Day of #ActionOnVisas

Editorials

Day of #ActionOnVisas - standing in solidarity

The extortionate costs of visas, long routes to settlement, restrictive and complex system, minimum income requirements, among so many other things, impact upon the lives of people every single day. With visa fees currently seven to ten times the actual costs of processing them, the International Health Surcharge exceeding the cost of some private medical insurances, and the Minimum Income Requirement for spouses and dependants set at such a level as to exclude more than 50% of the population, it is clear that the system needs changing. On Thursday 31…

The extortionate costs of visas, long routes to settlement, restrictive and complex system, minimum income requirements, among so many other things, impact upon the lives of people every single day.…

We need regularisation for undocumented migrants, not returns

The reasons people become undocumented can be varied, but people do not choose it. Many of those who are undocumented in the UK have become so through no fault of their own. It can be something as simple as an error on a form, a communications breakdown, including very often letters from the Home Office being sent to the wrong address. Things which could happen to anybody when dealing with large organisations, just think about the errors which can happen with utility companies. For migrants though these errors can have…

The reasons people become undocumented can be varied, but people do not choose it. Many of those who are undocumented in the UK have become so through no fault of…

Hostile language led to riots, now it needs to change

Our communities have been attacked. We have been made to feel afraid in our own homes. We have been made to feel unsafe on our own streets. All of this caused by a minority of far-right thugs. What we have seen can be looked at as terrorism against our communities. A minority of racists attempting to use violence to push their ideological agenda. We have also seen how people come together to oppose hate and division though. Thousands of people have stood up and stood against the far-right. They have…

Our communities have been attacked. We have been made to feel afraid in our own homes. We have been made to feel unsafe on our own streets. All of this…

It’s time to change the narrative. Hate has no place in our communities

The violence and hate we have seen run riot through our communities with the far right did not come out of nowhere. The tragic and hideous attack against children in Southport has been used as an excuse, but it is just that, an excuse. At a time when we should be thinking about the young children who were brutally murdered, we are faced with far right thugs, as the Prime Minister rightly called them, attacking people on the streets and attempting to burn them where they live. They have targeted…

The violence and hate we have seen run riot through our communities with the far right did not come out of nowhere. The tragic and hideous attack against children in…

The Olympics shows how migration makes us all stronger

The Olympics and Paralympics bring together some of the best talent from around the world. It is not just the diversity of athletes coming together to compete which makes the games so spectacular though, it is the diversity within teams. For Team GB, we have athletes born all around the world coming together to represent Great Britain at the largest sporting event in the world. They will have millions of people rooting for them to win Gold as they compete. Win or lose we see solidarity with those taking part,…

The Olympics and Paralympics bring together some of the best talent from around the world. It is not just the diversity of athletes coming together to compete which makes the…

We need a complete change in the treatment of migrants

There has been a lot of talk about immigration during the General Election. What we need to focus on now is moving forward and creating a positive environment for migrants. Migrants form our communities. We are your colleagues, friends and families. We are the people you see every day. We are people at the end of the day. We are not abstract statistics to be thrown around as a political soundbite. We are people with families, families which have been ripped apart by cruel policies including minimum income requirements. We…

There has been a lot of talk about immigration during the General Election. What we need to focus on now is moving forward and creating a positive environment for migrants.…

The English Test Scandal is the Post Office mark two

If you have been following the Horizon Post Office Scandal then the similarities with the English Language Test Scandal are striking. One company refusing to take responsibility for IT errors. Innocent people affected criminalised, and expert evidence ignored. As with the Post Office Scandal, there is not just one point where everything went wrong. It has been a catalogue of errors and injustices, compounded over a decade. In reality, the IT errors, or manipulation, almost take a backseat to the wider range of issues. So many people were criminalised, that…

If you have been following the Horizon Post Office Scandal then the similarities with the English Language Test Scandal are striking. One company refusing to take responsibility for IT errors.…

Migrants’ rights are women’s rights

This International Women’s Day we are celebrating all the amazing migrant women we know. Some of those who have shared their stories with us over the years include the award-winning Mirela Sula, who moved to the UK from Albania than a decade ago, and spoke to us about what led her to leading an organisation campaigning for women’s empowerment. There is Livia Barreira, who moved to the UK from Brazil in 2016, who has written a book bringing together the experiences of eight migrant women, and who has been a…

This International Women’s Day we are celebrating all the amazing migrant women we know. Some of those who have shared their stories with us over the years include the award-winning…

Lives left in limbo as scandal continues

Catastrophic failures of computer systems, multinational company left to investigate itself, no-one taking responsibility, all leading to innocent people being treated as criminals and forced into vast amounts of debt as they fight legal cases. Does all this sound a little familiar? This is not just the Post Office scandal. Nearly a decade after tens of thousands of international students were unjustly stripped of their right to study, work and live in the UK by the Home Office many are still fighting to get justice. In 2014 a BBC Panorama…

Catastrophic failures of computer systems, multinational company left to investigate itself, no-one taking responsibility, all leading to innocent people being treated as criminals and forced into vast amounts of debt…

Our year in review

2023 has been a year of challenges for the migrants’ rights sector, but it has also been one of incredible joy, comradeship, support, and unity. It has been a year where we have seen people come together to show that we all matter. It has been a year where, no matter the obstacles, we have seen people fight on. It has been a year we can celebrate. We have had an incredible year at Migrant Voice. As a national charity, we have seen people come together from across the country…

2023 has been a year of challenges for the migrants’ rights sector, but it has also been one of incredible joy, comradeship, support, and unity. It has been a year…

Day of #ActionOnVisas - standing in solidarity

Editorials