Update From October 10th Webinar - Undocumented Migrants and Human Rights - Solidarity Knows No Borders

On Saturday October 10th, as part of the weekend of action coordinated by Migrants Organise entitled “Solidarity Knows No Borders”, Regularise held a webinar on Undocumented Migrants and Human Rights. We were fortunate to have a diverse group of speakers to discuss this topic, including those with lived experience.

The primary objective of the session was to introduce people to terminology and language around the topic of undocumented migrants, migrants with insecure status, and some of the issues affecting them as a result of being precarious migrants. This is particularly important, given that the media and the current UK Government often use language as a way to dehumanise this group of people. We also used this platform to introduce what Regularise are about, our demands, and the need for regularisation. As mentioned in previous posts, we are campaigning for the UK Government to implement a regularisation programme granting basic rights to all undocumented migrants and migrants with insecure status, who are currently in the UK, as well as attaining them a safer, and more equitable path to settlement and citizenship.

Professor Bridget Anderson, who is the Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol and Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol, spoke eloquently about the terminology as well as highlighting the lack of clarity around who is seen as a migrant and who isn’t. She made the point about how “migrants are made, not born” through often restrictive immigration controls, asylum and citizenship laws that can be dehumanising. She discussed how migrants are also made in the public imagination and in the media. Beyond that, she highlighted that there are often assumptions about who is seen as a migrant because migrants are imagined as being poor, and the term is often racialised to mean black or brown people. Finally, she expressed the importance of solidarity between migrants and citizens, and in recognising our common interest in ending the Hostile Environment to avoid situations like the Windrush failings by the UK Government.

Following on from the terminology, we were joined by several activists, who drew on their lived experience to discuss the issues surrounding migrants’ rights. Marissa Begonia from Voice of Domestic Workers spoke on the issues encountered by migrants from outside the EU working in domestic work in the UK She mentioned that in 2012, there were changes to the ‘Domestic Workers in a Private Household’ visa category that now limits the duration of the visa to 6 months, making it non-renewable, and prevents workers from changing their employer in that time. This has inevitably led to conditions of employment worsening for domestic workers as the visa is tied to a specific employer so when it runs out, there is a high risk of becoming an undocumented worker. She mentioned that this change, along with the hidden nature of domestic work, has led to many workers being put in positions where they are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. She shared harrowing accounts of exploitation, enslavement and abuse occurring from domestic workers becoming undocumented, and the lack of basic employment rights due to the unregulated and precarious nature of the work resulting from the UK Government’s Hostile Environment policies. She also explained how COVID-19 has further impacted their lives either through lack of PPE or being forced to work additional hours without extra pay. She stressed why it is important to repeal the Immigration Act of 2016 that criminalises working without Leave to Remain; and the need to separate employment rights from immigration status so that all workers are protected by employment rights, regardless of status.

Mariema Faye joined us all the way from Italy from Movimento Migranti Napoli to shed light on the situation there. She spoke about the inclusive nature of their political movement for the rights of everybody, echoing how migrants are often invisible within society and are forced by the state to live in harsh conditions. In Italy, she explained that residence permits are tied to access to health care, schools, work and housing, which means if migrants don’t have residence permits, they don’t have such rights. She spoke about how the COVID-19 crisis has exposed fundamental flaws of a system that ties work contracts with residence permits. She highlighted the importance of breaking these ties as the current system makes migrant workers more vulnerable to losing their permits if they lose work, leaving them in more precarious positions. She also said that the Italian Government had recently implemented a regularisation scheme – sanatoria – to grant residence permits to some undocumented migrants working in the agricultural sector, care and domestic work in light of the pandemic [pdf]. However, this was temporary and excluded most undocumented migrants (an estimated 670,000 people) in Italy, such as those working in hospitality and young children who were born there .

We then welcomed Rogelio Braga from Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, who, with Regularise, are a part of the Status Now Network campaigning for #StatusNow4All. Rogelio shed light on the situation of the Filipino community in the UK —many of whom are highly skilled—and how Kanlungan aims to support them. This is through education and training as they become deskilled upon moving to the UK. Kanlungan also promotes economic welfare and helps to alleviate hardship whilst also raising awareness of social, political and economic conditions in the Philippines that impact migration to the UK. Importantly, he spoke on the importance of solidarity with other organisations with similar aims and objectives, and the need to end the Hostile Environment policies of the UK. Such measures limit access to healthcare, housing and bank accounts and, because of associated costs with renewing visas, migrants who come to the UK with visas can easily end up undocumented. He highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis have put many undocumented migrants in their community at a very high risk of destitution with no support from the State.

Marga Rebolledo gave her insight into the Latin American community and the context for the creation of Apoyo Comunitario Sur De Londres COVID-19 – Traductores, which was predominantly set up to address the language barriers faced by these Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking communities in accessing support, especially as some people were losing their incomes due to the pandemic. She spoke in a lot of detail on how this community is affected in terms of people being entitled to access public funds but lacking the knowledge of how to access them. She also spoke of those who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) including those with insecure status or with unresolved asylum applications. In relation to those with NRPF, she highlighted how some organisations’ questions around immigration status in the current climate of the Hostile Environment are intrusive and discourage people from asking for some of the emergency help to which they are entitled during the pandemic. She also gave us insight into how Apoyo Comunitario Sur De Londres have been supporting people directly through fundraising and how they even started working with some food banks and other groups to establish ways to get food to those people with insecure status or NRPF finding themselves in need.

The final 30 minutes of the Webinar was an interactive Q&A with all the speakers/panelists and attendees.

You can view the full recording of this webinar below:

Or please visit: https://youtu.be/7VeOrvLIPKw or https://www.facebook.com/RegulariseUK/videos/646049132725777/

The restrictions that have come into force since the weekend due to COVID-19 are likely to continue for the next few months but fighting for migrants’ rights cannot wait so we believe that we need to come up with more inventive ways to protest. If you want to collaborate with us, please contact us at solidarity@regularise.org . Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and like us on Facebook.

Useful Links :

Movimento Migranti e Rifugiati Napoli

https://www.facebook.com/MovimentoMigrantieRifugiatiNapoli

Instagram : @movimentomignapoli

The Voice of Domestic Workers

https://www.facebook.com/thevoiceofdomesticworkers/

Twitter : @thevoiceofdws

Petition : Reinstate the pre-2012 Overseas Domestic Worker visa with a route to settlement

Kanlungan Filipino Consortium

https://www.facebook.com/kanlunganuk

Twitter: @kanlunganuk

Instagram : @kanlungan_uk