Status Now newsletter June 2021

The theme of this year’s Refugee Week is ‘We cannot walk alone” which is absolutely right in so many ways. StatusNow4All campaigners welcome new organisations because we are stronger when we work together, and we welcome the amazing energy that individual organisations have for pushing for changes in the way that people who have no settled status are written and talked about..

Status Now Network’s campaign is gaining traction. Organisations continue to join – most recently, we welcome the Scotland contingent representing East and Southeast Asian communities in Scotland.

We are winning: we will render the hostile environment friendly, and we ask you to continue supporting our actions until we achieve our goal: Indefinite Leave to Remain for all undocumented migrants and those in the legal process.

Join StatusNow4All!

On The Spotlight: Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG)
CARAG is a grassroot organisation made up of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants going through the UK asylum and immigration system.

“CARAG signed up for the #StatusNow4All campaign because Hostile Environment is killing our members. We just want the suffering to end NOW,” said CARAG chair Loraine Masiya Mponela.

CARAG and Maokwo (another SNN signatory) made this film for #RefugeeWeek2021.

Catch up with latest episodes of CARAG podcast #StillWeRise here
Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @caragcoventry

Raising voices. We welcome the report of the Resilience Project, a collaboration between three StatusNow4All organisation signatories: Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, Migrant Voice and RAPAR which you can find here and RAPAR with almost 200 people without Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Art during Covid by People who are Undocumented. SNN Member organisation RAPAR has virtually launched its project Cats on the Run (see here). This exhibits artefacts created by 22 undocumented people living in Greater Manchester during lockdown

On The Spotlight: MIgrants at Work

Migrants at Work, one of our signatories, is drawing attention to homegrown home-grown slavery and the plight of migrant workers in the UK. Migrant workers are exploited in the hostile environment as “Immigration law and employment law are intersecting to create and exacerbate vulnerability to labour exploitation, race discrimination, destitution and mental illnesses in the migrants and BAME workers’ communities,” Migrants at Work stated.

Read more on Migrants at Work and their campaigns here.

On the Spotlight: Filipino Domestic Workers Association UK

Filipino Domestic Workers Association UK (FDWA) is a signatory of Status Now 4 All. The organisation is composed of Filipino domestic workers in the UK who campaign and protect fellow domestic workers in the country. Annaliza Guevarra, one of its active members and spoke in several of our online events, was featured at the Guardian this week. Read more about Annaliza and the FDWA here.

Many organisations are experiencing and feel a very deep concern and ongoing frustration about the way people in the asylum system are treated. Read Faith’s story here bout what happened to her and her family during the recent Aspen Card catastrophe.

The campaign on the Aspen card issue stimulated by SNN partner Positive Action in Housing, based in Glasgow, is here and while Scotland is in our frame mind please see this article about Freedom to Crawl a new campaign taking legal action on behalf of mothers and babies.

There was a further challenge to the Home Office decision-making, this time regarding the withholding of data despite Freedom of Information requests. The Courts described there being a ‘profound lack of transparency’ although they are keen for information to be shared with them.

Read the complete story here.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Detention is holding an Inquiry into Quasi-Detention, and submissions were lodged by 5pm on Friday 25 June 2021. They are exploring the past, current, and potential future use of large scale institutional sites for ‘housing’ of varying kinds, including as accommodation for those in the asylum system and as detention facilities, and how this impacts on people who are not covered by the rules that apply to formally-recognized detention facilities. Read more here on APPG on Detention.

The campaign developing against the multi-national Mitie demonstrates how inventive campaigners can be. This article explores the developing resistance against the proposal to build a women’s detention facility in Durham, Hassockfield.

Our blog regarding on the use of army barracks and hotels as ‘contingency housing’ is regularly updated.

Please find our tribute to the residents of Napier camp who spoke out, and those who continue to do so in the face of threats that their cases would be refused or delayed if they did. Read here.

Meet the Status Now 4 All Admin Team

We are a network composed of various grassroots organisations, interest groups, labour unions, and faith groups across the United Kingdom. Last 27th of June, the Admin Team of Status Now 4 All met face-to-face for the first time in Birmingham since the inception of the campaign in March 2020. Observing social distancing through our meeting, we posed for a few seconds to make and share this photo with you

SNN Admin Team members (from L-R): Amy Marsden (RAPAR), Loraine Mponela (CARAG), Rogelio Braga (Kanlungan Filipino Consortium), Rhetta Moran (RAPAR), Faith Ngcobo (BARA). we were also joined on zoom by two other admin team members, Grace Manyika (SARAG and Migration UK) and Sheila Mosley (Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network).

Please have a look at the website and send us your stories if we have missed them. The website is one of our outfacing sources of information, alongside Facebook and Twitter. Amongst other information you will find new and updated posts, our statements and related Early Day Motions, the Faith Calling Card, information for local councils, Trades Unions and political organisations.