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…
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…
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…
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…
A Home Office document on integration published on 3 June has provided some welcome and unexpected hope for us and for newcomers to this country. The “Indicators of Integration framework 2019” outlines the factors involved in “successful integration”, what good integration looks like and how (if at all) it can be measured. Its tone and…
Almost ten years ago, we set up Migrant Voice to challenge bad reporting about migration in the media. This week, courtesy of the Daily Mail and the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, we’ve had a painful reminder that our work is still necessary. On 24 May, the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report into…
The criminalisation of acts of solidarity is continuing to spread across Europe, and we urge governments across the continent, including our own, to put a halt to this and to reinstate the values of humanity and decency that Europe claims to stand for. This week, British man Tom Ciotkowski went on trial in France for…
Detaining and deporting people who were brought to the UK as children and whose whole life is here is a particularly cruel part of this government’s immigration policy, and we are calling urgently for a new approach. Migrant Voice member Kelvin Bilal Fawaz – who we know as Bilal – was brought to the UK…
We welcome the news that the National Audit Office is investigating the Home Office over its handling of allegations of cheating on the TOEIC English test, and we look forward to continuing to work with them on this issue in search of truth and justice. We’re also pleased that the students whose lives were devastated…
Too many people in this country are unable to access the healthcare they are entitled to. Anyone resident in the UK is allowed to register with and to see a GP, but many migrants face discrimination, ignorance and a slammed door when they try to access this basic right. A few weeks ago, we met…