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Status Now 4 All backs peaceful demonstrations calling for Leave to Remain for undocumented migrants in UK

18th September 2020 PRESS RELEASE: STATUS NOW 4 ALL BACKS PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS CALLING FOR LEAVE TO REMAIN FOR UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS IN THE UK

A national Day of Action is being held this weekend to call for an end to the Government’s Hostile Environment policy and for Leave to Remain to be given to all undocumented migrants in the UK.

Regularise, one of Status Now Network’s signatories, is organising a peaceful demonstration for the rights of undocumented migrants on Saturday, 19th September. It will be held from 1pm-4pm outside 10 Downing Street to ensure the Prime Minister Boris Johnson hears our call for Status Now.

See https://m.facebook.com/events/2387705671522936? www.regularise.org

Also at 1pm on Saturday September 19th, the human rights charity RAPAR www.rapar.co.uk will be holding a demonstration outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Offices, Manchester M1 4AH.

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Status, Safety and Solidarity event 22 September 2020

[Updated 22.9.2020] Many thanks to everyone who attended or took part in this energising event.

You can watch the Zoom meeting here:

Status, Safety and Solidarity Now 4 All on Tuesday 22nd September with participation from MPs, trade unions, campaigners and those with lived experience, the focus being:

  • Building solidarity and dismantling the false divide between all workers, undocumented workers and the Trade Unions movement. 
  • Valuing the lives and livelihoods of all undocumented migrants and people with insecure status, as migrant rights are human rights.
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YIDA, A REFUGEE CAMP IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC, Zoom event

GREEN KORDOFAN GLOBAL LIVE EVENT ON ZOOM! 21/9/2020
YIDA, A REFUGEE CAMP IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Live on zoom! September 21, 2020 – 7:00pm to 9:00pm (GMT)
Reserve your spot now—space is limited!
To join us contact booking by email: booking.greenkordofan@gmail.com
Never to be forgotten we are honouring all victims of:
War; Terrorism; Religious extremism; Political violence; Police brutality; Ethnic violence; Gender-based violence; Climate and resource conflict; Organised crime; Slavery & human trafficking; Gang violence
This event particular is dedicated to the support of children,women and vulnerable people in Yida camp, South Sudan who have experienced and are still dealing with the aftermath of the above while dealing now with the impact of a global pandemic.

https://www.greenkordofan.com/events

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Mercy Baguma: The Legacy of the UKs Dysfunctional Asylum & Immigration System

Yesterday, Prime Minister Johnson was compelled to respond to the child of Mercy Baguma, and the father of the child, after Mercy was found dead in a flat in Glasgow laying next to her distressed one year old son. Mercy had lost her Leave to Remain status (visa) and job, and was struggling to survive in the middle of a pandemic while she awaited a decision on her asylum application. Though Boris Johnson’s gesture to fast-track the resolution of the father of the child’s asylum case is in kind, it is too late for Mercy who died whilst in limbo and extreme poverty!

By implementing the proposal for the regularisation of undocumented migrants that he commissioned as Mayor of London more than a decade ago, this Prime Minister could prevent unecessary and sustained suffering for many, made worse by this pandemic. The UK government successfully ran a programme to resolve a backlog of 450,000 asylum cases (later extended to other people with insecure status) between 2007 to 2011, so why not take action now, in this time of crisis, to secure StatusNow4All?

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2009: Economic impact on the London and UK economy of an earned regularisation of irregular migrants to the UK

  1. [Extract]The costs in terms of public services are relatively low, mainly because access to most services does not depend on regularity per se, but on whether or not migrants are ‘subject to immigration control’. Thus the immediate impact on public services is much lower than many commentators might expect. The major long-term costs relate to welfare benefits, including child benefit, social security and housing benefit.
    Some countries limit migrants’ access to such benefits — and indeed this government intends to do so for legal migrants until they receive indefinite leave to
    remain or citizenship.
  2. Making a regularisation scheme work effectively in social and economic terms would require careful design, involving a progressive programme (integrated with a version of the current ‘paths to citizenship’ proposal) and complementary policies to address equal opportunities issues and parts of the informal economy which have exploited irregular labour.
  3. The issue of irregular migrants and how to deal with them has been difficult to research because official agencies have little information and few data about the question – and a lack of clarity about the position of irregular migrants, in part because immigration is a topic of controversy. However, the fact that immigration is ‘difficult’ politically does not mean there cannot be debate, followed by improvements to public policy. This report provides some evidence as a contribution to such a debate.

https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/irregular-migrants-report.pdf

2009-Boris-Johnson-irregular-migrants-reportDownload
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Kent Refugee Help – Statement and Message of support for the Dover Action

Kent Refugee Help is a signatory to our call for Status Now 4 All. They produced the flyer below in support of the activity by a collection of organisations in Dover demonstrating a welcome for refugees, in the face of planned Britain First action which is designed to generate racist hatred for asylum seekers who are legitimately seeking sanctuary in UK.

