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SERCO attempting to evict Refugee People during Lockdown

22nd November 2020 Press Release:

SERCO attempting to evict Refugee People during Lockdown

“… evicting people onto the street does nothing,

apart from create more illnesses, more miseries and more risks of death. 

It has to stop.” 

Shade Alonge, for DeButterfly CIC and Mama Health and Poverty Partnership,

Greater Manchester

On 19th November, two members of the human rights organisation RAPAR, both of whom live in the city of Manchester, both of whom fled from persecution in their home countries and both of whom have been awarded Refugee Status, received letters from SERCO telling them that they are to be evicted from their homes on 29th November and 17th December respectively.

The private company SERCO, whose Chief Executive Officer is Rupert Soames the brother of ex-MP for the Conservative Party, Sir Nicholas[1], is contracted by the Home Office to accommodate people seeking asylum in the North West.  Under non-COVID conditions, there are two points in time at which SERCO are entitled, legally, to tell Refugee People that they intend to evict them from their homes: 

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‘We are only as safe as the most vulnerable in our society’

19 November 2020: During this pandemic, the government has handed out £18 billion to private companies, many of which had little or no experience in public health and whose only qualification seem to be a close personal relationship with a member of the government. This is a government that is frivolous when it comes to handing public money out to Tory donors or private companies, but penny pinching when it comes to bailing out communities across the country.

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Asylum seekers forced to travel miles to sign on with Home Office during lockdown

Independent: 17 November 2020: Exclusive: Lawyers prepare to challenge ‘reckless’ decision to continue in-person immigration reporting

Asylum seekers and trafficking victims are being forced to travel miles on public transport despite lockdown restrictions because the Home Office has said they must continue to report to officials in person.

People who are awaiting a decision on their application to remain in the UK – including modern slavery victims and torture survivors – are required to regularly sign on at a Home Office reporting location.  

This requirement was temporarily suspended in March because of the pandemic, but in August and September the Home Office sent texts to people stating that they must start reporting in person again “due to the easing of Covid lockdown measures”.

Since 5 November, when the government announced a second lockdown – telling people to “stay at home” where possible – migrants with reporting conditions have been informed that they must continue to sign on with the Home Office in person.

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Leicester City Mayor and Council are now signatories

Cllr Danny Myers, Assistant City Mayor – Policy & Communications of has confirmed today that Leicester City Mayor and Council has joined the growing list of Signatories to this campaign for Status Now 4 All.

You will see on this website that Peter Soulsby, the City Mayor, and the Mayoral Team have expressed their support for what needs to be achieved:

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More chaos and human rights violations

2 November 2020 Guardian: Lone child migrants cannot be put in adult hotels, high court rules

More under-18s seeking asylum likely to be affected by ruling against Hillingdon council

The high court has ruled that unaccompanied child migrants cannot be placed in adult hotel accommodation after three young asylum seekers won the right to be placed in the care of social services in the first case of its kind.

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Undocumented women are stuck in domestic violent relationships because mainstream support is not available to them.

Please watch.

In our open letter of 27 March to the Prime Minister in which we are asking the Government to give Leave to Remain to everyone so they can access support just like everyone else, we write:

 “People who are destitute and/or undocumented and living in the shadows fear what will happen to them if they identify themselves, cannot access healthcare, emergency shelter and food, nor report or seek protection from domestic violence, rape, exploitation and other abuses – levels of which are already rising.”

Continue reading “Undocumented women are stuck in domestic violent relationships because mainstream support is not available to them.”
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Undocumented Migrants and Human Rights – Solidarity Knows No Borders

This is the recording of Regularise’s live webinar – Undocumented Migrants and Human Rights – Solidarity Knows No Borders – which was held on Saturday 10th October from 4pm to 5:30pm. https://regularise.org/blog/update-from-october-10th-webinar-undocumented-migrants-and-human-rights-solidarity-knows-no-borders/

This was part of the Solidarity Knows No Borders : Action Against the Hostile Environment weekend of action coordinated by Migrants Organise, with the Monday commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Jimmy Mubenga who died after being restrained by G4S security guards onboard a charter flight to forcibly remove him from the UK.

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SNN statement: Open safe pathways to UK, prevent more deaths in the sea

27 October 2020: Once again, people travelling in desperation have died in the Channel trying to find a safe place to live because there is no legal way to come here, while members of the UK Government talk of creating wave machines, and employing people to send the boats back, and make no secret of the crass, racist, hostile and heartless policies that they have put in place.

Why people are left to die in this way?

