Migrant Voice

Dislike the sound of plans for a digital ID roll-out?

There are good reasons!!

Immigrants in the UK are already subject to a digital ID system & it's been a mess since day one.
Very important report here from brilliant Migrant Voice with @openrightsgroup.org explains the key issues 🤓👇

Thank you Zoe

The 'Exclusion by Design' report is the outcome of a year long project by @deryaozkul.bsky.social from the @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social and Marie Godin from the @uniofleicester.bsky.social, along with @sarahalsherif.bsky.social from @openrightsgroup.org and we are grateful to have been a part of it.

Digital status report launched Digital status report launched

You can read about the launch of the report on our website, along with a range of issues raised by speakers. Not only did we hear about way in which the digital immigration system excludes many migrants, we also heard how it can put abuse victims at further risk.
www.migrantvoice.org/home/pagenew...

Picture of the panel for the report launch

We are thrilled to be launching our new report, Exclusion by Design: Digital Identification and the Hostile Environment for Migrants, with Derya Ozkul (University of Warwick) and Marie Godin (University of Leicester) and @openrightsgroup.org

www.migrantvoice.org/img/upload/C...

UK’s new digital-only immigration system creating exclusion and fear, study finds Obtaining an eVisa to prove their status or right to legally reside in Britain is causing migrants high levels of stress

Great work by @migrantvoice.bsky.social and researchers from Warwick University and Leicester University. Congratulations to former colleague @mariegodin.bsky.social who co-authored the report www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Exclusion by Design: Digital Identification and the Hostile Environment for… Together with Derya Ozkul (University of Warwick) and Marie Godin (University of Leicester) and Open Rights Group, Migrant Voice have produced the report ‘Exclusion by Design: Digital Identification a...

You can read the full report, detailing how the digital immigration system leaves migrants excluded from society, blocked from working, denied the ability to rent, left in limbo and suffering increased stress and distress here👇
www.migrantvoice.org/resources/re...

UK’s new digital-only immigration system creating exclusion and fear, study finds Obtaining an eVisa to prove their status or right to legally reside in Britain is causing migrants high levels of stress

The shift to a "digital only immigration system" is already causing distress and exclusion for many migrants.
Our work with the University of Warwick has shown significant issues with the system.
We will be launching our report later today detailing the problems.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Graphic showing the details for our IMD event, including: Date 18th December Time: 2-9pm Location: St Johns, Hyde Park Crescent, London, W2 2QD

🚨Join us for International Migrants Day🚨
Migrant Voice and Centre for Youths Integrated Development (CYID) are coming together to celebrate the lives, journeys and resilience of all migrants.

🎉We have a packed array of activities for the event.
To sign today 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/internatio...

Thank you. We hope it is helpful for people

A pictures of a fence with the words saying: Misinformation about migrants harms everyone It creates division within communities Support Migrant Voice to combat it

Misinformation about migrants is stoking hostility and causing division.
Read our editorial explaining some of the ways in which it is used against migrants, and why it is wrong.

🚨Support Migrant Voice in combatting misinformation🚨

www.migrantvoice.org/home/editori...

Thank you for thinking of us, unfortunately on this occasion it is the wonderful @migrantsorganise.bsky.social we think you meant to tag.
Fortunately though, we do have our own fundraising campaign running to help ensure that migrants' voices are heard loud and clear. 😁
bsky.app/profile/migr...

Today @migrantvoice.bsky.social has launched their winter fundraiser. At a time when misinformation is increasing division, and driving government policy, it is crucial it is countered and that the experiences and voices of migrants are heard.
If you can donate please do. Please also share widely.

Thank you so much for your support on this

Challenging misinformation around migration is essential right now, so please support @migrantvoice.bsky.social who do a brilliant job of giving clear, evidenced info.

Challenging misinformation on immigration must be a priority Challenging misinformation on immigration must be a priority

We've put together some resources to support the campaign, and people's abilities to combat misinformation in general.

