“Whenever I have to report, I can’t sleep. I get so stressed all day, and the journey is so long. It takes me between one to two hours to go there, and then I have to queue for a long time, and come back. It takes me the whole day and I feel so tired afterwards. My Crohn’s diseases gets worse because of the stress” Migrants Organise member
Last month, on July 15th we and allies took action to block the entrance and make noise outside six Immigration Reporting Centres across the UK.
Our demands loud and clear, we demand
⚡️ an end to immigration reporting
⚡️ end to the Hostile Environment
⚡️Together, we stand for equality, dignity and justice
As part of a National Day of Action to Abolish Immigration Reporting, we joined forces with These Walls Must Fall, SOAS Detainees Support, CARAG, SYMAAG, PAFRAS and Leeds Anti-Raids, Refugee Women Connect in actions outside six of UK’s 14 Home Office’s Reporting Centres.
Together our presence was felt and demands shared in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Solihull and Leeds.
Building on over a year of rising momentum in the call to #AbolishReporting the coordinated day of action marks growing consensus among UK communities that mandatory immigration reporting amounts to unnecessary harm and the harassment of migrants.
What is Immigration Reporting?
Under current reporting conditions, anyone waiting for a final decision on their application to live in the UK can be required to regularly travel, at their own cost, to “report” at one of 14 Immigration Reporting Centres. At each appointment, migrants risk being randomly taken into detention.
Racism, bullying, and intimidation is rife at each appointment. At one appointment, a Migrants Organise member was accused of working illegally, with the implicit threat of asylum support revocation, based solely on the clothes they were wearing. For our members this is harassment, harmful and totally unnessary.
Migrants Organise Organiser, Maymuna Osman, says,
“We know some people are being made to travel to reporting centres miles from where they live, for example someone from Hertfordshire having to go to Hounslow…It is hard to cover the travel costs when you aren’t allowed to work while awaiting the outcome of your application but then there is the added fear of being detained at the centre – we know this happens.
[button url=”https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JtnJ-EM1yw566_xP28DMPdEeZfvpUhd8″ text=”Are you being asked to report? DOWNLOAD RESOURCES ” size=”” type=”default” icon=”” external=”0″]
What next?
Building on over a year of rising momentum in the call to #AbolishReporting the coordinated day of action marks growing consensus among UK activists that mandatory immigration reporting amounts to unnecessary harm and harassment of migrants.
To get involved or for more info email Brian@migrantsorganise.org.uk
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This action was in the news, and you can read about it here:
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/protestors-block-entrance-immigration-reporting-centre-becket-hosue-southwark-b946238.html
South London Press: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/campaigners-picket-immigration-enforcement-centre-to-protest-against-treatment-of-migrants/
London News Time: https://londonnewstime.com/protesters-block-southwark-immigration-reporting-center/357033/
Halifax Courier: https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/people/campaigners-call-for-an-end-to-mandatory-reporting-over-people-seeking-asylum-and-other-migrants-3305438