SNN member organisation RAPAR delivered a letter to the UK Government in 2015 on behalf of leaders in the Calais ‘Jungle’, offering the chance to listen to the people directly affected if they really wanted to do something humane, and that offer is still on the table. The Government had this opportunity five years ago and did not take it – how many lives have been lost in the interim? Read the report here: http://www.salfordnow.co.uk/2016/04/28/manchester-letter-calais-jungle/

It is outrageous, and terribly sad that we as a relatively comfortable country think it OK to treat others this way.

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Open safe pathways to UK, prevent more deaths in the sea

27 October 2020: Once again, people travelling in desperation have died in the Channel trying to find a safe place to live because there is no legal way to come here, while members of the UK Government talk of creating wave machines, and employing people to send the boats back, and make no secret of the crass, racist, hostile and heartless policies that they have put in place.

Why people are left to die in this way?

SNN member organisation RAPAR delivered a letter to the UK Government in 2015 on behalf of leaders in the Calais ‘Jungle’, offering the chance to listen to the people directly affected if they really wanted to do something humane, and that offer is still on the table. The Government had this opportunity five years ago and did not take it – how many lives have been lost in the interim? Read the report here: http://www.salfordnow.co.uk/2016/04/28/manchester-letter-calais-jungle/

Continue reading “Open safe pathways to UK, prevent more deaths in the sea”
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Today marks one year since 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry in Essex.

Our signatory organisation ‘diakon’ writes: Today marks one year since 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry in Essex.

Join us in a show of remembrance and solidarity: post a photo with the words ‘#RemembertheEssex39‘ and tag @remember.resist (Instagram) / @remember_resist (Twitter)

📖 Read the “Remember the Dead: Justice for the Living” zine featuring writings that attempt to recentre a structural analysis to understand the broader conditions that led to the deaths of the Essex 39 https://issuu.com/daikonzine/docs/essex_39_zine

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Risk Assessing Hotels And Barracks Housing Displaced People In The UK

Updated 23.10.2020 with BBC report, below.

20 October 2020: Risk assessing hotels and barracks housing displaced people in the UK: Statement from StatusNow4All

We note that the role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration is to help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of the Home Office’s border and immigration functions through unfettered, impartial and evidence-based inspection.   

We note, in contrast, that the Home Office is attempting to side step this transparent system by hiring  a private risk management company, Human Applications (https://ergonomics.org.uk/humanapplications)  to provide a ‘rapid review of initial accommodation for single adult asylum seekers, including hotels and former military barracks, and provide assurance of compliance with public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of Covid 19.’   Hastily arranged with minimal, non-transparent and selective third sector involvement, the Home Office have stated that they do not intend to make this report public.  

Living conditions have the potential to compromise the physical and psychological health of people.  Those displaced people currently accommodated by the Home Office in hotels and barracks around the UK are not being offered thorough assessment, especially in relation to the safeguarding concerns that arise from the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Home Office is failing to demonstrate either an appropriate duty of care, or any transparent process.   Similarly, the meaningful exercise of duty of care cannot be realised until there is a comprehensive test- track- trace and quarantine system that enables EVERYONE to participate, with confidence, throughout the UK. 

Alongside our call for StatusNow4All https://statusnow4all.org/about-status-now/ to enable everyone to share equal access to healthcare, housing and food, we call for the  Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration  to conduct an immediate and independent inspection that ‘provides assurance of compliance with public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of Covid 19’.

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Risk assessing hotels and barracks housing displaced people in the UK

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20 October 2020: Risk assessing hotels and barracks housing displaced people in the UK: Statement from StatusNow4All

We note that the role of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration is to help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of the Home Office’s border and immigration functions through unfettered, impartial and evidence-based inspection.   

We note, in contrast, that the Home Office is attempting to side step this transparent system by hiring  a private risk management company, Human Applications (https://ergonomics.org.uk/humanapplications)  to provide a ‘rapid review of initial accommodation for single adult asylum seekers, including hotels and former military barracks, and provide assurance of compliance with public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of Covid 19.’   Hastily arranged with minimal, non-transparent and selective third sector involvement, the Home Office have stated that they do not intend to make this report public.  

Continue reading “Risk assessing hotels and barracks housing displaced people in the UK”
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Fair Immigration Reform Movement

For your consideration: The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) unites a call for humane immigration and inclusion policies that can truly reflect our society’s democratic values, and that draws on a distinguished history in Britain of standing for the dignity and justice of all.

The Charter emerged as a result of conversations with those who face the sharp end of current policies: with their family and friends, campaigners, politicians, journalists, case workers, volunteers, and many others who support everyone who has been affected by the increasingly brutal immigration policies in Britain.

[Read more: https://firmcharter.org.uk/]

You can sign up to this Charter