August 20, 2024 by admin

Far-right violence – Joint letter from frontline advice organisations

In response to the far-right violence that spread across the UK in August 2024, a joint letter from over 100 frontline organisations that provide advice to migrants, drafted by HMSC and JCWI, was sent to the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Justice on 20 August. It calls for politicians to end all scapegoating of migrants, dismantle the hostile environment and more. Read the full letter and list of signatories below – several organisations chose to sign the letter anonymously to prioritise their security and that of their clients.

20^th August 2024

The Right Honourable Yvette Cooper MP
Home Secretary
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Re: Recent far right violence

Dear Home Secretary,

We write to you as frontline organisations from across the UK that provide advice to migrants. Along with migrants, Muslims and People of Colour, we have been made the target of far-right violence. Our colleagues, many of whom experience Islamophobic, racist and anti-migrant violence, have also been targeted because of their work providing advice to people navigating the often-hostile immigration system. During the recent wave of far-right violence, many of us have been forced to close our offices and stop providing life-saving advice to safeguard our staff and the people we work with. Many of our clients continue to live in fear.

We write to you in grief and horror at the scenes we have seen on our streets up and down the country, and everything that helped bring us to this point. We write to you calling for immediate action. Our communities are bearing the brunt of this racist violence, and the fear that comes with it. Those occupying the great offices of State have a responsibility to break with divisive and dehumanising rhetoric, and to recognise the deep impact of anti-migrant rhetoric and policy on our communities.

When our major political parties engage in a race to the bottom on migration policy in order to win votes, the impact on communities is very real. We saw crowds in Rotherham chanting ‘stop the boats’ and attempting to set alight an asylum hotel, knowing there were people seeking asylum inside. That the crowds were chanting a slogan and policy aim deployed by both the Conservatives and Labour in the run-up to the General Election, as well as by members of our Labour Government since, is a damning indictment of our politics, and its complicity in enabling and emboldening the far right.

The violence on our streets is an inevitable result of violent anti-migrant policies and rhetoric from people right at the top of our political system. Right now, we have policies in place that ask neighbours, employers, doctors and landlords to check the immigration status of people they interact with, and turn them over to the Home Office on even the suspicion that they don’t have the right piece of paper in their passport. Immigration raids intimidate, demonise and criminalise migrants, while detention centres impose further abuse and racist violence. Thousands of migrants are locked out of state support and forced into destitution, hardship and homelessness through ‘no recourse to public funds’ – a condition that has been ruled unlawful many times. These hostile immigration policies entrench and legitimise racism, turn communities against each other, and harm all of us.

It’s clear to those whose lives are in the hands of the Home Office that the immigration system remains fundamentally racist and Islamophobic. We have a system that treats migrant workers as disposable, and allows the wealthy to travel freely while those without that privilege navigate dangerous journeys to cross borders. We have a system that, thankfully, reacted overnight to create real and accessible safe routes for people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, while those fleeing the same in Afghanistan have had to live in hiding for months on end because of Home Office bureaucracy and suspicion.

During this wave of violence, increased policing powers, disproportionately deployed to surveil and criminalise migrants and People of Colour, have not kept us safe. It has been our communities mobilising to protect each other and coming out to defend, care for and stand in solidarity with one another.

What needs to change

The far right violence sweeping the country must be a wake-up call. The policy on migration, as well as the rhetoric, urgently needs to change. We must see urgent action to dismantle the hostile environment that divides our communities. We must never again hear politicians glorifying ‘stopping the boats’. Instead, we must ensure people can travel safely to the UK by establishing real and accessible safe routes, and enable people to live fulfilling lives once they arrive, whether they are seeking sanctuary, joining family or working.

The Government must also urgently review asylum accommodation contracts and shift to resourcing local authorities to house people seeking asylum in communities. Conditions in hotels are abysmal and unsafe. In Rotherham, people who fled their asylum hotel to escape the threat of far right violence ended up sleeping in nearby woods, because the hotel manager failed to check on them. It’s clear that the private companies profiting from running asylum accommodation, and therefore the Home Office, are failing in their duty of care.

