Status Now 4 All – EDM #658 and #1442

Please ask your MP to support EDMs #658 and #1442

EDM1442: Undocumented migrants and covid-19 vaccination tabled on 03 February 2021 by Claudia Webbe – MP Leicester East

Motion text

That this House believes that access to essential healthcare is a universal human right; regrets the continued existence of structural, institutional and systemic barriers in accessing NHS care experienced by undocumented migrants and those awaiting determination of their asylum, visa and immigration applications; considers that an effective public health response to the covid-19 crisis requires that the most vulnerable can afford to access food, healthcare, and self-isolate where necessary; understands that some of the most vulnerable people in society will not access vaccination against the virus, since to disclose their identity to the authorities would risk their arrest, detention and deportation; fears that without urgent Government intervention this will lead to further avoidable premature deaths, especially in the African, Asian and Minority Ethnic population; and therefore calls on the Home Office to grant everyone currently in the UK at this time who are undocumented migrants and those awaiting determination of their asylum, visa and immigration applications indefinite leave to remain, and to be eligible in due course to receive the covid-19 vaccination.

Continue reading “Status Now 4 All – EDM #658 and #1442”

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Quaker faith in action: The American poet Mary Oliver died today, aged 83. Her words have carried a special power for many struggling to build a more equal, sustainable and just world. In that spirit we share her poem:

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves. Continue reading “Wild Geese by Mary Oliver”

JRF: How to improve support and services for destitute migrants

2015 Aug 12 JRF DestitutionExecutive summary:

Action is urgently needed to help destitute migrants

Many migrants in Britain who find themselves with no support or ability to return home face destitution; they are not allowed to work, have no access to benefits and in only a few cases get emergency help. Many of them have a case to stay in the UK but cannot quickly prove it. All are vulnerable to exploitation or otherwise at risk.

All reports from frontline agencies indicate that the problem is growing much faster than their ability to respond. While many of the issues discussed here apply to migrants from within the European Union, the needs of migrants from outside the EU (more precisely the EEA – European Economic Area) are particularly acute because they usually have more complex immigration issues and cannot readily return home. Providing accommodation and support for them is a huge challenge because of rules about ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF). The report focuses on this group. Continue reading “JRF: How to improve support and services for destitute migrants”

We are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom

quaker_home_theme1Oceans
 
I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God*; and I had great openings
                                                                                      George Fox, Journal for 1647
There’s more than dark enough to drown us all,
pulls with strong currents though it’s overflown.
Mostly, I drift; but sometimes catch the tide
and swept up, thrown between the waves of light
we splutter kingdomwards, make landfall, stumble
bedraggled and squint-eyed, a few steps on.
Testimony: Quakerism and Theological Ethics   By Rachel Muers
 …

23.11: We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other … but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God*, and with one another, that these things may abound.

Edward Burrough, 1659

http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/23/

* My word would be  ‘Love’.

QARN response to the APPI into immigration detention

qarn logo sm

Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN: response to the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Immigration Detention Report released 3 March 2015

‘We detain a lot of people, some for a very long time, all with huge uncertainty, and we have very limited processes for individuals to challenge that detention’.

‘Crucially, this panel believes that little will change by tinkering with the pastoral care or improving the facilities. We believe the problems that beset our immigration detention estate occur quite simply because we detain far too many people unnecessarily and for far too long. The current system is expensive, ineffective and unjust.’ Continue reading “QARN response to the APPI into immigration detention”

Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN

qarn logo sm  Destitution and indefinite detention of people in the asylum system – see reports and articles here: http://qarn.org.uk

Quaker statement on indefinite immigration detention

[The QARN statement (see below) has now been adapted by Quakers in Britain and may be used in correspondence with press and local MPs: http://www.quaker.org.uk/news/quaker-statement-immigration-detention] Continue reading “Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network – QARN”

Quaker Meeting this morning

quaker_home_theme1http://www.quaker.org.uk/bym War and peace,  turning weapons into ploughshares.  

I was mindful of the violence being carried out in Syria,  the 100 or so people who are still dying every day;  the West’s persistence on dividing and so weakening the Kurds which has finally succeeded; the West’s promotion of the Syrian National Coalition which calls for weapons … those who are credibly and adamantly promoting a non-violence resolution to regime change have little voice in the midst of this mess.

Haytham Manna should have everyone’s ear … http://supportkurds.org/reports/speech-of-haytham-manna-14-september-2013-in-paris

Some of the people at Quakers are amazing