"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela.
"He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb.
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". -
David Cameron.

Sunday 30 June 2013

Lobby your MP!

Sample letter below.

Dear ,

As your constituent, I am writing on behalf of the ‘Divided Families Campaign’, a UK-wide campaign for highlighting the impact of the new rules on family migration. I would like to invite you to a meeting in Committee Room 10 of the House of Commons on Tuesday 9th July from 18:00 to 19:30.

I am shocked and disturbed by stories of people who have been separated from their spouses, partners, children, or family members as a result of the income threshold introduced in the new rules, or of the excessive evidential requirements, or of the impossibility of sponsoring elderly dependants. The changes aim to make it more difficult to sponsor spouses and partners, or elderly dependents, to come to the UK from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). I believe these changes are unfair and I would like for you to attend this meeting to hear how it has impacted me and other like me from around the UK.

Stories which include : A son earning over £100,000 unable to sponsor parents because of rules which are impossible to meet and deemed a ban masquerading as a rule; a young mum with a second chance at love forced to choose between her kids from a previous relationship living in the UK and her husband overseas; a gay mum with twins unable to return to UK to have her civil partner’s status recognised for the security of their babies; debt-free pensioners forced into working for income they don’t need; armed forces personnel who risked their life for our freedom being denied a right to their family file; British ex-pats wanting to return to look after British parents find barriers to re-entry are too high if they have a non-EU spouse or child. Skype families trying to conquer long-distance & time-differences through a screen; Brits forced into exile with their families.

The meeting will be chaired by Baroness Ruth Lister. It will bring together campaigners, supporters and parliamentarians to hear about the impacts of the new rules. The meeting will welcome valuable public servants including Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner for England, and will be a chance for families to share their stories.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration recently launched a report into the impact of the rules, a copy of which I am pleased to attach. I would be very grateful on your thoughts on the findings of this report.

If you cannot come to the meeting, I would also ask that you write to the Home Secretary, and to the Immigration Minister, Mark Harper MP, asking for an explanation of why policy has not changed as a result of the APPG on Migration’s report published on 10 June this year. 

Thank you very much for your time and I earnestly await your reply.

Yours sincerely,


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