From all of us at Migrants Organise, we wish you a very Happy New Year. We are going to have a busy 2020, and wanted to update you about our campaigns…
Justice for Simba – Sign the Petition & Donate!
Nov 2019
Last year, one of our members, Simba, suffered a stroke that left him in a coma and paralysed on his left side. When he woke up, Sheffield Teaching Hospital presented him with a bill for £93,000 for the life saving treatment he had been given. He already had a bill of about £7,000 before the stroke. Simba has lived in the UK for most of his life, but because of his immigration status he is being charged for NHS care.
Simba and his family – supported by the local community in Sheffield where he lives – have launched the Justice For Simba Campaign, calling for his debt to be written off, the Home Office to grant him refugee status, an end to all NHS charging, and for the NHS to treat people based on their medical condition, not their immigration status.
Sign the petition to support Simba and his demands!
Simba’s fiancee, Melissa, has set up a Crowdfunder to raise money to pay for Simba’s legal support in order to resolve his immigration case. Only then can he dispute the enormous and unjust bill he was landed with for his NHS care.
Simba was featured on Channel 4 along with our organiser, Sarli Nana, which you can watch here, and read Simba’s story in the Metro here.
L-R: Aliya (Migrants Organise), Sophie (Docs Not Cops), James (Medact), Phillis (SYMAAG), Sarli (Migrants Organise), Marian (SYMAAG), Simba Mujakachi – Nov 2019
Patients Not Passports – Join us in East London, Saturday 25th January
The NHS as we know it is under threat: budget cuts and chronic staff shortages have brought it to breaking point. At the same time successive Governments have eroded the founding principles of the NHS, restricting access to care for migrants and introducing up-front charging, denying care to hundreds of thousands of people.
Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS, is rumoured to have said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it”.
Across East London campaign groups have been fighting back against the racist charging regime and the introduction of a Hostile Environment in the NHS, forming A powerful coalition of community groups, NHS workers, faith institutions, unions, and people affected by NHS charging. Whether you work in the NHS or not we invite you to join our #PatientsNotPassports campaign! Come along for a day of talks, workshops, and action planning to find out what you can do.
When? 11:00 – 16:00, Saturday 25th January 2020
Where? St John on Bethnal Green, 200 Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA (click here for a map)
How Much? Free!
Make sure to register your interest on the Eventbrite here.
Thank you all for your ongoing support for Migrants Organise and our campaigns. We hope you will continue with us on this journey for dignity and justice for all migrants and refugees and continue to support our work into 2020 and beyond.
From the Migrants Organise Team
