Migrant Rainbow – March 2025

Our monthly summary of migration justice news

Local / Community Updates

Four Windrush projects in Yorkshire and Humber are receiving funding under the Government Windrush Day Grant. The projects are: Cricket Arena CIC; Kirklees Local Television; MAPA Cultural Arts Centre; Prison Radio Association.

Yorkshire International Recruitment Hub is requesting views on how to strengthen support for migrant healthcare workers in our region – hoping to hear from organisations supporting individuals on Health and Social care Visas, and the individuals themselves. The survey is live until 4th April

People seeking asylum in Leeds have shared how the ban which prevents them from working is affecting their lives. One individual claims to feel like a ‘wasted resource’ who cannot contribute to our community, and many share the impact that this has on their wellbeing.

Saifullah Ahmadzai, who sought asylum in the UK nearly two years ago, has shared how a community bike project in Barnsley enabled him to build independence in the UK – emphasising the importance of community solidarity and the various ways that this can show.

Leeds City Council are welcoming feedback on their 2021-2025 Strategic Coordinated and Inclusive Approach to Migration, with a deadline on 14th April

Migrant Action Updates

Migrant Action is building a new grassroots Economic Justice Collaboration initiative aiming to build a new architecture for interrogating extractive exploitative economic regimes that are harming migrants, and working towards building alternative economies and migrant-led eco-systems for economic justice. This would enable migrants to re-imagine humane and liberatory economic futures where individuals are not ‘tools’ for extraction, but architects of their owns dreams for economic. Migrant Action will support migrant workers to build knowledge, capacity, leadership, and infrastructures for building new solidarity economies, wealth creation, and systemic advocacy for migration justice. If you are excited and want to know more about our migration economic justice vision or contribute to the project get in touch with us at Migrant Action – all are welcome and individuals who are affected are particularly encouraged to get involved.

Migrant Action has welcomed Nova to the Migrant Action team in a full time capacity, after 2 years as a volunteer! They will be carrying out communications and community engagement work in this role and we are grateful for this addition to the team and look forward to their contribution!

Client feedback spotlight

General / National Updates

Migration and Labour Justice – Care Workers

The Royal College of Nursing urged the government to accelerate its planned investigation into the exploitation of care workers, expressing concern at lack of government action about serious issues such as employers demanding large repayment fees if staff decide to leave.

Furthermore, the National Audit Office has published a report criticising the Home Office for failing to assess the potential impact of making it easier to recruit care workers from overseas. Their report states the department does not have a full understanding of how the Skilled Worker visa route is operating, and that they ‘cannot be confident it is achieving value for money’. This coincides with Anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons attributing the exploitation of care workers to the flawed design of the visa scheme – expressing the need for the government to go further to address exploitation.

On the 12th March, the Government launched a series of new immigration rules, including changes to the skilled worker route which will require employers to prioritise recruiting migrant care workers who are already in England before recruiting from overseas, which they claim ‘ensures that those who came to the UK to pursue a career in adult social care can do so and will help end the reliance on overseas recruitment as we restore order to our immigration system through our Plan for Change’. Tulia Group states that many issues and barriers to justice remain for individuals on the scheme despite the changes: including transportation barriers and issues specifically for men on these visas struggling to get work.

Economic and Labour Justice

The Government announced a general hike in visa fees set to come into effect on the 9th April – visas to study, work, and settle in the UK are all affected. The certificate of sponsorship fee is being raised by 120% – from from £239 to £525. This comes at a time when many migrants justice organisations have been sharing the financial difficulties faced by migrants due to these visa fees and the effect that this has on one’s physical and mental health. Migrant Action are working to formulate a response to this hostility and maintain resilience in our community.

A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research finds that 46% of children in the UK with at least one parent born outside the country are living in poverty. The report also highlights how many families who have No Recourse to Public Funds have restricted access to free childcare which prevents parents from working. This highlights just one of the inhumane barriers that the No Recourse to Public Funds policy perpetuates for migrants.

Employers in the UK have shared that the attempts by the government to reduce overall net migration, including the ban for care workers to bring dependents, has made it difficult for recruiters to hire the right staff. The Work Rights Centre warns that this increases the risk of exploitation for migrant workers in the fields of construction, hospitality, and care.

Data from ApplyBoard suggests that international students’ aspirations, as reflected by their field of study, align with the UK’s long-term workforce demands. Sheffield business owners have expressed their worries on the negative impact on the falling number of international students in the city upon their businesses.

Asylum

Migrants Rights Network has released research surrounding the issues of using AI in asylum decision making, focused on the perspectives of individuals in the system. Individuals expressed concern at AI’s ability to understand human emotions and how this may particularly impact neurodivergent people, the lack of transparency about how AI is used in the system, and the ability of AI to make errors which are unchecked and the impact this will carry.

The UK Government has hosted an ‘organised immigration crime summit’ with over 40 countries and organisations attending, emphasising the commitment to ‘securing borders’ and ‘tackling smuggling gangs’ . Whilst the establishment of safe routes for individuals who are seeking safety and asylum is still not being considered as a legitimate solution, the government has already introduced some new measures which will harm irregular migrants:

In an extension of the Hostile Environment, the government is expanding right-to-work checks to cover gig economy workers by making amendments to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. Businesses that do not carry out the checks could be fined up to £60,000, or face closures and up to five years in prison. This is despite the Home Office’s own report which found that there is no evidence of “a long-term correlation between labour market access and destination choice”. Free movement says ‘These changes are therefore unlikely to have any impact on people coming over by small boat, but they will create more problems for those who are here lawfully and are approaching the expiry of their leave, or who are on section 3C leave.’

£30m of funding for the Border Security Command will be used to tackle supply chains, finance and trafficking routes across Europe, the Balkans, Asia and Africa. A further £3m is being given to the Crown Prosecution Service to increase its ability to deal with people-smuggling cases.

General

British Future research argues that the politics of immigration have not caught up with the reality, as immigration numbers are consistently falling- particularly work visas in the health and care sector and study visas including dependents- yet there is still a political push to get the lowest numbers of immigration, rather than acknowledgment of the contribution of migration to economic growth.

The Government has been pushing to increase deportations of Foreign National Offenders through a new ‘immigration crack squad’ as well as trying to review the application of Article 8 of the ECHR (the right to private and family life) to UK immigration cases, after many of these deportations are halted under this human rights basis. There has also been an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration bill which allows Foreign National Offenders who cannot be deported under Article 8 to be subjected to electronic tagging and curfews. The Committee on Human Rights is conducting an inquiry to scrutinise the Bill- submissions needed by 11th April.

The government has also produced a series of guides in multiple languages to help ensure people receive reliable immigration advice. The guidebooks highlight risks posed by unregulated advisors and give details on how to report illegal activity.

EU visitors can now apply for the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) needed for the travel to the UK from 2 April. Meanwhile, the government confirmed the plans to exempt BN(O) passport holders from ETA requirements, initially introduced to this group in January. From now on, all people with a biometric-chipped passport or national identity card can update all their UKVI details, including name and nationality, online.

Free Movement have released a resources on rules surrounding continuous residence for the EU Settlement Scheme- available in Migration Justice Library