Unmasking and Unmaking the Hostile Environment

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022

New Plan for Immigration

We will collate reports of the Nationality & Borders Bill which has come out of the recent ‘New Plan for Immigration’; and reports related to Home Office practice.

When the will is there, it can be done – that is our point:

Updated 27 January 2022:

Updated 27 January 2022: By Don Flynn, who is a member of the StatusNow Reference Group: Labour Hub: Borders and Nationality Bill: Return of the frightmare strategy

[…] The Borders and Nationality bill should properly be seen as a part of a Tory offensive which aims to rebuild the fear of migrants that was previously stoked by stories of low paid workers displacing native Brits in the labour market and taking their place in the queue for hospital appointments and other public services. Forget all you have learnt in the past few months about the heroic healthcare assistant or the farm workers filling supermarket shelves with fresh food products! Remember, they are out there in small boats, just waiting for their chance to come at you … and maybe some of them are claiming to be British citizens as well!

January 16, 2022January 16, 2022

Together with Refugees – show your support

QARN is a signatory to Together With Refugees: please get involved in the Orange Hearts campaign at their your local level.

We would be very happy to display your Quaker hearts on our website – please send them by email to info@qarn.org.uk and include a line which could be included, about which Quaker Meeting they are from.

Updated 16 January 2022: City of Sanctuary: Make this Valentine’s Day count

Make this Valentine’s Day count

July 24, 2021October 16, 2021

QARN next meetings

Next QARN meeting: 22 January 2022

QARN’s quarterly meetings usually run from 11am – 4pm but while we are on Zoom we keep them shorter.

Plans for where and how we hold our Meetings depend on the progress of measures being put in place in relation to Coronavirus. We currently meet using Zoom https://zoom.us/ and Quakers are welcome. We plan to start at 10.30am to manage the technical aspects of a Zoom meeting, falling quiet at around 10.45am, and beginning business at 11am; and we aim to end around 12.30pm. The meeting link will be available to those who receive our emails, but for other people, please contact us via info@qarn.org.uk giving your name, and the Quaker Meeting to which you are attached. Thank you.

Our next planned meeting dates: Saturdays: 22 January 2022 – on Zoom while the pandemic roams. All those interested who are attached to Quaker meetings are welcome – if you are not on our mailing list please email: info:qarn.org.uk for the Zoom link

If you are not already receiving our emails on the QARN network and want to join the network, or just this Meeting, please email info@qarn.org.uk including your name and the Quaker Meeting you are attached to. There is no cost involved.

September 30, 2019January 3, 2022

Epistle from ‘Envisioning a world that is open to all: let us see what love can do’ Conference at Woodbrooke, Birmingham, UK 27-29 September 2019

Ffriends,

From a gathering of 60+ people[i], including Quakers and non-Quakers, people who have experienced the weight of the immigration system, artists, poets, musicians and singers. Continue reading “Epistle from ‘Envisioning a world that is open to all: let us see what love can do’ Conference at Woodbrooke, Birmingham, UK 27-29 September 2019”

May 2, 2018August 6, 2021

QARN Leaflets: Download them here, including ‘Excessive Fees’

We have the following leaflets here: About QARN_Detention_Language_Hostile environment_Removals Deportations_Excessive fees

QARN has put together leaflets that you can download from this page by clicking on the links below. Please feel free to download and print off your own copies. There is also a form below, for ordering printed copies of our leaflets – which are free:

12 April 2020: The newest leaflet from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) supports our campaign about the recent increases to the fees for those seeking refuge in this country. Along with other groups and faith bodies QARN seeks to inspire others to express outrage at this injustice.

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022

Concerns about the use of army barracks etc.

This post is being updated with reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites:

You can write to your MP in support of the #CloseTheBarracks campaign.

This post is being updated with reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites:

Updated 27 January 2022: BBC: Newcastle project finds community better than detention for asylum claims

A pilot project funded by the Home Office has found it is more humane and less expensive to support asylum seekers in the community rather than in detention centres.

Refugee charity, Action Foundation, supported 20 women in a community setting in Newcastle.

It found the women experienced more stability and better health.

Most had previously been detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

In November 2021, a new female-only Immigration Removal Centre opened near Consett in County Durham to house 80 women.

The Derwentside centre has attracted criticism from various campaign groups including Durham People’s Assembly, Abolish Detention and No To Hassockfield, which says the women housed there should be allowed to live in the community.

Agnes Tanoh, a former detainee at Yarl’s Wood and now a campaigner against the Derwentside centre, said: “I think the best way is to put people in the community, to welcome people who are in need, who have fled persecution.”

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022

Intervention by the Courts

Updated 27 January 2022: Guardian: Home Office accused of ‘bullying’ asylum seekers into handing over phones

Judicial review begins in high court accusing government of operating a blanket policy in ‘complete secrecy’

Three asylum seekers brought a case to the high court on Tuesday claiming that the home secretary operated a secret, blanket policy to seize mobile phones from people arriving on small boats and then download the data from them.

The unpublished policy for the handover of the new arrivals’ phones operated between April and November 2020. It is likely to have involved the confiscation of thousands of mobile phones, the court heard.

January 26, 2022January 26, 2022

Home Office ignored Covid advice not to put asylum seekers in barracks

Updated 26 January 2022: Letter through JCWI: We also want to be safe’ – Sign our open letter

Faced with COVID, the Government should have done everything in its power to ensure everyone had support. Everyone needs a way to earn a living, access to the public safety net if they need it, safe accommodation, and access to vaccines and the NHS.

