Justice for Omisha: East London fights migrant charging in the NHS

“The Justice for Omisha campaign has been super productive and powerful this month. In Ilford, with our east London community, we organised two local actions- an interactive campaign stall as well as a big public event.

Our focus has been about raising awareness of how the NHS is charging migrants and refugees for healthcare- which is a part of the government’s hostile environment immigration policies.

CAMPAIGN STALL

The Justice for Omisha campaign stall, in Ilford Town Centre early July, was very successful. We received tons of support from public through signing the petition and joining the conversation about NHS charges for migrants & refugees. However, this time our aim was also to invite them in our free public meeting to raise awareness about the issue, where to seek support if someone they know has NHS charge and how to build people power to fight against the unjust system.

PUBLIC EVENT

On Saturday July 13th, we organised a free public meeting for ‘Justice of Omisha’ campaign, where around 40 people attended the meeting. We met few of the public from the stall who showed their support by giving us their time to listened to our stories. We would like to thank all the people who showed their support by joining the meeting.

In the meeting, we heard from Dr. Kitty Worthing, who is a medical doctor who started organizing against borders in the NHS in 2017 as part of Docs Not Cops, which later became the Patient not Passport (PNP) campaign. Nick Beales, who is the Head of campaigning at the Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex & London (RAMFEL). Terry Day, who has been chair of Waltham Forest Save Our NHS since 2017 and has been very active in campaigning against the hostile environment in the NHS. Aliya Yule, who is the access to healthcare organizer at Migrants Organise and her work focuses on the Patients Not Passports  campaign. Aliya works with migrant communities and healthcare workers to build support to end the practice of charging migrants for healthcare. And me, Reeja Shrestha, sharing our story about the hostility that we faced  when our daughter, Omisha, was charged £76,000 for her cancer treatment. I shared about  how cruel this bill was, and how it has affected our life.

We had discussions rounds and a Q&A session with the people where they got to ask any questions regarding the NHS charging and hostility towards migrants and refugees. Our panel has answered their queries and been helpful and supportive to the people who were seeking advice & support regarding their issues with NHS charging. 

Hope

I hope this meeting will bring positive changes in people’s lives. It will give them sense of belongingness as they’ll know where to seek support in such crisis. This meeting has connected us with so many people who wants change in the system of NHS and harsh policies of hostile environment. 

We would also like to thank our friend Shaban who has prepared delicious food for the people attending the meeting and childcare provision from Migrants Organise and Patients Not Passports.

Overall, the meeting was a huge success. Our aim to involve more people to build people power and raise awareness about the hostile environment and the NHS charging migrants and refugees has been successful. I would like to thank all the speakers, organisers, campaigners from different areas and a team of Migrants Organise and Patients Not Passports campaigns who made this happen. 

Our effort to change the harsh system and policies of hostile environment will keep growing and flourishing until we’ll see changes in the government strict laws for migrants and refugees. And I believe, with all your support, we’ll bring changes and end the hostile environment.

In Solidarity, Reeja.

p.s. Thank you to all all the volunteers and organisers involved in there two actions and the volunteers- and a special thank you to Pauline Moon who took these brilliant photos and made the film so that we can document all the actions we are taking.

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