March 2023

March 30, 2023March 30, 2023

Intervention by the Courts

Updated 30 March 2023: HIGH COURT RULES MIGRANTS’ DATA RIGHTS MUST BEPROTECTED

A High Court judge has agreed with Open Rights Group and the3million that the immigration exemption in the UK Data Protection Act 2018 is incompatible with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It is the second time that ORG and the3million have taken the government to court over the immigration exemption, which allows the Home Office and private companies to refuse requests by individuals for access to personal data held about them on the grounds that it might “prejudice the maintenance of effective immigration control”. This denial can cause life-changing harms by preventing migrants from being able to challenge mistakes in the data that is held about them, and therefore being unable to effectively challenge immigration decisions. For example, an asylum-seeker who has been refused by the Home Office needs access to their personal data to effectively lodge an appeal. Application of the immigration exemption, and the withdrawal of that access, could result in genuine asylum-seekers being deported back to countries where they face a real risk of persecution and serious harm.

March 29, 2023July 1, 2023

Article 39 seeks legal protection for highly vulnerable children housed in Home Office hotels

Letter to the Joint Committee on Human Rights that QARN has signed

Rt Hon Joanna Cherry KC MP
Chair
Joint Committee on Human Rights
Houses of Parliament
London
SW1A 0AA
By email: jchr@parliament.uk and joanna.cherry.mp@parliament.uk
CC: All Members of the Joint Committee on Human Rights
3 March 2023

Dear Ms Cherry KC
URGENT Inquiry needed in relation to the use of hotel accommodation for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children

We write in relation to a matter of pressing national concern — namely, the Home Office accommodating thousands of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotel and B&B type accommodation for a period of 19 months, during which time hundreds of children have gone missing.

Our view is that there is no legal basis for the Home Office to accommodate children in this way. The effect of this action has been to systematically exclude from the protection of the Children Act 1989 and associated secondary legislation and guidance a cohort of highly vulnerable children, on the basis of where they were born and how they entered a local authority area. They are now treated as being outside the usual established standards for providing suitable accommodation, care, and support to children in need.

We consider that these Home Office arrangements breach the human rights of children in multiple ways, both under domestic and international law. This includes their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

March 25, 2023April 4, 2023

ICIBI annual report for 2021-22 published

22 March 2023: Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration: The Chief Inspector’s annual report for the business year 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 has been laid in Parliament.

Publishing his annual report, David Neal said:

Commenting on the publication of his annual report for 2021-22, David Neal said:

The UK Borders Act 2007 requires the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration to make a report to the Home Secretary each year on the performance of immigration, asylum, nationality, and customs functions. This annual report provides a valuable opportunity for me to reflect on the findings of my inspections and to draw out wider themes and issues.

In my annual report for 2021-22, I highlighted three areas of particular concern. First, I comment on the need for the Home Office to develop greater resilience in the face of ‘crisis’ so that the extent to which unforeseen challenges disrupt the department’s routine operations is minimised. Secondly, I note that several of my inspections pointed to a need for the Home Office to adopt a greater focus on vulnerability, particularly when its safeguarding responsibilities are in tension with its immigration control objectives. Finally, I point to the perennial problem of the poor quality of the data on which the Home Office relies to carry out its borders and immigration functions, an issue that arises in almost every ICIBI inspection.
Continue reading “ICIBI annual report for 2021-22 published”

March 23, 2023March 25, 2023

QCEA Storytelling

22 March 2023: The Quaker Council for European Affairs is pleased to release a new publication ‘Storytelling from the Frontlines: Forefronting the voices of communities most affected by militarism and the climate crisis‘

Storytelling has been a crucial vehicle to build common narratives, understanding and mutual trust between and within communities throughout the centuries. Stories have the potential to create new meaning, stimulate empathy, build nuanced perspectives by countering misconceptions, and catalyse people’s dreams and aspirations towards concrete community action. Yet despite its potential and documented added-value in the context of peacebuilding efforts, its application in the context of social transformation processes and policymaking remains limited.

QCEA’s new publication brings a selection of stories from communities in disparate locations of the world who are united by the connecting thread of militarism and the climate crisis. Through storytellers’ eyes, we see how militarisation and securitised responses negatively impact the natural environment that communities depend on to survive and thrive, as well as how militarisation hinders local efforts to tackle climate and environmental issues at the community level.

The publication is accompanied by a series of audiograms, which you can find in our dedicated website.

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023

QCEA launches the report “Storytelling from the Frontlines”

Quaker Council for European Affairs: Storytelling from the Frontlines

Today, on 10 March 2023, QCEA published its latest report ‘Storytelling from the Frontlines: Forefronting the voices of communities most affected by militarism and the climate crisis’.

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023

StatusNow4All Newsletter March 2023

Welcome to this edition of SNN newsletter where we are covering a number of items that will be of interest to everyone involved in migrant and refugee solidarity work.

