ICIBI: An inspection of asylum casework (August 2020 – May 2021)

People have been left waiting in the asylum system with no certainty about their future for long periods of time. We call for StatusNow for all – Indefinite Leave to Remain #healthandsafetyforall:

Updated 24 Novemer 2021: BBC – Brook House detention centre whistleblower ‘abuse’ inquiry begins #ICIBI

A public inquiry into the mistreatment of immigration detainees has heard a BBC Panorama documentary revealed “shocking” treatment which had “no place in a decent and humane” system.

The inquiry into Brook House removal centre, near Gatwick, is examining mistreatment of detainees, as well as the attitudes and culture of staff.

It follows a series of investigations triggered by Panorama in 2017.

At the time, G4S ran the Sussex centre, but Serco took it over last year.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-59388291

ICIBI – Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration: An inspection of asylum casework (August 2020 – May 2021) This report will have been with the Home Office for some time before its release. This report was sent to the Home Secretary on 23 July 2021.

18 November 2021: Publishing the report, David Neal said:

I welcome the publication of this report, which explored the efficacy of the Home Office’s ability to make timely and good quality asylum decisions. It examined resourcing, training, workflow, case progression and the prioritisation of cases, as well as the quality of interviews, decisions and quality assurance mechanisms.

The inspection began at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While the pandemic had impacted asylum operations, most, if not all, of the issues identified by this inspection predate it. Primarily, the Home Office is still failing to keep on top of the number of asylum decisions it is required to make. The inspection found that the length of time asylum claimants had waited for a decision increased annually since 2011. In 2020, adult asylum claimants were waiting an average of 449 days. This increased to 550 days for unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

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Start with Hope, Change will follow

Little Amal’s Walk: Start with Hope, change will follow: https://www.goodchance.org.uk/stories/2021/10/4/little-amals-uk-plans-revelead

also https://www.walkwithamal.org/events/

Amare has invited Little Amal to visit The Hague from 15 to 21 November 2021 and will welcome her as a special guest at the Open Festival on 19, 20 and 21 November.

“After the immense welcome Little Amal has received from so many thousands of people across the 8000km of The Walk, her visit to The Hague – city of Peace and Justice – is an important next step in the new journey and the new life of Little Amal. As Amare itself begins a new journey and a new life, it is right that Amal should open this new centre of art and welcome.” – Amir Nizar Zuabi

https://www.walkwithamal.org/amare/

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COVID-19 has also laid bare existing fault lines within society and has exacerbated inequalities.

Updated 11 November 2021: Kanlungan Filipino Consortium@kanlunganuk From today, care home workers must prove they are double jabbed through the NHS COVID pass but for people who don’t have a GP or NHS number, this will be impossible. Our Advocacy and Campaigns Officer explains here why barriers to healthcare for migrants must be removed (South East London BBC News)

NEON@NEON_UK · : We really need to focus on making sure that health care is accessible to all in this country, especially in the pandemic. It’s just another example of how the government’s immigration policy makes no sense from a public health perspective. @FrancescaHumi on @BBCNews today.

Continue reading “COVID-19 has also laid bare existing fault lines within society and has exacerbated inequalities.”

Cause Célèbre

Updated 10 November 2021: BBC – Asylum seeker inquest: Immigration officers may have had role in death

Immigration officers’ actions could have contributed to the death of an asylum seeker in Newport, an inquest jury has concluded.

Mustafa Dawood, 23, suffered head injuries when he fell from the roof of a car wash while being chased by officers.

[…] The inquest at Gwent Coroner’s Court heard immigration officers had arrived at Albany Trading Estate just after 10:00 GMT on 30 June 2018 following intelligence that foreign nationals were working there illegally.

They chased Mr Dawood, who ran onto the roof of a warehouse, believing he would be arrested.

The officer in charge, Matthew Day, said he called off the pursuit due to concern about Mr Dawood’s safety.

However other officers present that day said they did not remember receiving an order to stop.

