Migrant Voice report: Heroes, Threats & Victims

Migrant Voice

16 December 2020: Migrant Voice: As part of our International Migrants Day celebrations, we’re launching the first major report to analyse UK media coverage of migration during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read the report here. https://www.migrantvoice.org/img/upload/Migrant_Voice_Media_Monitoring_Report-December_2020.pdf

For this report, we analysed almost 900 news stories across nine of the UK’s most popular media outlets to answer these questions: Did we really see a shift to positive coverage of migrants, or just those working in the NHS? Which news outlets were best at including migrant voices in their Covid-19 coverage? Were migrants presented as heroes, threats or victims during this unprecedented time?

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High Court finally calls time on asylum accommodation delays

15 December 2020: Freemovement

Everyone who works with asylum seekers knows that the Home Office system for providing accommodation is not fit for purpose. In R (DMA and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3416 (Admin) the High Court has finally and emphatically recognised this. The judgment will surely have significant ramifications for how the Home Secretary discharges her duty to accommodate destitute asylum seekers.

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Revealed: shocking death toll of asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation

15 December 2020 Guardian: FoI response shows 29 people died – five times as many as lost their lives in perilous Channel crossings

Twenty-nine asylum seekers have died in Home Office accommodation so far this year – five times as many as those who have lost their lives on perilous Channel small boat crossings over the same period.

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Leicester – immigration rules – rough sleepers

11 December 2020 Leicester City Mayor@CityMayorLeic· #Leicester will not collaborate with the Government’s change to immigration rules for rough sleepers. It is unfair, discriminatory and morally wrong to deport someone simply falling on hard times and losing their home.

Danny Myers@dannytmyers·Joining @SadiqKhan and other city leaders, we in #Leicester are kicking back against this cruel policy targeting rough sleepers. @CityMayorLeic & @Leicester_News will not betray our city’s humanity and compassion.

London authorities refuse to cooperate in targeting of rough sleeping migrants

4 December 2020: Freemovement: London authorities refuse to cooperate in targeting of rough sleeping migrants

This week Immigration Rule changes targeting rough sleeping migrants came into force. The Home Office has confirmed that the new Rules will not be enforced until official guidance is published, but the changes have been met with defiance across the board. 

In particular, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has stated that it will not cooperate with the Home Office on this issue:

rather than supporting people to come off the streets, these new rules will punish rough sleepers simply for not having a home. Therefore, the GLA and its commissioned services will not collaborate with such draconian measures.

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Greater Manchester leaders “will not be complicit” in asylum seeker evictions

9 December 2020: Labour List: Greater Manchester leaders “will not be complicit” in asylum seeker evictions

Greater Manchester mayoral and local authority leaders have released a joint statement today pledging that they “will not be complicit” in the Home Office policy of enforcing asylum seeker evictions amid winter and Covid.

Andy Burnham, deputy mayors Bev Hughes and Richard Leese, and nine council leaders have written to Priti Patel to express “profound concern” over those asylum seekers who receive a negative decision soon being evicted.

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AVID: 60+ organisations join our call to close the barracks and engage with civil society

8 December 2020: AVID: Today, we sent a letter to the Immigration Minister and Shadow Home Secretary highlighting the risks of housing vulnerable asylum-seekers in crowded barracks where social distancing is impossible, and urging them to implement community-based alternatives, to avoid further harm. Our letters were co-signed by more than 60 community organisations working with people in detention or seeking asylum.

Read the letter to the Immigration Minister Chris Philp MP

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Human Rights, and Status Now for All

The 7th annual Leicester Human Rights Arts and Film Festival presents Human Rights, and Status Now for All on Thursday, 10 December 2020, 4.00pm – 6.00pm (London GMT)

The Leicester Human Rights Arts and Film Festival invites you to Human Rights, and Status Now for All.

The event marks International Human Rights Day which is observed around the world on December 10, annually. The event will appeal to people interested in community relations, migration, law and politics and those who are interested in how we build better during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Attendees will hear from a number of organisations that are part of the Status Now Network who will talk about why Britain and Ireland must give settled status or indefinite leave to remain to all who are in the UK who need such leave as well as how people in the UK and beyond can support this call.

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UK races to deport asylum seekers ahead of Brexit

6 December 2020: Guardian: UK races to deport asylum seekers ahead of Brexit

From January Britain can no longer return them to the EU, but the rush for the deadline may be denying them a proper screening

Scores of vulnerable asylum seekers, including suspected victims of trafficking, are scheduled to be deported this week as the home secretary Priti Patel ramps up removal operations ahead of Brexit.

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“The Radicalization of a Woman Without a Paper: Status Now For All”, a guest lecture by Rogelio Braga

The Leicester Secular Society annual Human Rights lecture series presents “The Radicalization of a Woman Without a Paper: Status Now For All”, a guest lecture by Rogelio Braga on Sunday, 6 December 2020 6.30pm – 8.30pm (London GMT)

Book your ticket via Eventbrite

The Leicester Secular Society (LSS) invites you to its annual Human Rights Lecture which, this year, will be given by Rogelio Braga, who is based in London and is an exiled human rights activist, playwright and novelist from the Philippines.

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We Belong: Mental Health check

The young migrant folk at We Belong recently published this report that looks at mental health and the precariousness of growing up on LLR:

“We Belong’s Mental Health Check is not an easy read – but it is an essential one. It is a clarion call for change. Our report catalogues the terrible toll that the immigration system in general – and the 10-year Limited Leave to Remain route in particular – is taking on young people’s mental and physical health.

Our country cannot afford to go on like this: too many young lives are being damaged and distorted; too much harm is being inflicted; too much ambition and talent is being hobbled – or even extinguished.

Here, we repeat the call of our 2019 report, ‘Normality is a Luxury: How Limited Leave to Remain is blighting young lives’, for a shorter, more affordable and humane path to citizenship for those of us who are proud to call the UK our home (see page 30-31)”

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Home Office accused of cover-up at camp for asylum seekers

Updated with report in the Guardian 26 November 2020: Medical staff urge Priti Patel to close barracks housing asylum seekers

Exclusive: Letter to home secretary raises concerns about sites holding 600 men in Kent and Pembrokeshire

Healthcare professionals have called for former army barracks being used to house asylum seekers to be closed over concerns about the residents’ wellbeing.

Medical staff have written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, with a damning assessment, to raise concerns about the sites at Napier barracks in Kent and Penally barracks in Pembrokeshire, which between them are holding more than 600 men.

The group, represented by Doctors of the World, a human rights organisation, believe the sites are unsuitable due to the lack of access to adequate and appropriate healthcare services and risks from a lack of compliance with Covid-19 regulations.

They also fear the military environment will trigger further trauma for the men, many of whom will have fled conflict, militia and may have been detained in similar environments in their home countries. [Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/26/medical-staff-urge-priti-patel-to-close-barracks-housing-asylum-seekers


23 November 2020: Guardian: Home Office accused of cover-up at camp for asylum seekers

Official Secrets Act used to prevent volunteers discussing ‘disturbing’ conditions at ex-barracks

Volunteers have been asked to sign confidentiality agreements underpinned by the Official Secrets Act before entering an army barracks used to house asylum seekers, as details emerge of the “disturbing” conditions on the site.

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