This post was written by members of the Abolish Reporting campaign.
On 13 August 2024, we received this letter sent on behalf of Eddy Montgomery,
Director of Enforcement, Compliance & Crime, in response to the letter sent by 137 organisations across the UK demanding an immediate suspension of immigration reporting conditions in light of far-right activity.
In their response, while neglecting to suspend in-person reporting conditions beyond individual cases where “deemed necessary,” the Home Office stated it would continue to monitor the situation and that “where it is identified as necessary to safeguard our service users and staff, we will of course consider temporarily suspending in-person reporting.”
Multiple groups who attempted to communicate with their local reporting centre management were given similar standard responses, which claimed to “take the welfare of those required to report as part of an immigration bail condition and our staff extremely seriously” while encouraging people to keep reporting during the height of far-right mobilisations, unless informed otherwise on a case-by-case basis.
We are disappointed to have received this response, which we feel does not adequately address the heightened fear and risk imposed by reporting conditions.
As one organisation wrote to their local reporting centre manager: “People who need to come in on public transport … may feel too scared to do so at the moment because of the hostile attitude of certain members of the general public they could face. Speaking from my experience, all of our clients have mental health conditions, and most of these are disabling on a long term basis. The increased fear they feel can only exacerbate their mental health symptoms in a negative way.”
A member of the Abolish Reporting campaign in Merseyside shared:
“In the current circumstances where far right activity remains a serious threat on the streets of the city centre to migrants, people seeking asylum and in fact all people of colour, [reporting] is a dangerous and totally unnecessary Home Office requirement. The staff refused to take our letter, the only response being to call the manager to speak to us. He did not give us his name, and insisted, bizarrely, that we put a stamp on the letter and post it, which of course we did. They did not deny the dangers of reporting but insisted that it remained necessary for surveillance purposes. In an email reply to the letter, the Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime maintains the position that they will consider individual cases only which are not easy to put forward), and states ‘ where it is identified as necessary to safeguard our service users and staff, we will of course consider temporarily suspending in-person reporting.’ Today we received a report that in Old Hall St, next to the Reporting Centre, a person drove past with a large white placard containing Islamophobic abuse and the words ‘GET THEM OFF OUR STREETS.’ What further evidence is needed of the threat that exists and the fear this creates in people forced to wait in queues outside that building? Along with the other groups who took part in the action, we resolved to continue with our grassroots campaign to demand an end to the Hostile Environment immigration policy and replace it with care and dignity for everyone.”
The Abolish Reporting campaign is organising to end the harmful, unnecessary immigration reporting regime for all. Learn more and get involved here.
