Hello everyone,

Here is the last newsletter of the year. It’s been a difficult and exciting and long year for Waltham Forest Migrant Action.

Difficult because the obstacles facing migrants and refugees in the borough, London and across the UK have not gotten any easier. Exciting because we’ve taken some important steps to expand our capacity, including becoming registered with the Office of Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) so that we can now provide in-house immigration advice. 

Huge thanks to all of our volunteers, members, supporters and our funders – without you the work that we do would not be possible. Above all I would like to thank the migrant and refugee visitors to our service who have placed their trust in us.

Keep your eyes out for some exciting developments in the new year.

In solidarity,

Joseph

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Support Centre

Our weekly Support Centre will be closed during the festive season.

We will reopen in the new year on 5 January.

Thank you to everyone who visited us this year for advice and support, and to all our volunteers who keep the Centre running week in week out.

Waltham Forest Borough of Sanctuary Welcome Hub

This month, the borough of Waltham Forest was officially awarded Borough of Sanctuary status. 

One welcome by-product of this is the launch of the new Welcome Hub at Lea Bridge Library, which will provide information and practical advice to migrants, refugees and people seeking asylum. The Hub will host a drop-in on Thursdays 2pm to 4pm which is the best place to send residents with migrant backgrounds who need specialised information and additional support with form-filling, education advice and homelessness support. More information here.

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Hot food and warm space

Our Support Centre is closed until 5th January for the Christmas break.

On our website, we’ve gathered a list of places offering hot meals / warm spaces in Waltham Forest during the break.

Please share with any migrants and refugees you know who may find it helpful.

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News

Evictions policy

Some good news: after the departure of Robert Jenrick, the Home Office has abandoned its cruel and chaotic 7-day eviction policy, which was leaving many newly granted refugees street homeless after being evicted from their asylum support accommodation. It was never going to be enough time to find alternative housing and get social security support. You can see from the table below how drastic the increase was. 

Income thresholds

Another welcome U-turn was made on the government’s heavily criticised increase to minimum salary requirement for British nationals bringing foreign family members to the UK. Now, rather than being raised to £38,700 the threshold will be £29,000. This is still far too high, however, and will inevitably result in working class and poor migrant families being torn apart. Furthermore, the government still intends to increase the threshold to eventually hit £38,700.

New Rwanda legislation

We’re never allowed to enjoy good news for very long, are we? Soon after the Supreme Court struck down the government’s flagship Rwanda policy, Rishi Sunak announced his intention to press on with a new treaty with Rwanda, backed up by a new law declaring Rwanda to be a “safe” country, effectively overruling the Supreme Court’s findings.

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, as Right to Remain have argued, “sets a dangerous precedent, not just for migrant rights, but democracy in the UK. It directly seeks to disapply provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998, and to block interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights”.

We must continue to oppose the Rwanda policy. And our opposition matters – it has been reported recently that airlines are “refusing to provide planes for Rwanda plan over reputation fears”. This is because they’re afraid of what everyone on the side of humanity thinks.

Bibby Stockholm death

Another life lost to the border regime: earlier this month, we received the tragic news that Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old Albanian man, died while living on the Bibby Stockholm barge. He is the second Albanian man to die in the space of a few weeks while in the care of the Home Office. Alfred Dosku, 37, died on 17 November after a suicide attempt. He spent a week in hospital in a critical condition before he died.

Lauren Starkey, a social worker with lots of experience working with the Albanian community, wrote an important thread in response to this devastating news, reminding us that: “Albanian men have the right to live in safety, and to seek protection elsewhere when they can’t find that safety at home. They deserve to have their protection claims heard fairly, just like anyone else.”

Legal advice in detention

BiD’s latest Legal Advice Survey finds that access to justice is, unsurprisingly, difficult to obtain for people in immigration detention at the moment. 43% of respondents didn’t have legal representation. For those who were previously held in prisons, the situation is even more dire, with only 1 respondent out of 29 having received immigration advice from a lawyer whilst in prison. The reasons behind low representation varied, but these included financial reasons and being told that by lawyers that they did not have the capacity to take on a case. Read more here.

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Get involved!

Could you be a WFMA volunteer?

If you have any time to spare each week, month or even for a one-off piece of work, please do email [email protected] and we will send you a registration form so we can see how we might best use your talents!

If you’re interested in anything campaigns or communications related, please contact me at [email protected]

Support us

Click here! to make a one-time donation – or even better, set up a monthly recurring donation – and make a valuable contribution to what we do.

Every penny you give will be appreciated and go towards helping us give urgently needed support to migrants in Waltham Forest through our Support Centre and other work.

The Support Centre is open for drop-in every Friday from 10am -12.30pm at the Baptist Church, 65 Blackhorse Road, Walthamstow E17 7AS.

For more information, please email is [email protected]. Most immigration inquiries will require a follow up appointment – so drop in, phone or email to secure a time.