82 organisations have signed a joint letter to the Home Secretary, calling for urgent action to prioritise public health over anti-immigrant policy. The vaccination programme is being put at risk by the hostile environment. The Home Secretary must act now to ensure everyone is safe and able to access the NHS. 

We urged the Home Secretary to

  1. Immediately suspend all NHS Charging and data-sharing with the Home Office for the purposes of immigration enforcement and mount a public information campaign reassuring people that it will be safe for them to access care during this global public health emergency.
  2. Immediately suspend ‘no recourse to public funds’ conditions to ensure that everyone can access the support they need to stay safe and where necessary cease working in order to self-isolate.
  3. Make assurances that migrants unable to attend reporting appointments, court dates, or interviews whilst self-isolating will not be penalised.
  4. Make provision to extend or modify visas where necessary to prevent people being forced to ‘overstay’ their visa due to being self-isolated or unable to return to a country that is not safe to travel to.
  5. Release everyone detained under immigration powers to reduce the risk of COVID19 entering the detention estate and causing avoidable harm.
  6. Provide specialist support for those housed in shared asylum accommodation to enable safe access to medical services, testing, and where necessary, re-housing for particularly vulnerable people.

It follows a letter we sent last March, at the outbreak of the pandemic, calling for changes to be urgently implemented, in order to protect lives and effectively tackle the covid pandemic. Close to 2,000 people added their names to that letter. But 10 months on there has been a lack of action from the Home Office.

Read the full letter

Ask your MP to call for an end to NRPF

Signatories

Satbir Singh, Chief Executive, JCWI
Sophie Neuburg, Executive Director, Medact
Gracie Bradley, Interim Director, Liberty
2 Dales Action for Refugees
350.org
African Equality Foundation
Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit
ASIRT
Baobab Women's Project CIC
Bawso
Ben & Jerry's Europe
Bristol Refugee Rights
Bristol Refugee Rights
Doncaster Conversation Club
Doncaster Conversation Club
Global Link
Good Chance
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Haref - Connected Voice
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
In Limbo Project
ILPA
Keep Our NHS Public
Lancaster and Morecambe City of Sanctuary
Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary
Liberal Jewish Synagogue Drop-in for Asylum Seeker Families
Mafwa Theatre
Martin Searle Solicitors
Lesbian Immigration Support Group
LRMN
Manchester Refugee Support Network
MSF UK Take Action Group
Migrant Voice
Migrants Organise
NAACOM
New Economics Foundation
North of England Refugee Service
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council
Pecan
Praxis
Privacy International
Quakers
Right to Remain
Runnymede Trust
Project 17
Redbridge Covid-19 Mutual Aid
Reed In Partnership
Refugee Women's Centre
Sheffield City of Sanctuary
SOAS Detainee Support Group
Southall Black Sisters
Stand For All
Student Action for Refugees
Students for Global Health
Sydenham COVID-19 19 Mutual Aid
SYMAAG South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group
The Jewish Council for Racial Equality
UKLGIG
Women for Women Refugees
The Unity Project
the3million
Akwaaba
After Exploitation
Another Europe Is Possible
Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees (AVID)
Asylum Matters
Bail for Immigration Detainees
Docs Not Cops
Doctors for the NHS
Doctors in Unite
Doctors of the World
English for Action
Every Child Protected Against Trafficking
Every Doctor
Freedom From Torture
Hackney Migrant Centre
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
Health Campaigns Together
Helen Bamber Foundation
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth
Human Rights Consortium Scotland