Over the past few days, it has been difficult to miss the media coverage of the arrival of 14 of the 387 unaccompanied refugee children living in the Calais jungle and identified as having a legal right to join family members in the UK. Amidst expressions of welcome and empathy,… Read More
News
Domestic violence, children and immigration control
Increasingly, ASIRT finds itself working to support women and children with irregular immigration status who have experienced domestic violence and abuse, and who are struggling to access justice, or to escape from their abusive and dangerous family situations. For a minority of women, who are resident in the UK on… Read More
Let them eat laptops
On May 17th, the Government published the Immigration Act 2016. The Act is specifically designed to make life as difficult as possible for people subject to immigration control, further consolidating the ‘hostile environment’ agenda pursued by the Home Secretary since the election of the Coalition Government in 2010. Amongst other… Read More
Policy matters
Way back in July 2014, a migrant family denied recourse to public funds initiated a legal challenge against the London Borough of Newham, which had acknowledged a statutory duty towards the family under section 17 of the Children Act 1989. At that time, Newham was paying this family- consisting of… Read More
‘Cockroaches’. Migrants’ rights and the Midland Legal Walk
By Dave Stamp. As I write this, the polling booths have finally opened for voting following a General Election campaign, in which the subject of immigration has played a central role. With increasing regularity, migrants are portrayed less as human beings with aspirations, hopes and fears, but as a kind… Read More
Health, hysteria and hostile environments
Over the past week, Birmingham’s local press has been commenting on the case of a GP practice manager prosecuted for providing treatment, at a cost, to ‘health tourists’. One of the interesting- and unreported- facts about the case is that the treatment received by the patients in question, who were… Read More
‘Right to rent’ checks
From 1st December 2014, landlords in the ‘pilot’ areas, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall will need to check the immigration status of tenants, sub-tenants and lodgers, entering into new tenancies, who are aged over 18 and pay for their accommodation, to assess whether they have the right to rent… Read More
Every Child Matters…?
By Dave Stamp Over the past few months, as the ‘hostile environment’ agenda has become ever further entrenched, we have become ever more astonished by statutory agencies’ apparently wilfully disregard for the well-being of the children of parents subject to immigration control. We are becoming used to seeing the single… Read More
Against Xenophobia, against private landlords as immigration officers
From December 1st 2014, the Home Office will be ‘piloting’ section 20 of the Immigration Act 2014 in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell. Section 20 is concerns itself with residential tenancies, and says that: ‘A person cannot rent a property or room if s/he does not have the right… Read More
ASIRT and the Birmingham Legal Walk 2014: For Justice, Against Scapegoating, Against Destitution
By Dave Stamp It’s that time of the year, and once again people are getting ready to traipse the streets of Birmingham to raise money to support projects, like ASIRT, seeking justice for people otherwise denied it, a situation which has become ever worse since cuts lo the legal aid… Read More
