Wow. What a wonderful day yesterday was..thinking about it still
makes me smile. Lovely to see so many of
you during the day, and those who couldn’t make it, you were there in spirit
with the ribbons being used. I’m disappointed I didn’t get to catch up with you
all, despite seeing familiar faces (e.g.
!)..and others who I knew by name
would have been great to place face to name. However, I
did spend the time speaking with Julian Huppert
MP who is very much on side, and the lawyers handling the parents case.
Julian indicated that while some MPs are aware of these rules, many
aren't (so it's up to us that every single one of our MPs at least knows
this is HUGE). The lawyers have recently filed a case against the new
rules on elderly parents - they cited an example of another lawyer whose
salary was in 7 figures (so over £1m)..whose father is Canadian...and
that even this guy would not qualify to bring his parent over. They did
not give specific details on their case, however, its definitely one to
watch out for.
No matter how many notes I managed to scrawl down, there is so
much more that happened. Others will also be writing up on the day,
Steve will post something on the website; there may be recordings
available at some point and hopefully not too much of what I say below
needs correction. (If you know anyone - perhaps someone you met
yesterday - who isn't already on the BritCits database, please ask them
to join us so they receive such updates going forward.)
No.10 Downing Street:
2pm saw an alliance of
JCWI,
MRN,
FIA, Preethpal Singh (
active in Southampton
region) and BritCits meet at Downing Street.
Hugely grateful to MRN for arranging this for us all..to present a
petition, the BritCits pack and other supporting documentation, evidencing the
unfairness of the rules, to go straight to David Cameron and his staff. You may well have seen some photos of us
outside the number 10 door via the MRN newsletter, twitter, FB etc. BBC camera people were present...I’m not sure
yet where our footage will be used..but it’s there and they cared enough about
this issue to be there.
Home Office protest:
From there we moved on to the Home Office, where I’m told there were
150-200 protestors..chanting led by
Guy (JCWI) and britcit Asthika, sharing
their situations and campaigning for a change in the rules. It was fun and just
good to feel as well as be, united in the journey to force change. Fantastic group showing the diversity of the
impact of the rules..something I’m actually grateful for. If it only affected
one minority group, or one region, perhaps we wouldn’t have felt the
togetherness which is so required to ensure we get the politicians being paid
to represent us, to do so fairly. I was saddened that a child of about 12 knew
the word deport..and enough to say ‘
don’t deport my daddy’. Lost innocence.
Parliamentary
meeting: Finally the meeting at Houses of Parliament ..it was
packed..people were sitting in the aisles, others standing on the side and
photos of only some of the families along the walls showed that in the interest
of a migration target, what some politicians have been able to overlook is that
their rules are impacting real people, real families..honest hardworking decent
Brits, because they dared to have family members from a region of the world
outside the European Economic Area.
Michael Allen,
a student at Warwick University said 20% of the students at his uni are international;
he pushed for immigration taking account of humans and mocked Cameron who on a
trip to Kazakhstan made a comment about missing his wife after a few days apart,
when with his rules, many Brits have not seen their family for months or even
years.
Fawzia Whittuck
then spoke of her son Steve, her daughter in law Yoko and her granddaughter,
Rika..all stuck in Japan. This family JUST satisfies the savings threshold...however
they are still having trouble getting through the rules. They are convinced the
rules as they are breach article 8 of the Human Rights Act, and despite the
fact that both of Steve’s parents were born in the UK, he now feels unwelcome
in his own country because of the way his wife has been treated. A feeling
echoed no doubt by many in the room.
Next speaker was
KeithVaz, MP.
We should of course be grateful he gave us the 5 or so mins
for which he was in the room. He once again spoke of his family history; Keith’s
parents are the quintessential migrants, moving from Goa to Mumbai, then to
Yemen, and then to the UK, where they arrived with Keith and his two
sisters. He expressed his gratitude to
the campaign group and his pleasure that Sarah Teather MP had escaped captivity,
allowing her to speak out against these rules (in this I believe he was
referred to the fact that Sarah is no longer a Minister and therefore less
restrained in what she is and isn’t allowed to say).