The text of the flyer is as follows:

We stand with You, Saturday 5th September, 11 am, Dover Market Square.
We support the Dover peaceful action for Refugees and Migrants on 5th of September.
Kent Refugee help believes in equal rights for everyone.

We stand by people fleeing war, violence and extreme poverty.

Kent Refugee Help is a charity that assists foreign nationals detained in prisons who are liable to deportation.

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Letter for organisations/groups to send to MPs:

We kindly ask all organisations and community action and support groups in the Status Now Network to contact MPs in/around their area to introduce the StatusNow4All campaign highlighting the need for ‘Leave to Remain’ status to be granted to all undocumented migrants and all migrants with insecure status who are currently in the UK. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are keen to initiate dialogue with as many MPs as possible on this urgent matter, so please send a letter or email to MPs you feel may support our campaign and follow up on any contact. Please refer to the template letters below and amend where necessary.

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Status, Safety and Solidarity Now For All

A practical statement from Status Now Network

The Status Now Network welcomes all demonstrations in solidarity with migrants and people seeking asylum currently living in hotels or elsewhere,and who are being targeted by fascist, racist and anti-migrant groups. It is vital to act and organise in solidarity with migrants and people seeking asylum in order to expose, effectively challenge and stop the threatening and oppressive behaviours of those that seek to demonise and scapegoat them for everything that is going wrong in the UK today.

The Status Now Network encourages all residents and organisations in the UK to take a twin track approach, where they:

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SNN: We are asking for Status Now

We are asking for Status Now: We believe that the public health is only public if we include the undocumented, mostly people of color, migrants living in the UK. We are not asking for amnesty. Amnesty is only for those who commit a crime, guilty, and was pardoned. We refused to deploy the language of this government criminalizing migration. We are asking for Status Now – Rogelio Braga

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Welcome Refugees, no to Britain First

Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group saying welcome refugees, and no to Britain First

While the Status Now Network – SNN recognises that the swinging cuts to local government and health systems over the last decade have had profound impact on cities, SNN does not subscribe to the idea that people seeking asylum are a drain in the public purse.  There is ample factual evidence about who is making money out of COVID, and it isn’t the people seeking asylum or the working class communities where they are being placed e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/dominic-cummings-allys-pr-firm-hanbury-strategy-given-covid-19-contracts-without-tenders

Read moRE
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Leicester Mayor responds to SNN concerns

2020 August 28: The Elected City Mayor of Leicester, Peter Soulsby has responded to Status Now Network’s approach to him to be aware that people seeking asylum were accosted by Britain First in a hotel in Bromsgrove, whilst in the care of Serco who housed them there. It is Serco’s practice to house people where they can temporarily as their current housing stock is full and under the terms of their contract they must accommodate new asylum seekers, so they are converting office blocks, but also using hotels. We suggested that Leicester Council needs to be aware that this behaviour by Britain First is attracting a lot of far right acclaim, and that it may happen in Leicester itself.

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Coverage of yesterday’s SUTR demonstration

25.8.2020: Express and Star: Pro-migrant demonstrators accuse Government of ‘vilifying’ asylum seekers

Dozens of pro-migrant demonstrators have accused the Government of “dehumanising and vilifying” asylum seekers at a protest outside the Home Office.

The demonstration on Tuesday evening, organised by campaign group Stand Up To Racism, demanded that the right of safe passage be given to “desperate” migrants making the crossing between England and France.

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PRESS RELEASE: The Status Now Network unconditionally condemns the actions of Members of Britain First

29.8.2020: The Status Now Network unconditionally condemns the actions of Members of Britain First, a British, Fascist  political organisation formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party. Britain First members have filmed people seeking asylum placed in hotels through the Government’s sub-contracted asylum system, and are now using their film, includes inflammatory words and phrases commentary, to ferment their anti-immigration stance.

Through its contract with The AASC providers – Serco, Clearsprings and Mears Group the Home Office has an inescapable duty of care towards these people seeking asylum.  The AASC providers  are subcontracting to, for example, Brittania Hotels and Holiday Inn but they retain responsibility for the care of the people in the hotels and they must immediately demonstrate that care.

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Mercy Baguma living in ‘extreme poverty’ found dead next to her malnourished baby boy

From the heart:
How many more people will this Government kill? Mercy Baguma is the latest victim in the growing number of people who have died at the hand of the inhumane and immoral “hostile environment” policy instituted by this Government against refugees and migrants. 

Organisations in the Status Now Network are witnessing every day the desperation and destitution caused by this policy which has been intensified by COVID-19 pandemic.

We are currently supporting hundreds of men, women and children, who have been made impoverished and destitute because of these punitive and draconian immigration policies. These include 15 Filipino women who are pregnant or with young children, who are destitute and impoverished because they have no recourse to public funds and nor are they allowed to  work. Instead they are relying on the support of a small community organisations to survive.

We call for the regularisation of these vulnerable people. 

We hold the Government responsible for Mercy’s death and the destitution and suffering of hundreds of other women like Mercy Baguma who are undocumented in the UK, and their children.  

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