Migrants Organise and the Patients Not Passports Coalition launch an action-orientated report to learn from the International Struggle for Universal Healthcare.
The report, co-authored by Medact and the New Economics Foundation – as part of the Patients not Passports coalition – is a guide for activists, and contains ideas for how to challenge these migrant restrictions in Britain.
The report and launch event are part of efforts to build an effective, migrant-led movement against the migrant charging and the Hostile Environment in the NHS. To this end, there were contributions from campaign groups around the country and an invitation to everybody to join the struggle. You can get involved, and find out more, by emailing Aliya on aliya@migrantsorganise.org
You can watch the event, and read the report, on the New Economics Foundation website. You can learn more, take action and sign up for updates by adding your name to the Patients Not Passports action.
The event included a number of brilliant and important contributions, including from:
- Ella Johnson, an independent researcher whose work focuses on health access policies across Europe. Ella has a background in advocacy as a member of the Doctors of the World policy and services teams and spoke about her research in the healthcare access campaigns in Sweden.
- Irene Rodríguez Newey, Nurse and campaigner with Yo Sí Sanidad Universal, a grassroots group organising health workers and patients in opposition to healthcare restrictions in Spain. Irene spoke about the legal, workplace and community organising strategies employed in Spanish context. Learn more about Yo Si Sanidad Universal here: yosisanidaduniversal.net
- Dr Kathryn Medien, Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University speaking about previous generations of struggle in Britain against migrant charging, highlighting the need to learn about and build on this history. You can also hear Kathryn speaking about the No Pass Laws Here campaign on the Surviving Society podcast.
- Daniel Button, the report’s principal author, who gave more detail regarding the report’s findings and his recommendations for strategies of resistance.
