Letter sent from the Home Office: Director General’s Office, UK Visas and Immigration and Her Majesty’s Passport Office, date: 15 September 2020
Dear All,
At the Asylum SEG on Friday of last week we committed to keeping you updated on cessations and when these would be resuming for those who have received a negative decision. I am therefore writing to let you know that the Minister for Immigration Compliance and the Courts has written to Local Authority Chief Executives today setting out these will start with immediate effect in England, and in the rest of the United Kingdom following consultation with officials in the Devolved Administrations.
We continue to share detailed data with Local Authorities to assist them in planning and this will continue. Migrant Help stand ready to support with the move-on process for those who will now receive cessation letters and we continue to work closely with them.
Andy Kelly will be writing to the SMPs today and will ask that the local NGOs are copied into any local information relating to restarting of negative cessations.
Thank you again for your continued support.
Yours Sincerely,
Abi Tierney
Director General, HM Passport Office and UK Visas & Immigration
See the letter here:
19.9.2020: Independent Exclusive: ‘Reckless and irresponsible’: Home Office starts evicting asylum seekers despite warning of second wave
Charities and MPs say ‘reckless’ decision to suspend eviction ban for failed asylum seekers is ‘completely out of line’ with wider messaging from central government
Thousands of asylum seekers are at risk of becoming homeless after the Home Office announced it was lifting a ban on asylum evictions “with immediate effect”.
Individuals who have claimed asylum and had their cases refused will begin receiving notices to leave within 21 days from this week.
It comes despite Boris Johnson announcing on Friday that the UK is “now seeing a second wave” of coronavirus and that it was “inevitable” that the pandemic would hit the country again. Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asylum-seekers-evictions-home-office-coronavirus-second-wave-b486062.html
Guardian: Home Office plans to evict thousands of refused asylum seekers
People in England whose cases have been refused will be given 21 days to leave UK, letter states.
[…] In June the Public Interest Law Centre expressed concern about the possible fate of migrants with no recourse to public funds after lockdown.
“A human being’s right to safety, care and shelter should never depend on where they were born or what papers they hold,” a spokesperson for PILC said. […]
[..] Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, said her organisation was aware of an increase in people being placed in immigration detention: “It is a scandal that in pre-Covid times, people caught up in the asylum system had to rely on charity support for their very survival. But to push people – including families – back into homelessness and destitution as we enter a second wave of this pandemic shows a naked disregard for human life at the very highest levels of government.
“Huge numbers of these people will have initial asylum refusals overturned on appeal and others cannot be removed while flights are grounded so this is punitive politicised decision-making at its worst.” […]
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/19/home-office-plans-to-evict-thousands-of-refused-asylum-seekers
You could write to your MP about this