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MIGRANTS BEWARE! Keir Starmer’s Government is about to make an administrative error which could accidentally remove the rights of settled migrants in the UK – dwarfing the consequences of the “Windrush” fiasco.
Most migrants in the UK have a Biometric Resident Permit (BRP) and/or a Biometric Residence Card (BRC). Individuals can use these documents to prove their entitlement to various benefits or services. However, the Government wants all migrants to move to a new, digital-only system from the start of next year: this will give migrants an e-visa which, again, they can use to prove their status and entitlements.
So far, so well that’s not very exciting, then. Except that Migrants Organise have spotted a probem. They point out that because of the e-visa scheme, most, if not all, of the BRPs and BRCs have an expiry date of 31.12.2024 (or sooner). As these cards are just there to prove a migrant’s status, having the card expire does not end the migrant’s status – it just ends their ability to prove it easily.
Migrants have not been warned that it is important to get an e-visa, and decision-makers have not been told about the e-visa either. The charity Migrant Help has already come across cases of officers at the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) curtailing individuals’ benefits because their BRP or BRC seems to have expired. Migrant Help is worried that migrants will have similar experiences in the NHS, with social services and in public and private sector housing.
Migrant Help, “the 3 milion” (a group which monitors whether the three million EU citizens who stayed in the UK after Brexit) and a host of other organisations and individuals have written to Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for the DWP, pointing out the dangers and asking her to publicise the e-visa scheme properly.
●To see the letter and a comprehensive briefing on this issue, go to:
Migrants Organise
●Read more about it:
Campaigners tackle Barts Trust on charging migrants
MPs tell immigrants: “Learn English” – or else
