New report by Corporate Watch outlines the UK government's "hostile
environment" policies against migrants:
https://corporatewatch.org/news/2017/apr/08/hostile-environment-turning-uk-nation-border-cops
SUMMARY
In 2012 Theresa May, then Home Secretary, announced a new approach to
immigration: to make Britain a “hostile environment” for people who have
“no right to be here”.i The plan is to make it ever tougher for people
without the right immigration papers to get a job, rent a flat, use a
bank, drive a car, get medical treatment, send kids to school, or
otherwise live a normal life.
This report outlines 13 of the main hostile environment policies
introduced so far, including:
** The NHS will start compulsory ID checks in hospitals this month.
“Overseas visitors” will be made to pay for non-emergency treatment;
later in the year, the government wants to extend charging to A&E and GP
surgeries too.
** Meanwhile, patient details collected when people register with GPs
are systematically passed on to Immigration Enforcement who use them to
track down “illegals”. Around 6,000 people were traced this way in 2016.
** Similarly, the Department of Education has agreed to hand over names
and addresses of 1500 school pupils and their families each month,
collected in the “School Census”.
** At the moment, such information sharing requires specific legal
agreements. This will change if the Digital Economy Bill passes
unamended this year, allowing government departments and corporate
contractors to automatically share people's confidential data.
** Other measures ban unwanted migrants from renting homes, opening bank
accounts or getting driving licenses. Migrants are being criminalised
with new offences of “working illegally”, “driving in the UK”, and
employing or renting to “illegals”.
** Migrants forced onto the streets are being targeted by immigration
raids against rough sleepers, coordinated with local councils and
homelessness charities.
** Police and Immigration Enforcement are increasingly integrated, led
by Operation Nexus in London which embeds immigration offficers in
police stations and standardises ID checks. Met Police are also handing
over details of victims and witnesses of crimes.
** Local councils are being encouraged to launch immigration enforcement
operations with money from a new “Controlling Migration Fund”.
** The introduction highlights three basic themes across all these
measures: mass information sharing, criminalisation of migrants, and
widespread citizen collaboration.
** The hostile environment relies on collaboration from bosses and
workers in the public sector and in private companies, and also from
many more of us as “members of the public”. The conclusion looks in more
depth at how the government is trying to foster a culture of
collaboration – and at some possibilities for resistance.
Download a PDF version of this report here:
https://corporatewatch.org/sites/default/files/CW%20hostile%20environment.pdf
CONTENTS
Introduction: Information, Criminalisation, Collaboration
1. Healthcare (1): NHS charges and ID checks
2. Healthcare (2): NHS Digital data sharing
3. Education (1): the School Census
4. Education (2): Higher Education student monitoring
5. Housing: no passport, no home
6. Homelessness: the rough sleeper round up
7. Work: employer collaboration
8. Driving: driving licence data sharing
9. Bank Accounts
10. Marriages
11. Police Liaison: Operation Nexus
12. Local Authorities: the Controlling Migration Fund
13. The Digital Economy Act: towards the One Big Database
Conclusion: How collaboration works
Appendix: How to stop Immigration Enforcement getting address from your
GP?
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