He said he was glad the High Court challenged
the current limits, mentioning the average salary in his constituency in Leicester is around
£16k...Leicester, a city of migrants he called it. He said the Home Affairs Select Committee would
have a look at the rules at the request of Julian Huppert MP (lovely, lovely
man who grew up in the same area in Australia as me..small world!). He also
said that the Home Affairs Select Committee had Boris Johnson as their star
witness, who when questioned on whether amnesty should be given to ‘illegal’ (I’m
sure he meant undocumented) migrants, said yes.
BritCits
along with no doubt other groups, will be contacting his staff to ensure he
fulfils the promised re: looking at the rules.
Maggie Atkinson,
Children’s Commissioner for England then spoke about the impact of these rules
on kid; she said fairness has been sacrificed to achieve a goal, which is just
numbers. Also said the rules do NOT reflect the commitment from the coalition.
She gave a example of case with a British woman with a child in South Africa
from a marriage which broke down; here neither the entry clearance officer, nor
the immigration judge’s appeal took account of the child’s wishes, which is
something required under Article 12. She
supports the APPG’s call on the govt to review the rules..waiting to April 2015
is too long, especially in the life of a child.
These kind of rules are not right for a family friendly nation.
Marianne Bailey
then spoke up..this is someone who is a designer, entrepreneur and even involved
in an eco-vehicle project which will not only reduce the impact on the environment,
but also taxpayers money. Her husband is
Japanese and she is likely to give birth in the next week or so. She is a
lecturer at two universities, and despite the fact that she earns over £18,600,
because of the nature of her contracts being by term, three out of her four
sources of income have been disregarded by UKBA. She was clearly gutted her
husband’s income..even while she was on maternity leave, would not count. At one point I thought Marianne would
breakdown in tears, and all in the room were likely ready to console her..when
her next announcement of the fact that she owns TWO properties in London, and
one outright..NO MORTGAGE!..don’t count towards the savings..which means she
will need to sell a property just to hit the strangely concocted savings figure. Despite having assets, savings,
qualifications needed in the UK and an exciting project for our country, she
has already been disqualified with Mark Harper telling her husband he had to
leave the country. This is one woman who was intent on not giving birth without
her husband..which several young mums in the room had already been forced to go
through.
Marianne made an excellent point in that where a spouse
applies for any other visa allowing them to enter the UK, even for a visit,
they are refused as UKBA considers this as circumvention of the spouse visa rules. She said these rules
were against our fundament rights as laid out in the Magna Carta to live in our
country of nationality. These rules prevent
61% of EMPLOYED British women from sponsoring their spouses based on the
£18,600 threshold..when Marianne questioned whether the government then thought
this 61% were benefit scroungers, a resounding yes was given by Don Flynn of
Migrants Rights Network.
Marianne’s story especially seemed to touch the following
speakers; it is very hard to remain untouched when a woman about to give birth
is imploring you to let her family just be.
Next up was the amazing
SarahTeather, MP. She said the rules are based on a policy divorced from
real life. In her words, they are ‘bonkers’, and fail even on their own
criteria about economic impact on the UK.
Her view is that these rules are ONLY about driving down numbers based
on an arbitrary cap. She requested we all contact our MPs, ensure they know
this is an issue and force them to take it up on our behalf in parliament. As
much as she and several others MPs are doing, they need more on the panel, more
MPs to stand up against the Home Office..and this is something that only we, as
constituents and voters can get pushed through.
Kate Green MPre-affirmed these rules are not about saving money..they are not in the
interest of children and not in the interest of families.
Baroness Hamwee
– who spoke up loudly on this issue at the House of Lords debate last week, had
just one main message: Let’s keep fighting.
