The Migrants’ Rights Network and over 50 other “charities” have penned an open letter demanding state support and accommodation for between 800,000 and 1.2 million illegal migrants through the coronavirus pandemic.
The open letter, addressed to local councils across the country, demanded that they use hardship funds made available by the central government to “ensure that everyone, regardless of immigration status, can access self-contained accommodation and self-isolate safely”, and that they block book hotels and requisition empty homes, housing developments, and university halls of residence to do so.
They further insisted that any information collected on illegal aliens for the purposes of supporting them “must not be shared with the Home Office or any other agency for the purpose of immigration enforcement”.
The open letter also called on local government to support a previous open letter, organised by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), calling on central government to give illegal aliens access to healthcare and “release everyone detained under immigration powers to reduce the risk of COVID-19 entering the detention estate and causing avoidable harm”.
The JCWI letter did not address the possible health risk of releasing detained migrants into the general population if some are infectious — or indeed the possible risk to public safety, given some are being detained ahead of deportation for committing violent and/or sexual crimes.
We, @Project17UK & @migrants_rights have coordinated an open letter from 50+ orgs to local authorities in England demanding that they take urgent steps to support and protect vulnerable migrants during the pandemic.
The letter can be read here: https://t.co/wid4CYdNKp
— Public Interest Law Centre (@publiclawcentre) March 20, 2020
One of the illegal migrants the open letters concerns spoke to the left-wing Guardian newspaper about his situation, complaining that “Every place where we got support is closed now.”
The 30-year-old Eritrean, who remains in the country despite his asylum claim having been rejected as bogus, said a friend “gave me a bike because I have no money for bus fares,” and claimed he was “cycling round everywhere looking for food… I’m not worried about coronavirus, I will accept whatever comes into my life with the virus. But I am worried that I will die from hunger.”
“Nobody should find themselves starving in this crisis – and many charities will be supported through the measures the government has outlined to keep people employed,” a government spokesman told the newspaper.
Thieves have stolen from hospital vending machines and ransacked the changing rooms of local doctors and nurses. https://t.co/VHWZMFVNID
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 22, 2020
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