centre is being given a sentence without a time limit. It can be one week, three months, one year – you don’t know. Detention breaks families and causes distress and trauma.”