Migrant Voice signs letter to Keir Starmer alongside 50+ organisations, calling for routes to reside

The majority of people on this route are also subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds condition, which indirectly discriminates against women, disabled people and Black, Brown and racialised communities, and pushes thousands of people into poverty and insecure housing each year. [...] The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, responsible for providing independent scrutiny of state border and immigration functions, has long called for the 10-year route to be reviewed with a view to scrapping it, due to its impact on families, potential discrimination and the role it plays in making people undocumented. [...] Earlier this year, after years of tireless campaigning by young activists and We Belong, a shorter 5-year route to settlement for people who came to the UK as children was introduced, with potential to transform the lives of thousands of children and young people. [...] The Labour Party must listen to the experiences of people forced through this cruel, racist system, and commit to ending the cycle of poverty and precarity faced by so many migrant families. [...] As Labour leader, you’ve said you want to ‘re-energise our communities’ and be the party of ‘working people.’ But unless humanity, dignity and compassion are centred in your immigration policies, and people who have moved to the UK are enabled to settle and to thrive, this will be impossible to achieve.