Editorial: Dear candidate...

Editorials

Editorial: Dear candidate...

The UK will soon have a new government. We want to see one that shares our vision of a society where migrants and refugees have full equality – where they are heard, respected, have rights, and are embraced as equal members of our community – and we need your help on this. We have three specific asks at this election, and we’re writing to prospective parliamentary candidates across the country urging them to support those asks if they are elected: 1. End the injustice faced by thousands of international students…

The UK will soon have a new government. We want to see one that shares our vision of a society where migrants and refugees have full equality – where they…

Editorial: Unsettling

“I know I should apply but can’t bring myself to do it. I’m furious, I have been here for 24 years, have paid my taxes for all those years, have three children who were all born here. This is my home! Why do I need to apply to stay in my own home? I still have hope it might all not go ahead, I guess that’s partly why I’m waiting […] The whole thing makes my blood boil.” These are the words of one person who completed our recent…

“I know I should apply but can’t bring myself to do it. I’m furious, I have been here for 24 years, have paid my taxes for all those years, have…

Editorial: Use your voice this election

“It’s actually designed to isolate you, to bring you down, to make you want to give up and pack your bags and just go… You have to know your rights and without that … you’re headed for downfall.” That’s Diana (not her real name) talking about the UK immigration system in a new book published by writer and researcher Maya Goodfellow. Diana is a member of Migrant Voice – one of many who spoke to Maya during her research for ‘Hostile Environment: How Immigrants Became Scapegoats’, and one of several…

“It’s actually designed to isolate you, to bring you down, to make you want to give up and pack your bags and just go… You have to know your rights…

Editorial: Missing the point

The famed “Australian-style points-based system” is being hailed by some at the top of the Government as the answer to everything (well everything related to work-based immigration anyway). Without any details – which are scarce to non-existent – it’s difficult to judge this potential future immigration policy. However, we are concerned that such a system could wrest power away from employers and employees (surely those best placed to decide who should fill a job vacancy), handing it to a Government that has so far been hostile to all migrants who…

The famed “Australian-style points-based system” is being hailed by some at the top of the Government as the answer to everything (well everything related to work-based immigration anyway). Without any…

Editorial: Justice put on hold

Amidst the current chaos of UK politics, tens of thousands of international students watch in despair as their futures are suspended once again. They are amongst many groups in the UK who are losing out on their fight for justice due to the parliamentary paralysis. Their voices are not being heard, their problems are not being addressed – and this must change. In 2014, nearly 60,000 international students were flung into limbo by the government amid a flurry of unfounded allegations and have been battling for more than five years to…

Amidst the current chaos of UK politics, tens of thousands of international students watch in despair as their futures are suspended once again. They are amongst many groups in the UK…

Editorial: A policy of chaos

The announcement from the Home Office this week that freedom of movement will end on 31 October in the case of a no-deal Brexit is both callous and potentially catastrophic and the government must immediately and loudly withdraw this policy, even if it turns out that the announcement was no more than a particularly crude negotiating tactic. In the last three years, the government has shown time and time again that it is prepared to toy with the lives and livelihoods of more than three million citizens in this country,…

The announcement from the Home Office this week that freedom of movement will end on 31 October in the case of a no-deal Brexit is both callous and potentially catastrophic…

Editorial: A Home Office fit for today

A new government brings a welcome opportunity for a new approach to immigration in this country. And we certainly welcome what seems to be a shift away from migration targets that reduce people to statistics and equate success with fewer migrants. But we’re concerned by some of the approaches suggested so far by the new Prime Minister and his Home Secretary, which are fundamentally incompatible with the realities of our modern world, and which perpetuate the anti-foreigner sentiment in which decades of UK immigration policy are rooted. “Highly-skilled” migrants are welcome,…

A new government brings a welcome opportunity for a new approach to immigration in this country. And we certainly welcome what seems to be a shift away from migration targets…

Editorial: Outlaw detention globally

With news of horrific conditions in detention centres at the US-Mexico border filling our newsfeeds daily, it’s time to say once again: immigration detention must be outlawed, globally. We must work towards a world where no one is detained for immigration purposes. We must begin to view the detention of migrants – often simply because they are migrants – as a violation of human rights and an outrage akin to torture. We call on the new UK government and the new European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, to make…

With news of horrific conditions in detention centres at the US-Mexico border filling our newsfeeds daily, it’s time to say once again: immigration detention must be outlawed, globally. We must…

Editorial: 'You are our last hope'

We’re pleased that another inquiry, this time by the Public Accounts Committee, has been launched into the Home Office’s actions in 2014 that led to tens of thousands of international students being stripped of their visas and robbed of their futures. But we’re also concerned that the government could exploit this announcement to further delay a much-needed resolution – shrugging off their responsibility and handing it to the new Prime Minister and his government at the end of July. Following the National Audit Office report in May, and the All Party…

We’re pleased that another inquiry, this time by the Public Accounts Committee, has been launched into the Home Office’s actions in 2014 that led to tens of thousands of international…

Editorial: A Refugee Week call for change

Twenty years in prison. Fines of 50,000 Euros. It’s 2019 and this is the shameful price of saving human lives on Europe’s borders. Pia Klemp, captain of the NGO ship Iuventa, faces two decades in prison if convicted for her role in rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, while a new law passed in Italy last week (seen as a barely concealed attempt to halt search-and-rescue operations) means ships that enter Italian waters after being banned from doing so can be fined up to 50,000 Euros. In the same week, a…

Twenty years in prison. Fines of 50,000 Euros. It’s 2019 and this is the shameful price of saving human lives on Europe’s borders. Pia Klemp, captain of the NGO ship…

Editorial: Dear candidate...

Editorials