While running away, Mr Dawood fell through plastic roofing into a locked room below, where he was eventually found with “severe and fatal” head wounds.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59179411

History repeated, “Death of Joy Gardner” (Wikipedia), a 40-year-old Jamaican mature student living in London, England, United Kingdom. Gardner died after being detained during a police immigration raid on her home in Crouch End, when she was restrained with handcuffs and leather straps and gagged with a 13-foot length of adhesive tape wrapped around her head. Unable to breathe, she collapsed and suffered brain damage due to asphyxia. She was placed on life support but died following a cardiac arrest four days later. In 1995, three of the police officers involved stood trial for Gardner’s manslaughter, but were acquitted.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Joy_Gardner

Motion for use by Trade Union bodies

This motion for use by Status Now Supporters has been produced by the reference group as a short motion to go, suitably amended, to trade union bodies, including national and regional conferences. We do need to get more trade union support in order to deliver on our core demand Status Now For All – indefinite leave to remain.

‘Conference condemns the continued political and physical attacks on refugees, asylum seekers and others without their status in the UK. Conference accepts that many people, even with the right to work, are often in precarious situations due to their immigration status. Conference reaffirms the right of all workers to employment which is safe and secure. To this end Conference supports the call made by a number of migrant bodies, anti-racist, poverty eradication groups and others that all undocumented and precarious people residing in the UK should be granted indefinite leave to remain.’

Status Now leaflet: On COP 26

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6 November 2021: Status Now leaflet: On COP 26

Solutions to this global crisis must move beyond man-made political borders.

The climate and biodiversity catastrophe that continues to compel the movements of people across these borders around the world can only stop when, in their turn, the UK Government and other Western states become compelled to abandon the drive for profit which underpins their wars and their immigration and public health policies. 

The Status Now Network (SNN) is comprised of people who, being without secure status, are among the most vulnerable, marginalised, and disempowered in our society, alongside indigenous people.  It includes many who have been forced, directly or indirectly, to flee to the Global North because of the ecological impact of climate change and bio-diversity destruction in their homelands. 

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Is personal data of those seeking access to NHS services shared with immigration enforcement authorities.

Updated 20 October 2021: The Information Commissioners Office has commented recently about The Data Sharing Code of Practice, which is a statutory code made under section 121 of the Data Protection Act 2018 that was first published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in December 2020 and came into force on 5 October 2021 saying that “data sharing must engender trust in how personal data is used in order to drive innovation, economic growth and the delivery of more efficient and targeted services.

In the ICO’s view, data sharing will be central to the United Kingdom’s recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.”

Status Now notes that the absence of firewall between health and immigration data and the Government’s drive to implement its ‘status checking’ project undermines any potential for engendering trust.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-sharing-information-hub/

Continue reading “Is personal data of those seeking access to NHS services shared with immigration enforcement authorities.”

Event: Coventry on 20 October 2021: Oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill: No to hostile environment

Event in Coventry: Oppose the Nationality and Borders Bill: No to hostile environment Wednesday 20 October 2021, 13:30-14:30 Broadgate, Coventry, CV1 1, United Kingdom: Please join StatusNow signatory organisation CARAG – Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group and other Coventry local groups as we continue to oppose the anti-Refugee Bill. We will also remember Henok.

The Tories planned Nationalities and Borders Bill will make the mere act of seeking asylum illegal, contrary to the UN Convention on Refugees and Human Rights Acts. We say Refugees Welcome Here, No One Is Illegal! Come and join us to show your support for the right to asylum.

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This system is very cruel

11 October 2021: BBC: Are asylum suicides an unfolding national tragedy?

After fleeing his native Eritrea as a child and living for years as a refugee, Henok Zaid Gebrsslasie hoped to make a life for himself in the UK. Aged 23, he was found dead at a mental health facility in Coventry, West Midlands, and is thought to have taken his own life. His death is one of a growing number among young asylum seekers which a charity said could just be the “tip of the iceberg”.

