Event: A Date for Your Diary
StatusNow4All will soon be 2 years old! Please protect your time on Saturday 26 March 2022, from 2pm to 4.30pm so that we can come together.
Updated 26 March 2022:
Watch the video of the Summt:
Here are four videos made for this Summit:
StatusNow4All Summit 2022
10 years of ‘Hostile Environment’ – focussing on the need for change
The ‘Hostile Environment’ was declared as official government policy in a speech made by Theresa May to UK Parliament in 2012.
Its application over the following period led to a number of scandals which exposed the racism at the heart of the policy, the most infamous being the victimisation of people belonging to the Windrush Generation.
Years of vigorous campaigning have challenged the government at every turn but the Hostile Environment remains intact, with new, oppressive measures being rolled out in the Borders & Nationality Bill currently before Parliament.
At this year’s SNN Summit activists from across the country will come together to consider what needs to be done to inject new vigour into our campaigning, with the objective of building maximum unity across migrant and refugee rights groups and the anti-racist movement to fight and defeat the Hostile Environment!
StatusNow4All is a single issue campaign, and two years on our energy to change the system remain high #healthandsafety4all
Status Now 4 All was launched on 27 March 2020, and on 26 March 2022 we will hold a Summit to mark two years of campaigning as follows:
We call upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in Indefinite Leave to Remain. In this way every human, irrespective of their nationality or citizenship can access healthcare, housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else.
Learn more about Status Now 4 All campaign here https://www.statusnow4all.org
We hope that this Summit will leave us better informed and galvanised into action as we explore the moral dimension to this disgraceful hostile environment, with speakers include people living with precarious status, we hope to hear from a Trades Union, an MP, a researcher into health, also people from Faith communities and Status Now Network signatory organisations.
The draft programme falls into three sections:
Session One: Review of where we have got to in campaigning for status now
Session Two: What is going on at the grassroots level – working together for change
Session Three: Building a movement beyond the fragments, with the PT being highlighted as the main project we will be working on.
We have a very full programme between 2-4.30pm. Nazek Ramadan founder of Migrant Voice will be in the Chair, and whilst the plans are subject to last minute changes, those confirmed up to 14 March 2022 include:
- Campaigners who know personally about living with precarious status, and speakers from StatusNow signatory organisations Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, JCWI – Joint Council for the Welfare of Refugees, and JRS – Jesuit Refugee Service,
- Charlotte Bigland, research assistant at the Public Health Institute
- Zita Holbourne – PCS National Vice President,
- Bishop John Perumbalath – Chair of Churches Refugee Network
- Loraine Masiya Mponela will open our hearts with poetry
- We will hear from MASI – Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland about their campaign that led to a one-off regularisation scheme in Ireland
- and Leah Bassel will introduce plans for the People’s Tribunal
As StatusNow4All moves into its 3rd year of campaigning and looking forward, we hope to be joined by a representative of one of our signatory organisations from Ireland where changes have been made in the right direction, after years of campaigning https://statusnow4all.org/ireland-masi-welcomes-the-decision-by-the-minister-to-offer-once-in-a-generation-amnesty-for-17000-undocumented-migrants/ ;
and we will launch the People’s Tribunal https://statusnow4all.org/how-to-organise-a-peoples-tribunal-and-indict-uk-immigration-policy
StatusNow4All 2 year Summit: 24 March 2022 2-4.30pm by Zoom
Provisional programme – may be subject to change.
