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• Extending immigration policing and exclusion in the UK, Frances Webber, Race and Class (Institute of Race Relations), volume 5, number 3, January 2014, pp. 86-92

Extending immigration policing and exclusion in the UK, Frances Webber, Race and Class (Institute of Race Relations), volume 5, number 3, January 2014, pp. 86-92

01 January 2014

This piece examines in detail the UK government’s plans to introduce legislation which will further curtail foreigners’ rights to healthcare and rented accommodation and extend the role of those who work in the health and private housing sectors in acting as agents of the UK’s border police force.

The article, by a retired barrister specialising in immigration and asylum casework, contains the response to two government consultation documents:

1. Tackling illegal immigration in privately rented accommodation; and
2. Controlling immigration – regulating immigrant migrant access to health services in the UK.

It considers their likely effects and long-term human rights implications. In relation to private rented accommodation, Webber concludes:

“Far from acting as a means of persuasion for people to return home, and preventing poor conditions, excessive rent, illegal evictions in the private sector, it is likely that the proposed checks will exacerbate the unequal relationship between landlord and migrant tenant or licensee, and lead to more homelessness, destitution and even poorer housing condition in ‘underground’ locations.”

On accessing healthcare, Webber argues that:

“The ethos of the NHS [National Health Service] is one of treatment which is free at the point of need, in recognition of the principle of essential health services as a universal human right. While there has been some modification of this ethos in the current charging regime, generally, the principle survives, at least in relation to primary health care through GP’s surgeries. However, this ethos would be severely, possibly fatally, eroded by the incorporation of GP’s into a charging regime.”

For information on obtaining Race and Class see the Institute of Race Relations website.