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Border Violence and Private Profit with These Walls Must Fall

Event: On Thursday 14th October 2021 Register Now People & Planet is hosting a free online workshop with These Walls Must Fall about the companies that profit from UK immigration enforcement government contracts, many of which UK universities are also invested in. These Walls Must Fall campaigners will speak from personal experience about private companies’ behaviour in immigration detention, deportations and asylum housing.

The workshop is for students who want to action and start a Divest Borders campaign to get their universities to divest from the border industry – but it’s also open to all.

https://one.peopleandplanet.org/civicrm/event/info

Trade Unions: Organising and Promoting the Rights of Workers who do not have Settled Status

7 October 2021: Trade Unions: Organising and Promoting the Rights of Workers who do not have Settled Status

Why do we call for StatusNow4All?
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.

There are many people working precariously in UK and at real risk of exploitation by unscrupulous ‘employers’, due to not having settled status.
Visas expire and personal circumstances change. Without settled status – Indefinite Leave to Remain – people are very much at the mercy of uncertainty as employees, and of employers. See the StatusNow4All website for a wide variety of posts about why people need settled status, and about the racist and hostile environment that puts them at risk.
• People become undocumented when they do not possess an authorisation to be in the country they are in. Some may have been born here, or lived here for many years (think of Windrush), others may have been trafficked, and most have had authorisation at some point. Their precarious situation may be due to a change in the law that complicates their situation, or an asylum application for international protection that has been refused in this deliberately hostile environment, or their visa is no longer valid so maybe someone whose student visa has finished, or lost their job whilst on a work visa, or suffered domestic abuse whilst on a spousal visa
• They may be domestic workers, care workers, or working in the garment trade, in a carwash, a sweatshop, the local takeaway, nailbars, prostitution, for gangmasters etc. etc.
• There are others who have been given a Deportation Order for what may have been a miscarriage of justice, or a crime in order to survive, and they are living indefinitely without permission to work

Continue reading “Trade Unions: Organising and Promoting the Rights of Workers who do not have Settled Status”

Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ suggestion needs Activation and Expansion

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3 October 2021: The flyer below was distributed outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester by members of Status Now

2 October 2021: Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ suggestion needs Activation and Expansion

The Justice Secretary’s ‘open-mind’ about allowing asylum seekers to work while their claims are being processed needs activation and expansion. Dominic Raab, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, reportedly said that allowing asylum seekers to work would assist with integration and contribute to resolving the country’s labour shortages. His remarks are supported by some senior Tories which may indicate a growing recognition that the current law, banning people who seek asylum from being contracted in paid work while they wait for a Home Office decision, is morally and practically wrong. It is irrational that we have tens of thousands of residents in this country who can contribute to alleviating the current labour crisis but are denied the right to work and forced into years of unemployment and poverty while employers are desperate to fill job vacancies.

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We call for an inquest into Harvey Wittika’s death

Updated 1 October 2021: Glasgow Live: Calls for inquiry into death of migrant who fell from Glasgow flat block

Harvey Wittika had been living and working in the UK for more than a decade before his status was revoked – he died alone in Glasgow just months later.

An organisation campaigning for the rights of migrants has called for an inquiry into the death of a man in Glasgow.

Harvey Wittika died after falling from the second floor of his flat building in Glasgow on August 6.

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Racial Justice and Migrant Rights

27 September 2021: Here is the Motion submitted by Sevenoaks Constituency Labour Party [CLP] to the Labour Party Conference taking place right now. The Motion did not make it onto the list for discussion because there were other issues that people prioritised. It is however heartening to see that our concern is shared in that forum and we encourage Party members to use the motion in their own CLPs, Trades Unions etc for discussion:

The Motion reads: Racial Justice and Migrant Rights

This CLP notes:

  • Structural racism exists.

This CLP believes:

  • The Labour Party must seek to dismantle structural racism and campaign for racial justice in the UK and around the world.
  • The more unequal a society, the greater the reliance on a carceral system.
  • Successive governments have exploited the labour of migrants while failing to acknowledge the contribution of migration to our economy, culture, and society.

This CLP resolves that the Labour Party must:

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