| What | Who | When |
| Greetings and welcome from the Chair What is planned for the next two hours | Nazek Ramadan founder of Migrant Voice in the Chair | 2pm |
| Review of where we have got to in campaigning for status now | The Admin Team from Status Now | |
| Session 2: What is going on at the grassroots level – living with precarious status, and highlighting the work of faith communities Faith Ngcobo, Chair of StatusNow Reference Group, and Chair of BARA will introduce this session | ||
| Detention and deportation: taking the message out to protests | Daisy & Moses from “Enabling Nurse Daisy”. This post on our website began when StatusNow began a post on the website for Daisy to share her thoughts at a difficult time. She has used the opportunity with the intention of helping others through being a voice through lived experiences. She and Moses are out most weekends attending demonstrations to try to change the system | |
| Working together to lobby for Change | SNN signatory Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants – JWCI: Mary Atkinson is Campaigns Officer at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, which works to support people going through the immigration system and campaign for a fair, evidence-based system for all. | |
| Survivors of Trafficking | Ana, a member of Kanlungan Filipino Consortium: Ana is a domestic worker from the Philippines. She was trafficked into the UK in 2017 by her ex-employers. She is a member of the Filipino Domestic Workers Association UK and Kanlungan Filipino Consortium. She helps rescue other domestic workers from exploitation. | |
| Supporting those who are vulnerable in our communities | Father Herbert Fadriquela, Chaplain for the Filipino Community, Diocese of Leicester, Church of England | |
| Engaging with relevant research into health-related issues, and how does that create change | Charlotte Bigland Charlotte Bigland is a research assistant at the Public Health Institute and provides support to the Violence and Nightlife team in their work with local, national and international partners. Prior to joining the Institute, Charlotte completed a BSc in Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, and an MSc specialising in Forensic Anthropology also at the University of Liverpool. | |
| Opening hearts through the arts | Loraine Masiya Mponela Loraine is an active member of StatusNow, and Chair of CARAG, and moreover she is a wonderful poet. Please have a look at her website: http://noaudienceloraine.co.uk | |
| Campaigning as a Faith community – what can be done | SNN signatory: Jesuit Refugee Service – Sophie Cartwright is the Senior Policy Officer at the Jesuit Refugee Service UK, where she advocates for a just asylum system. She previously worked with people seeking asylum in Glasgow and has an academic background in theology | |
| How do we engage people within Faith communities to actively engage in working for settled status now for everyone | Bishop John Perumbalath – Bishop of Bradwell and Chair of the Churches’ Refugee Network launched the StatusNow Faith Calling Card a year ago | |
| Engaging to create political change | John McDonnell MP for Hayes and Harlington which takes in Colnbrook and Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centres | |
| Working with the Unions to take the campaign forward | Hector Wesley – NEC representative: Public and Commercial Services Union – PCS | |
| Creating real change in Ireland – what can we learn from the activism that brought this change | SNN signatory MASI – Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland: Bulelani Mfaco Growing up in the apartheid ghetto of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Bulelani Mfaco became involved at an early age in protests for adequate housing & access to land with Abahlali BaseMjondolo, health care in the Khayelitsha Health Forum, and campaigning for improved policing with neighbourhood watches. In 2017 he claimed asylum, seeking protection from violence and targeted killings of LGBT+ people. He is one of the Spokespersons at MASI – the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland where he is campaigning for the right to work for all asylum seekers, and to end Direct Provision. Bulelani is also on the board of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. His interests include human rights, migration, and politics while reading for a PhD in Law at TU Dublin. and Lucky Khambule: an activist and a Co founder of MASi Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland and a campaigner for end direct provision and right to work for asylum Seekers in Ireland | |
| Panel – thoughts | ||
| Short break: 3.25 – 3.35 | ||
| Session 3: Building a movement beyond the fragments | ||
| StatusNow working through the Unions | Tony Conway interviewed by Loraine Masiya Mponela. Tony is a member of PCS Union; the Status Now Reference Group; and Coventry Against Racism | |
| People’s Tribunal – the way forward | Leah Bassel/The Tribunal team | |
| Meet StatusNow’s Network Development Co-ordinator | Anna Marsden: she has worked in the migration field for more than 30 years as a researcher, campaigner and journalist. Anna has worked with many institutions and associations, first in Italy and then in the UK, and participated in several national and international projects and conferences promoting the rights of migrants and refugees. In the UK she has worked with Migrant Voice on important campaigns denouncing the TOEIC scandal with the launch of the campaign “I Want My Future Back” in 2018 and contributing to the present campaign against the extortionate visa fees. | |
| Discussion from the floor | ||
| End at 4.30pm |
Please join us! You can sign up on the Eventbrite link here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/statusnow4all-2022-summit-tickets-255723254137