The letter will be delivered to Home Office offices at Vulcan House next to the River Don as part of a day of action this Friday June 18 to mark Sheffield Refugee Week.
Activists will gather outside the building that morning to picket workers as they arrive from 8:30 am, before staging a “loud protest” at lunchtime at 12:45 pm.
The letter written by asylum seekers and other concerned migrants will be presented at 4.30 p.m., followed by a rally from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Protesters demonstrate against the new immigration plan proposed by Home Secretary Priti Patel and the long-standing policy of mandatory immigration reporting, which requires people to attend regular appointments and opponents say they cause significant stress and anxiety.
They are also calling for an end to the use of immigration descent vans in the city, which they call “a mere form of intimidation”.
Critics say the new immigration plan will “further strengthen the hostile environment” for migrants in Britain, with plans to deport asylum seekers as they multiply appeals, and policies of “refoulement” “in the English Channel – a tactic they say is used in the Mediterranean and has claimed thousands of lives
The protest organizers, which include the South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG), say: ‘We stand in solidarity with our neighbors, friends and all in our community who should be affected by these heinous policy proposals that threaten to deepen the already inhumane conditions for many asylum seekers and refugees living in the UK.
In-person reporting was put on hold during the lockdown, which critics say has proven the practice to be unnecessary and has shown how being allowed to report via text or phone instead can dramatically reduce stress. .
The letter, which is addressed to the director of Vulcan House, states, “We are writing to make you aware of the oppression we are experiencing in coming to report to Vulcan House and to ask you to end this enforced cruelty.
“You may not realize the devastating effect it has on people’s sanity to be forced to go to Vulcan House and report week after week, month after month, never knowing if you will return to. where you live that night.
“Some of us have to travel long distances to get here; some of us have to bring our children. We are always fearful, sleepless, stressed before coming, as well as when arriving here: uncertainty has a terrible effect on the mental health of people, not only on us as adults but on our children who must see us. fearful and anxious and therefore fear themselves.
“We would like to ask you to reflect on the long term damage to each of us as individuals, as well as the long term damage to society and loss of life caused by the psychological torture of reporting, as well as the constant fear of arbitrary arrest and detention.
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Source: www.thestar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-13 17:29:10
