Covid-19: Migrant Voice calling for policy changes to help migrants

Covid-19: Migrant Voice calling for policy changes to help migrants

Since the escalation of the Covid-19 epidemic in the UK, the migration sector has been working together with different migrant communities to assess the particular issues affecting them and to call for urgent changes to national policies, regulations and practicies.

At Migrant Voice, we have been contributing to these conversations and raising our voice with others to push for the change that's needed.

Here are some of the calls we're supporting and letters we've been signing:

• We joined with Medact, JCWI, Liberty and many others to call for an immediate suspension of the hostile environment, including NHS charging and data-sharing. (16 March)
• We joined a sector-wide call to discuss issues facing migrants who are destitute and/or homeless, resulting in this letter, coordinated by NACCOM. (18 March)
• We signed a letter calling on universities to suspend all monitoring of migrant staff and students, and to institute "the most generous extension of visa sponsorship possible" during and after this pandemic. (19 March)
• We signed a letter calling on local authorities to take urgent action to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all migrants, especially those with no recourse to public funds. (20 March)
• We wrote to the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister to call for all leave to remain to be automatically extended for all migrants in the UK, and refusals to be suspended. (23 March)
• We worked with Amnesty International UK to submit joint evidence to the Home Affairs Committee inquiry on Home Office preparedness for Covid-19. We also contributed to a submission made by JCWI. (25 March)
• We signed a letter calling on Greek and EU authorities to take action to protect migrants in the Greek camps from Covid-19 (25 March)
• We wrote to the Home Office asking for information about the closure of the EU Settlement Scheme Resolution Centre and calling on them to extend the deadline for applying to the scheme. We also signed a joint letter, facilitated by Here for Good, with similar calls. (26 March)
• We joined with Unity and other organisations to request that the Government lift the restrictions on the provision of help with the cost of funerals for deceased asylum seekers. (27 March)
• We joined with dozens of organisations, led by the Public Interest Law Centre, to call for the Government to do more to protect and support domestic abuse survivors. (31 March)
• We joined with Freedom from Torture and dozens of other organisations to request that the Government increase the amount of asylum support by £20 per week. (3 April) We later signed a follow-up letter after no response had been received. (24 April)
• We publicly supported a call, led by the Helen Bamber Foundation, to protect and safeguard survivors of Modern Slavery who have insecure immigration status. (24 April)
• We worked with Amnesty International UK to to submit joint evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights for their inquiry into the Government's response to the pandemic. (28 April)
• We signed a letter, written by the These Walls Must Fall Spokespeople Group in South Yorkshire, calling on the Government to release all remaining immigration detainees.
• We signed a letter, coordinated by JCWI, to call on the Prime Minister to scrap the No Recourse to Public Funds condition. (28 May)
• We joined 220+ organisations, led by Asylum Matters, Freedom from Torture and Refugee Action, to call for a reconsideration of the decision to only increase asylum support by 26p per day. (10 June)
• We joined with more than 100 organisations, led by Haringey Migrant Support Centre to call on Local Authorities to ensure that no one, regardless of immigration status, is made homeless during the Covid-19 crisis. (18 June)
• We joined with a number of organisations calling on the Government to make sure all EU citizens in the UK can protect themselves and others from Covid-19. (30 June)
• We joined more than 40 migrant and homelessness organisations, led by Crisis, to call on the Government to make sure that everyone in the UK can access safe, secure housing during the pandemic. (7 July)
• We joined 30+ charities and NGOs, led by Liberty, to call on the Government to take the opportunity offered by the disruption of Covid-19 to end the use of immigration detention.
• Alongside 150 other organisations, we signed a letter calling on the Home Office to revoke plans to deport migrant rough sleepers, coordinated by FLEX.
• We signed a joint letter, created by Bail for Immigration Detainees, calling for the urgent release of people held in prison under immigration powers. 

We will continue to update this list.

TOP IMAGE: Covid-19, Prachatai, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)