VITA NetworkWhy is the Illegal Immigration Bill harmful?
Asylum seekers, refugees, victims of human trafficking and exploitation encounter healthcare professionals in clinical settings due to the significant health consequences of their experiences and exploitation. If this is your patient in front of you, the protection and support we offer as a country is about to change dramatically.
If the “Illegal Migration Bill” is passed, except for a few small country-specific schemes, as of 7th March 2023, anybody entering the UK via an ‘irregular’ route of entry will be blocked from claiming asylum or benefitting from modern slavery protections that currently exist via our National Referral Mechanism (NRM). This is despite the fact that there are NO safe, legal, or “regular”, routes to claim these necessary protections.
What does this mean?
This means:
- Anyone fleeing conflict, war, torture, or persecution and entering the country without prior “permission”… will NOT be able to claim asylum.
- Anyone moved to the UK by force, fraud, coercion or deception to be exploited and is a victim of human trafficking, yet enters the UK without prior “permission”… will NOT be able to receive protection under UK modern slavery laws and will be deemed “illegal”.
- They will be placed in detention (which is known to harm health, particularly for survivors of trafficking)
- They will be deported back to their country of origin and likely dangerous and potentially life-threatening situations or to a third country the UK Government deem “safe”, such as Rwanda.
- At the very least, they may face long periods of living in limbo.
- They will NOT receive recourse to public funds and will NOT be able to access free NHS services, except for emergencies, primary care and some sexual health and infectious diseases services.
What does this mean for victims of human trafficking?
Roughly three-quarters of all survivors of trafficking in the UK are not British nationals. A core aspect of human trafficking is the movement of people by force, fraud, coercion and deception and the abuse of vulnerability to do so. Therefore victims and survivors of trafficking WILL continue to come to the UK by irregular routes – including, but not limited to, English channel crossings. Others will continue to travel to seek safety and may be trafficked during or following their journey.
As a result of this bill, huge numbers of survivors of trafficking and modern slavery will be unable to access protection and support. Preventing victims of trafficking from entering the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and having access to the asylum system plays into the hands of traffickers, who will use this as a way to trap those already in exploitation or cause further exploitation.
How does this impact my patient?
Sometimes politics feels far away from the patient and their presenting complaint in front of us. It seems only to relate to distant social determinants of health that we know in theory impact our patients but are deep-rooted social issues that we can’t really do anything about.
The Illegal Immigration Bill not only is a national bill that will contravene international law (e.g. the Refugee Convention 1951, the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and the European Convention on Human Rights), but it will threaten the human rights and directly harm a large number of your patients. It will prevent you, as their healthcare professional, from being able to give them the care that they need. With this bill, there will be new risks of escalating any safety and safeguarding issues when the repercussion may be detention and deportation, not support.
What can we do about it?
1. Use and share our SafeCARE Toolkit – This is a resource for NHS healthcare professionals to advocate for the provision of equal and SafeCARE for all patients, regardless of immigration status within their clinical workplaces.
2. Share our stories and cases – Over the coming months, we will be sharing real, everyday cases of patients we all have seen and recognise, demonstrating how this bill will directly impact their care. We will also hear from NHS healthcare professionals who were refugees themselves and what this would have meant first-hand.
3. Use the hashtag #ThisBillHarmsMyPatient
We have an important and unique voice as healthcare professionals. We must advocate for our patients.