Advocacy Update – 2nd October 2024

Our fortnightly summary of advocacy and campaigning initiatives, new research, government developments and useful resources from across the asylum, refugee and migration sector. Contact us if you’d like to discuss anything in this bulletin.

1. Advocacy and campaigning Initiatives
2. Government and Parliamentary updates
3. Reports and research
4. Resources, events, jobs and training
5. What we’re reading, watching and listening to

1. Advocacy and campaigning Initiatives

Lift the Ban

We have produced fresh resources to help you engage with your new or returning MP on the right to work. Please do get in touch if you’re not already a member of the Lift the Ban coalition and we can share these resources with you. We are holding an online coalition gathering on 21st October 12-1pm to take stock, review our strategy and plan how to keep building momentum with the new Government and secure change. It would be fantastic to see both new and experienced Lift the Ban campaigners there.  You can register for the online gathering here.

Joint briefing Securing Access to Justice: The need for legal aid in immigration

Migrants organise and JCWI have drafted a briefing, which we signed, calling for urgent change to overhaul the legal aid system and ensure that people can access the support they need. This is linked the the Take your MP to Work campaign, you can find how to join that here.

JCWI has also produced a toolkit for people navigating the UK’s immigration system during the current crisis here. There will be an online launch event on 21 October 2024 and you can register here

Letter to the Home Secretary: action to protect LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the UK

Charities, academics and experts have written to the Home Secretary about the need to protect LGBTQI+ people in the UK asylum system. This follows the publication of the Queer SEREDA report by the University of Birmingham supported by Rainbow Migration, shining a light on the issues encountered and how to fix them.

Demonstration against Detention 19th October

Right to Remain/These Walls Must Fall are organising a demonstration at Hassockfield/Derwentside Immigration Detention Centre calling for Hassockfield to close and the end to Detention. All information is here. They are also organising an Online Rally to end Immigration Detention today at 7pm.

2. Government and Parliamentary updates

Labour Party Conference

The Home Secretary was clear and comprehensive in her condemnation of the racist violence over the last few months in her speech. However the broader context for the Home Secretary and Prime Minister was one of reducing migration, with continued framing of immigration threatening jobs for British born people.

Manston

In a worrying development Government have commenced consultation with local residents on their plans to invest heavily in Manston and build a permanent ‘reception centre’.

ICIBI call for evidence – deadline extended

Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) recently launched a call for evidence on Home Office contact management including reporting conditions. They have now extended the deadline to 21st October.

Legal aid rates

The Lord Chancellor has settled the judicial review brought by Duncan Lewis on 10 June 2024, challenging the ongoing failure to increase rates payable for Controlled Work in immigration and asylum. Duncan Lewis withdrew the claim on the basis that the Lord Chancellor committed to commencing consultation on any proposed increase in fees within 8 weeks of her decision in November 2024, and to taking steps towards laying a statutory instrument and implementing any changes in fees with reasonable promptness.

Asylum backlog

The Times have reported on private concessions apparently made by the new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, that it will take the government longer to clear the asylum backlog than they had hoped, with one Whitehall source saying ‘it certainly won’t be cleared in one year’. They have also reported on the length of time some people have been left in limbo, with the asylum queue stretching back almost 17 years for some.

Parliamentary briefings on asylum statistics and e-visas

The House of Commons Library has produced this briefing on the latest asylum statistics; and this briefing on e-visas

3. Reports and research

Windrush: The Home Office have released a previously withheld report on the Windrush scandal and its roots in systemic racism and how this has driven the use of hostile legislation and policies towards people migrating. The report is here: coverage in The Guardian and Mirror.

Remote immigration and asylum advice: what we know and what we need to know

This report by the Public Law Project in partnership with A&M consultancy, Helen Bamber Foundation and Asylum Aid develops an evidence base on current remote immigration advice provision and identifies issues and gaps. Coverage here.

Refugee Education REUK & Refugee Support Network, with UNICEF, have published their report on the continued barriers to education refugee children face in the UK.

Held Back: Poverty of LGBTQI refugees in the UK

This report from Micro Rainbow looks at the lived experience of LGBTQI refugees across three themes: safe housing and living; social integration and moving on.

International Students: A hostile office report

Migrants’ Rights Network have launched a new report on International Students, which explores the commodification of international students, as well as the barriers they face regarding lack of financial and wellbeing support, surveillance and restrictive immigration checks, visa worries, as well as problematic recruitment practises.

4. Resources, events, jobs and training

E-Visa transition guides

Right to Remain have published a key guide on how to support someone with the transition to E-Visas. An immigration solicitor at Edgewater Legal has created a 15-minute step-by-step guide on how to set up the eVisa including how to use the ID app. Find the video guide here.

New information about human rights cases based on medical grounds

Right to Remain have published a new blog on human rights cases based on medical grounds that you can find here.

Resources on how to Challenge Reporting Conditions

Migrants Organise have updated resources on how to challenge reporting restrictions. There is a guide for advisers and caseworkers plus a flyer and checklist.

Jobs

• Rainbow Migration is recruiting a Communications and Campaigns Assistant. Deadline 1st November
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation is recruiting a Migrant Power Project Lead for the Civic Power Fund. Deadline 28th October
• New Citizens Gateway are recruiting a Refugee Advisor. Deadline 28th October
• The Hummingbird Project are recruiting 2x Support Workers. Deadline 21st October
• Breaking Barriers are recruiting for a Communications and Engagement Officer and a Senior Comms Manager
• The Civic Power Fund are looking for a Migrant Power Project Lead, deadline 28 October
• Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit are looking for a communications officer, deadline 28 October
• Leicester City of Sanctuary is looking for a Chief Officer

5. What we’re reading, watching and listening to

• This piece where Kinan of Life Seekers Aid gives views on their work in East London, current policy and his experience of ex military barracks in the UK

• Virginia Wairimu, a person seeking asylum on the basis of their sexuality has commenced her own independent campaign to secure status so that she can remain in the UK. Virginia has been refused asylum previously, and told she can return and ‘be discrete’. Virginia’s keen to get her story out there and has set up her own campaign on social media: https://www.facebook.com/people/I-am-Virginia-Wairimu/61563747533914/ along with a petition for people to sign.      Birmingham Mail picks up Virginia’s story here
• This piece in Bylines by Maysara Al Khalaf on the experiences of people seeking asylum in the North East.