But Hostile Environment policies cut undocumented migrants off from these basic rights. Because they don’t have the right piece of paper in their passport, people without status have been left destitute, homeless, and afraid or unable to get help during the pandemic.

We need accountability, and change. The public inquiry into the Government handling of COVID is getting underway now. We are calling on the Chair to make sure the experiences of all migrants, including those without status, are part of her investigation.

Dear Lady Hallett,

Congratulations on your appointment to chair the public inquiry into COVID-19. We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, write to encourage the inquiry panel to include migration status and laws affecting migrants as a key factor in the inquiry’s investigation.

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022

Churches Refugee Network Advisory Group Bulletin

24 January 2022: Keep informed about developments and activities linked to immigration, asylum and refugee issues, in a British and Irish context, with this new bulletin from the Churches’ Refugee Network’s (CRN) Advisory Group.

This first edition looks at issues around asylum claims and Christian conversion; explores the lived experience of refugees seeking a better life in Refugee Stories; features the website of the other side of hope , a website for groups who support those seeking asylum; outlines how Catholic primary schools in Birmingham show their solidarity with refugees as Schools of Sanctuary; and details new guidance on language support for those seeking to settle in London and surrounding areas.

Extract – from Barbara Forbes, who is also the QARN representative at CRN:

January 24, 2022January 24, 2022

Impact of Covid-19 on migrants

Updated 19 January 2021: JCWI: “We also want to be safe” – undocumented migrants facing COVID in a Hostile Environment

Executive Summary

This report explores undocumented migrants’ experiences of the COVID pandemic. It focuses on financial security, work, housing and access to healthcare, and highlights how in all these areas, the Government’s Hostile Environment policies have exacerbated the effects of the COVID crisis for undocumented people.

Download the report

Take action to make sure the COVID inquiry includes migrants

You can sign the JCWI letter: ‘We also want to be safe’ – Sign our open letter

Scroll down to add your name to our open letter today, to be part of the movement calling for change.

Read more and sign here: https://www.jcwi.org.uk/migrants-covid-inquiry

January 22, 2022January 22, 2022

Changing the Conversation on Asylum

Freedom From Torture: Changing the Conversation on Asylum: A Messaging Guide

Freedom from Torture is proud to launch ‘Changing the Conversation on Asylum: A Messaging Guide’, a new report based on research into the most persuasive narratives around refugee rights in the UK.

This messaging guide is a tool to help the refugee and migrant advocacy sector to think tactically, play to our strengths and win.

In this new guide, we take a look at the methodology and messages that can help us carve out a new approach that will be successful in persuading the public that seeking safety is a fundamental human right.

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

Opening Hearts through Arts

Updated 21 January 2022: ‘Hostile’ documentary film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njxBduqZeyA

and https://www.hostiledocumentary.com/ Sonita Gale is an independent producer and director. Sonita’s heritage is central to her storytelling. As a daughter of migrant parents, elevating the stories of migrants and marginalised communities has been at the forefront of her work.
Sonita has recently completed her directorial debut, Hostile, a feature length documentary exposing the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants living in the UK. Through the impact campaign for the film, Sonita hopes to influence change in immigration policies.

January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

Channel Crossings

That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right

Updated 19 January 2022: Hansard: Migrant Crossings: Role of the Military : debated on Tuesday 18 January 2022

Here are just a couple of extracts:

“Q: Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD): I welcome what the Minister says about not using sonic weapons—an idea that was described by a Home Office source in the press today as “f***ng bonkers”. When the Home Office is saying that your idea can be classified as that, you have to think you have taken a wrong turn in your planning somewhere. May I press the Minister on the relationship between the Royal Navy and the Marines, on the one hand, and UK Border Force? He tells the House—I welcome the assurance—that the Royal Navy will not be engaged in pushing back boats with refugees in them, but that leaves open the door that the UK Border Force might still do that. In that case, how can he possibly say that operational primacy sits with the Royal Navy?

January 17, 2022January 17, 2022

‘Off-shoring’ people seeking asylum is not a new idea

Floating barriers, wave machines, old ferries, shipping people to far away places … Out of sight, out of mind!

The ‘backlog’ can be dealt with by giving people Leave to Remain now. This post is also uploaded to the http://statusnow4all.org website.

Updated 17 January 2022: City AM: Army to take control as govt plans to order Royal Navy to stop Channel migrants and fly asylum seekers to Rwanda and Ghana

The Prime Minister is planning to slow the flow of migrants into the UK by calling in the army and fly asylum seekers to a number of African countries, including Ghana and Rwanda, to process their applications there.

According to a report in The Times this morning, Boris Johnson plans to give the Royal Navy ‘primacy’ over all government-run and owned vessels in the Channel later this month.

A rear admiral will reportedly be given the powers to oversee the Border Force, coastguard, fisheries protection and customs and excise to carry out surveillance or intercept migrants that attempt to cross the Channel.

See how Governments think it will work! …

Allan Olingo@allanolingo: RWANDA rejects 250,000 Covid-19 vaccines from Denmark over claims the donation was attached to Kigali accepting to host asylum centres for Denmark. The two countries’ officials met in September 2021 but Kigali has since rejected the vaccines and proposal-Danish media reports.” https://mobile.twitter.com/allanolingo/status/1482648556607524865