How the UK immigration system hurts people: April 2021
This month’s recap features the Home Office threatening to deport a student who missed lectures while self-isolating, and attempting to deport a witness to a death in immigration detention.
About my monthly recaps
I’m spending 2021 doing a monthly running challenge to fundraise for the Join Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI).
Read my blog post about why I’m fundraising for JCWI
As part of the fundraiser, I will be writing a monthly blog post on:
- how the monthly running challenge went (on my running blog)
- what happened in the world of UK immigration and asylum in the past month (here on Medium)
Past recaps
Now let’s get to April 2021.
Placing asylum seekers in housing where they are at risk of far-right attacks
Discriminating against ethnic minorities through new rule to deport rough sleepers
Continuing to send asylum seekers to unsuitable accommodation in military barracks
Rejecting an EU settlement application from someone who has lived in the UK for 17 years
Removing asylum seekers who haven’t had access to legal representation
Creating a digital-only status system for EU citizens that cannot handle name changes
This tweet tells the story of an EU citizen who changed their name, thought they had sorted this with the EU Settlement Scheme, but ever since, their online status does not work anymore.
Every time they call the Home Office to get this resolved, they say it’s an IT issue. This hasn’t been fixed in 3 months.
If this person applies for a job, it will look like they don’t have permission to work in the UK. This is a major issue.
Making elderly EU citizens in the UK fear deportation
Telling asylum seekers they will stay at Napier Barracks for at least 60 to 90 days
Creating the conditions leading to 7 suicide attempts and 7 incidents of serious self-harm by asylum seekers
Keeping an asylum seeker at Napier Barracks after he attempted suicide
Jeopardising the vaccine roll-out through continuing to uphold the hostile environment
Creating the conditions leading to the most vulnerable asylum seekers being put in harmful and unsafe conditions
Justifying housing asylum seekers in unsafe barracks during a pandemic because they were ‘young and healthy’ men
Threatening an Indian student with deportation for not attending lectures while self-isolating
Attempting to unlawfully deport a witness to the death of a man in an immigration removal centre
Placing asylum seekers in barracks where there was a serious risk of a fire breaking out
Spewing false rhetoric that leads to far-right activists invading hotels housing asylum seekers
Refusing a refugee their £8 weekly allowance until threatened with judicial review
Initially refusing to grant British children UK passports without the consent of their abusive father
Basing years of policy that negatively affected non-EU immigrants on severely inaccurate net migration numbers
In the year ending March 2012, which was when many of the coalition-era restrictions on non-EU migration were being introduced, the old survey based estimates suggested that only 29% of net migration of foreign citizens was from the EU. (That was later revised up to 37%). The new figures revise that up to 68%.
Keeping thousands of people from applying or staying in the UK because of an unlawful fee waiver policy
Refusing the visit visa of a British wrestling champion’s wife
The visit visa was eventually granted, but only after this got media attention.
Stopping recording the number of Windrush victims who have died before receiving compensation
Waiting until public pressure to grant an NHS consultant’s mother permission to stay in the UK
Putting asylum seekers who are pregnant or new mothers in cockroach-infested accommodation
Unlawfully not requiring doctors to report concerns about vulnerable immigration detainees in prison
Putting vulnerable asylum seekers at higher risk of suicide by placing them in immigration detention
Using a discriminatory algorithm to detect sham marriages
Making immigrants fear seeking medical care
Making a pregnant asylum seeker wait over 6 hours to be seen for an interview
Conducting immigration raids with inadequate levels of evidence
Any person is able to pick up the phone, create a false claim, and before you know it an immigration raid has occurred.
This gives great power to racists, as they know they can make calls whenever they feel.
Forcibly removing Vietnamese immigrants who were not given required time to access legal advice
Government rules state that everyone should be given five working days with full access to legal advice prior to being removed to give them an opportunity to verify whether the planned removal is lawful. As Vietnam is one of the top source countries for trafficking into the UK, there are concerns that some of those deported might be victims of trafficking who are entitled to protection here.
Not helping a pregnant asylum seeker in pain who eventually lost her baby
The man at reception kept saying I had to call for help myself, that they couldn’t do it, but I couldn’t talk because I was in too much pain.
He was shouting at me, saying I was bleeding on their chair. I didn’t know what to do and I felt like nobody was listening … I was terrified. The connection I had felt to my baby was so strong, and I felt like it was disappearing.
Leaving asylum seekers without adequate clothing and food
Separating families through cruel spousal visa rules
This is not news, but this article features a lot of heartbreaking quotes about how families have been ripped apart by the spousal visa rules that came into effect in 2012.
Telling separated families they can stay in touch through video calls, even after this pandemic
Unlawfully denying Windrush victims British citizenship for minor criminal records
There’s also a good write-up of this case on Free Movement:
Trying to deport asylum seekers to EU countries but then not getting their permission to do so
Evicting asylum seekers during a pandemic
Housing asylum seekers in unsafe, unsanitary and isolated accommodation
Even MPs are calling for the Home Office to no longer have responsibility for asylum housing.
Denying refugees the family reunions they were promised
Taking so long to decide on a leave to remain application that the applicant is now facing homelessness
Exiling a British citizen for 38 years because he wasn’t allowed to re-enter the UK when his passport expired abroad
This story is the epitome of how the immigration system destroys lives:
Mr Black’s wife, two of his daughters and his whole life were in Britain but, as a result of the enforced distance, his marriage broke down, he lost contact with his loved ones and was unable to attend his mother’s funeral in 2003.
Rejecting a residency application that was incorrectly lodged because the website content around applying was unclear
This needs explaining:
- The GOV.UK site said you could apply for indefinite leave to remain if you’ve been ‘living in the UK for five years’ and on the spousal visa route.
- What it should have said is that you need to complete all five years on the spousal visa route before applying.
- Someone applied only 4 years into the route, but who had been living in the UK for 13 years.
- Their application was rejected, and instead they were granted another five-year round of limited leave to remain, mean thousands of more pounds to pay in application and NHS fees.
- Once this story got media attention, the decision was turned around and they were granted indefinite leave to remain under long residence.
Making 500 Windrush victims wait over a year for compensation
Unlawfully denying children of immigrants access to public funds
Moving asylum seekers to new accommodation without telling them where it is
Read the thread.
Making rules so complex it took someone 7 years to get indefinite leave to remain when they should have received it when they arrived
Angry? Disgusted? Ashamed? Then donate
If you are in any way appalled at what you just read happens in a single month in the world of UK immigration, please consider donating to my fundraiser for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
They’re doing the important work to both help those affected by the system, and help end the abuses of the system.