It must also urgently overhaul the legal aid system and increase legal aid rates. Many of our services were already stretched to breaking point by years of underfunding of legal aid. Legal aid rates have not been increased since 1996. Cuts to the scope of legal aid and to rates of pay, particularly following the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012, have meant the number of advice agencies and law centres doing this work has fallen by 59% over the last decade. 39 million people do not have access to a local immigration and asylum legal provider across England and Wales. The Government must immediately review the legal aid system, and ensure that our frontline advice services can meet the needs of our communities and work sustainably to help people access justice.

Recommendations

• Dismantle the hostile environment in its entirety
• Acknowledge and address the racist and exclusionary logic embedded in immigration policies and within the Home Office
• Urgently review asylum accommodation contracts, with a view to shifting away from outsourcing to for-profit companies, to resourcing local authorities to supply accommodation
• Shift the rhetoric and policy on asylum away from ‘stopping the boats,’ and institute genuine, accessible safe routes for people seeking protection
• Urgently review the immigration legal aid system, so that frontline advice organisations are properly resourced to provide access to justice

This wave of violence has had a horrifying impact on our communities. It must mark a turning point. We urge the government to heed the call from the communities most impacted, and from advice services like ours, and urgently change course.

Yours faithfully,

Haringey Migrant Support Centre

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

12 frontline advice organisations signing anonymously

African Rainbow Family

Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit

ASSIST Sheffield

Asylum Justice (Wales)

Asylum Link Merseyside

Asylum Matters

BARA – Birmingham Asylum & Refuge Association

BARAC UK

Bradford Law Centre

Brent Council

Bristol Hospitality Network

Bristol Law Centre

Cambridge Convoy Refugee Action Group

Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign

CARAS (Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers)

Care4Calais

Cheshire, Halton & Warrington Race & Equality Centre

Citizens Advice Bournemouth Christchurch & Poole

City of Sanctuary Sheffield

Compassion in politics

Connected Routes CIC

Cornwall Refugee Resource Network

Coventry Asylum & Refugee Action Group

Daaro youth project

East European Resource Centre

Evesham Vale Welcomes Refugees

Freedom United

Global Link

Govan Community Project

Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit

Greenwich Inclusion Project

Hackney Migrant Centre

Here for Good

Hope Projects

Horsforth Town of Sanctuary

Humans for Rights Network

Jennifer Irons

Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Justlife Foundation

Kanlungan Filipino Consortium

Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)

Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network (LRMN)

MakeAmplify

Malvern Welcomes

Manchester Migrant Solidarity

Manchester Refugee Support Network

MARAG – Midlands Asylum & Refuge Action Group

Maryhill Integration Network

Middle Eastern Women and Society Organisation- MEWSO

Migrant Democracy Project

MIgrant Voice

Migrante Health Workers UK

NACCOM

New Citizen’s Gateway

Oasis church

Open Door North East

Praxis

Project 17

Refugee & Migrant Forum of Essex and London (RAMFEL)

Refugee Support Group

Refugees Welcome North Somerset

Right to Remain

Room to Heal

Safe Passage International

Shaman  PR

Shropshire Supports Refugees

Simon Community Scotland

South London Refugee Association

Southall Black Sisters

Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC)

Southeast And East Asian Women’s Association (SEEAWA)

St Albans for Refugees

St Augustine’s Centre

St Chad’s Sanctuary

St Pauls Advice centre

Stand For All

Streetwise Young People’s Project

TGP Cymru

The William Gomes Podcast

the3million

Ubuntu Women Shelter

Voices in Exile

Waging Peace

Walking Within North Tyneside

Waltham Forest Migrant Action (WFMA)

Welsh Refugee Council

West London Welcome

Worcester City Welcomes Refugees