On 17 March 2020, Migrants Organise – together with the Helen Bamber Foundation – have written to Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, to urgently provide a clear confirmation that all immigration reporting conditions will be suspended given the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is no good justification for requiring immigration bail reporting conditions to continue. Migrants Organise recently published a report which sets out clearly how, even in normal circumstances, reporting conditions can be extremely burdensome and detrimental to many vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers. This impact is exacerbated during the present public health emergency.
Any public interest in managing the risk of individuals absconding is far outweighed by the public interest in managing the serious health risks posed by COVID-19, both to individual migrants asked to report and society at large.
We have asked the Secretary of State to provide this confirmation by 4pm on Friday 20 March 2020. Our letter is endorsed by many organisations and charities in the sector who are equally concerned with continued reporting conditions. Please see our full letter here, and the full list of signatories is published at the bottom of this post.
If you would like to add your organisation’s name to this letter, please email brian@migrantsorganise.org, and we will update the letter regularly.
Sheffield Reporting and Offender Management officer has also today confirmed by email that all reporting conditions will be suspended for at least one month, including those who have not received a text message confirmation. We will continue to keep track of this to ensure that reporting conditions are not resumed prematurely.
If you are working with migrants or are yourself affected by ongoing reporting condition, please email brian@migrantsorganise.org
Supporting Organisations – Updated 10 April 2020
Brian Dikoff, Legal Organiser, Migrants Organise
Jennifer Blair, Head of Legal Protection, Helen Bamber Foundation
Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU)
Ashiana Network
Asylum Welcome Oxford
Baobab Women’s Project CIC
CARIS Haringey
Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke on Trent.
Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG)
Croydon Refugee Day Centre
Derby Refugee Advice Centre
Detention Action
Doncaster Conversation Club
Entraide (Mutual Aid)
Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU)
Hackney Migrant Centre
Haringey Migrant Support Centre
Housing Justice
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)
Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants
Islington Somali Community
JCWI
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK
Kalayaan
Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network
MedAct
Migrants’ Rights Network
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum
Refugee Council
Refugee Women Connect
Room to Heal
Sante Refugee Mental Health Access Project
Seraphus
Simpson Millar
SOAS Detainee Support
Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers.
Southwark Law Centre
St. Augustine’s Centre
The AIRE Centre
The Cotton Tree Trust
The Magpie Project
The Refugee and Migrant Forum of Essex and London
Together with Migrant Children
Unity Centre Glasgow
University of Liverpool Law Clinic
Women for Refugee Women
Young Roots
Youth Legal
CC’d to:
- Kevin Foster MP: kevin.foster.mp@parliament.uk
- privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
- POCorrespondence@homeoffice.gov.uk
- Home Office Asylum Safeguarding Team: ashlse@homeoffice.gov.uk
