RIGHTS NOT RAIDS

Dear Keir Starmer,

Across the UK, undocumented people care for our families, build our cities, and do the invisible, thankless labour our society depends on. 

Introducing new powers to target these workers won’t “restore order” — it will deepen fear, entrench exploitation, and push people already existing at the very margins of OUR SOCIETY into even greater vulnerability.

What the hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers need are rights, not raids.

Many undocumented people have lived in the UK for years — sometimes even decades — doing their best to survive and provide for themselves and their families in extremely difficult circumstances. Without regularised status, they are denied the rights and protections of other working people. 

Shutting undocumented people out of those protections doesn’t “level the playing field” — it creates the conditions for abuse and harm.

Taking cues from the far right by scapegoating undocumented people as “problems” to be removed only makes their lives less bearable. And as we saw in the racist riots across the UK last summer, this kind of dehumanising rhetoric leads directly to suffering and violence.

You cannot restore trust in politics by criminalising the people our society relies upon — and you won’t build economic growth by making hundreds of thousands of workers even less secure.

What this moment calls for is compassion, not criminalisation — more rights, not raids.

That’s why we’re calling for:

1) Accessible and inclusive pathways to regularisation for all undocumented people

2) Labour rights and protections for all workers — regardless of immigration status

3) An end to the rhetoric that dehumanises and scapegoats migrants

We cannot build a just and thriving society by driving people underground, turning neighbours and colleagues into targets, or forcing employers and landlords to act as border enforcers. 

We need a migration system rooted in rights, belonging, and humanity — not punishment, exclusion, and surveillance.

There’s still time for your government to stand on the right side of history — rather than be remembered for the harm you enabled and escalated.

Regularise