The first article comments Sunak’s ‘stop small boats’ plan with the ‘illegal migration bill’.

The second highlights how the government’s aim is not to ‘stop the small boats’, but to stop people asking for refugee status in the UK and invite the workers’ and antiracist movements to further mobilize together against the government’s cruel antirefugee policy.

Our third article reports the result of a recent research that shows how the 10-year route is a ‘punishing process’ that reduces immigrants in misery.

Children and the hostile environment is the topic of our fourth article that invite to a webinar organized by our signatory Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment.

Finally, we publish a call from our signatory Migrant Voice to contribute to their forthcoming report on the conditions of asylum seekers in London hotels.

https://statusnow4all.org/statusnow4all-newsletter-march-2023/

March 10, 2023March 10, 2023

Response to the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ – March 2023

10 March 2023: [QARN has signed this statement] JPTI: Church Leaders from JPIT’s denominations have signed a joint statement expressing opposition to the government’s new ‘Illegal Migration Bill’:

We are appalled by the proposals in the government’s ‘Illegal Migration Bill’ to detain, punish and reject thousands of people seeking safety. They are completely incompatible with our Christian conviction that all human beings are made in the image of God, and are therefore inherently worthy of treatment which honours their dignity. Instead of dignity, these plans will foster discrimination and distrust, and cause immeasurable harm to people already made vulnerable by conflict and persecution. If ever there was a contemporary example of ignoring our neighbour and walking by on the other side, this is it.

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023

‘A punishing process’: Experiences of people on the 10-year route to settlement

2 March 2023: Guardian: Half of people trying to get permanent UK residency by 10-year route struggle to afford food

Effects of ‘devastating and punishing’ Home Office system introduced in 2012 now being felt, experts say

More than half the people trying to secure permanent residency in the UK through the Home Office’s “devastating and punishing” 10-year route struggle to afford food and pay bills, a survey has indicated.

The 10-year route to settling permanently in the UK was one of a series of deliberately tough measures introduced in 2012 by Theresa May when she was home secretary, as part of drive to cut net migration. Researchers say the full effects of the policy are only now starting to be felt.

March 6, 2023September 18, 2023

Trade unions unite in solidarity with refugees

The Fire Brigades Union is proud to have coordinated the following statement, which was passed as a resolution at our Executive Council last week:

In recent weeks, we have seen an alarming rise in violence and intimidation organised by the far right against refugees and refugee accommodation.

The government is complicit in these attacks. The Rwanda policy does not make sense as a means of stopping small boat crossings – and it is failing on its own terms – but it fits with a long-running campaign of rhetoric and demonisation.

Anti-migrant politics are an attempt to divide working class people against each other. In the past decade, the UK has suffered a crisis of living standards – with wages falling and public services left to rot. The people to blame for this are politicians, billionaires and big corporations, not migrant workers or refugees forced to live in temporary accommodation. The anti-refugee campaign offers no solutions to the real problems faced by the deprived communities they are often targeting. The answer is solidarity, not scapegoating.

As trade unionists, we know whose side we are on when we see far right mobs attacking refugees and politicians playing the mood music. We send our solidarity to Care4Calais and all groups fighting for refugee rights, and we support the call for safe and legal routes into the UK. We call on workers and trade union members to show their solidarity and to mobilise against the far right.

Signed

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023

REPORT: EXPERIENCES ON THE 10-YEAR ROUTE TO SETTLEMENT

2nd March 2023 Praxis: REPORT: EXPERIENCES ON THE 10-YEAR ROUTE TO SETTLEMENT

Around 170,000 people are estimated to be on a ‘10-year route to settlement’ – a way for some people with strong ties to the UK to be able to stay here permanently. On this route, individuals face a number of challenges – length of time before being eligible to stay permanently, the high cost of visa fees (around £13,000 over the 10-year period for one adult), the requirement for repeat applications every 2-and-a-half-years, complex applications with few options for legal advice, and restrictions in accessing welfare through the default ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition.

In new research conducted by Praxis and partners the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), we take stock of the impacts of the 10-year route to settlement on people’s lives. Our findings are drawn from a survey of over 300 people who are either on the 10-year route to settlement, or have been on the route, as well as in-depth interviews with people on the route.

Our research find a series of potential pitfalls and wrong turns arising from the design of the route that lead to poverty and insecurity for many. This is an immigration route often used by women, parents and caregivers, and people from a Black and South Asian background. Usually, people on the 10-year route are long-term residents – 60 % of those we surveyed had been in the UK for more than a decade. Many are working in low-paid jobs and have severely stretched household finances. The high costs, repeated renewals, complexity and NRPF place considerable pressure on people for a prolonged period of their lives and hold people back from achieving all they could for themselves and their families, their communities and the economy.