Fiona McTaggart MP
has been campaigning for migration and justice since the 1970s. Her message was
and always has been that there should not be a means test on love. She spoke of her earlier associations with
Mark Harper..where he had promised to consider some concessions, such as
allowing for the using of property as an asset...however, weeks later no
response which she finds is typical of the Home Office. She was amused to see that some UKBA officers
earn below £18,600 – so the people keeping spouses apart are earning an
insufficient amount themselves. She
echoed Sarah Teather in saying the rules are bonkers, and went one further,
also calling them stupid
J She spoke of one of her constituents, who
despite working at Sainsburys and having a second job earns below £18,600. His
wife is from Pakistan and is a university graduate, so would likely to be able
get a good job here herself job = paying taxes and NI contributions!). She quoted the min wage figure annualised
being £12,627.
There was a bit of an attack on the Tories (not undeserved
of course), that if they wanted to be family friendly, the record should be
looked at. Labour she said is the only part which has made it easier for
families to be together, getting rid of the Primary Purpose rule which kept couples
in genuine, albeit arranged, marriages apart.
(Note, arranged marriages are not sham marriages..they’re a concept that
has existed in UK’s own not too distant history. So glass houses, stones and
all that.)
Stephen Bowen,
of British Institute of Human Rights then spoke regarding his view that the
rules are a startling breach of human rights obligation, and that they’re unlikely
to survive scrutiny by courts. All human rights apart, there is none more
important than the right to a family life.
He expressed concern over the threshold being so much above the minimum
wage..saying the people most affected by these are going to be care workers in
hospitals, soldiers in the army..and those who serve us coffee even. Every day
people. He is convinced these rules are
so shocking a breach of human rights that they will NOT survive court scrutiny. The right of a British citizen to live in
their own country is a constitutional right...so imposing self-exile of divided
family on Brits is not on.
Thomas Ebsford
spoke about his family in Ghana..and was applauded when he pointed out UK does not
complain when migrants pay their taxes, happily taking these.
Don Flynn
of MRN summarised the immigration policy as ill-considered and ill-thought out...and
that the consequences were identifiable immediately from when the rules were
announced. Yet Mark Harper indicating the consequences –couples forced apart,
kids born without their dad present, well-off professionals being unable to
look after ageing parents, Brits forced into self-exile – were not unintended.
(!)..begging the question how does he sleep at night?!
Finally we had comments from the floor from several
people. Elderly dependants issue was mentioned
as inhumane (ban masquerading as a rule); sex discrimination hitting women even
more, with lower average salaries though the rules were hitting all including
men in regions outside London/South East.
Another member of the audience spoke of her inability to look after her
mum living alone overseas (Russia). There
was a primary school teacher currently undergoing training for when he starts
his job (paying over £18,600) in September..which means he will only be able to
apply for a spouse visa after March 2014 (plus however long it takes to process
the application is how long this couple will be apart). The irony here though
is that a man entrusted with the welfare of our children is being forced to be
apart from his family and even miss the birth of his own child. I’ve said this
before and I can’t say it enough times. Even if the rules change right now,
those who have already been affected will never forget; kids will grow up
knowing their dad missed the first few days, weeks, months and in some cases
years of their life..and they won’t forgive.
Concluding the meeting was the fantastic
Habib Rahman from
JCWI: he said these rules have attacked everybody and implored everyone to keep
sharing their stories (pls pls pls send in your story for inclusion in the
pack....collating the stories makes it much more powerful), lobby your MPs, don’t
let them brush you off. Be vocal about things, go to your local paper even.
Raise awareness. His message very clearly was an unequivocal, we will win!
The
message across the board therefore is, contact your MP..ask them for a
surgery appointment. Ask them to raise your case with Mark Harper and
Theresa May (don't be disheartened as the first response you get back
will be standard spiel about not being a burden on taxpayers etc).
Pursue. Keep writing. Take up your MPs time on this issue so much that
they will be overloaded with immigration casework. So mcuh so they will
want the rules changed just to get you to leave them alone. These people
represent us. Thats what theyre paid for. So while being reasonable,
don't let them get away with ignoring you, brushing away your concerns.
Get your friends and family to also lobby their MP. Ask questions. Ask
why.
We are in this together, and together, as Habib said,
we will win.