Read our editorial debunking common misleading claims 👇
www.migrantvoice.org/home/editori...

And our launch piece, with links to resources👇
www.migrantvoice.org/home/pagenew...

🚨Campaign launch🚨

Today Migrant Voices launched our "Don't knows do care" campaign to counter misinformation around migration.
Your support is important. Please donate, if you can., share and take part in helping to combat the hostile rhetoric.

Please donate here👇
www.gofundme.com/f/help-comba...

This is a very good explainer about the recently released government consultation into changes to settlement by our colleagues at @praxisprojects.bsky.social and @gmiau.bsky.social

UK immigration: Minister flags visa 'abuse' as student asylum claims surge More than 14,000 students on study visas sought asylum this year to June 2025 according to Home Office figures.

Successive governments have treated international students as an easy target. Whether unjustly stripping them of the right to study, increasing costs for them, preventing them from being with loved ones etc. This is yet more hostility wrapped up as policy.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Police disclosing suspects’ ethnicity is fuelling prejudice, say campaigners Fifty groups write letter calling for policy in high-profile cases in England and Wales to be scrapped

"The guidance was offered as an attempt to dispel misinformation … In practice it has had the opposite effect, becoming a catalyst for crime reporting reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s – reviving a focus on race and migration status."

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Funded by ESRC Digital Good Network, this is the culmination of more than a year's work, analysing the impact of the digitalisation of status on migrants.
For more information and to express interest in attending the launch please email info@migrantvoice.org

🚨Join us on December 5th for the launch of this new report, ‘Exclusion by Design: Digital Identification and the Hostile Environment for Migrants.’ into impact of e-visas and digitalisation of status on migrants, led by Derya Ozkul (University of Warwick) and Marie Godin (University of Leicester).

Some migrants to face 20-year wait for settled status Shabana Mahmood says becoming part of the UK is "not a right but a privilege – and one that must be earned".

We already see the devastating impact of 20 year routes on individuals. They need scrapping, not more people forced onto them. Any of us can find ourselves needing help at some stage. Pushing people into more debt and misery because they do is unjust and discriminatory.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Please share with your MP.
Anti-asylum and anti-immigration policies don't unify us, they divide us. They harm the very communities which MPs work to support and champion.
We are calling upon everyone to stand with those affected, and oppose policies which dehumanise us.

A picture of the Palace of Westminster with shadows of people walking imposed over the front

The most recent attack on the rights and dignity of those who have come to this country seeking asylum are not isolated. They form part of a wider, and dangerous, cycle of hostility and abuse against migrants. Read our response to these attacks here👇
www.migrantvoice.org/home/editori...

Home Office says past ‘hesitancy’ over removal of families and children of failed asylum seekers was wrong – live Labour MP calls government’s asylum plans ‘dystopian’ amid backlash over ‘cruel’ policy

This government's anti-asylum policies are inhumane, dehumanising and dangerous. Its announced proposals today put already vulnerable individuals at increased risk of mental and physical harm, along with exploitation.
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

The anti-asylum proposals being set out by the Home Secretary reinforce the dehumanisation of individuals coming to the UK to seek safety and set the UK on a course for even more inhumanity. We know from the existing 20-year-route how it put people's lives on hold and prevents them from settling. It leaves people in precarious positions and at more risk of exploitation. It denies them the ability to be able to rebuild their lives after suffering unimaginable horrors, as well as leaving them in fear that at any moment they may be ripped away from their family and friends once again. We need an asylum system which treats those coming for safety with dignity and respect. A system which processes their applications faster and more effectively. A system which allows them the right to work so that they can integrate and support themselves. What the Home Secretary proposes is one which treats them with contempt and hostility.

We must stop the hostility towards, and demonisation of, people just trying to seek safety. Our statement on just some of the Home Secretary's proposed changes to the asylum system

UK charities condemn ‘immoral’ plans to force asylum seekers to volunteer Making volunteering compulsory for refugees slammed as exploitative, bureaucratic and un-British

A key point about "volunteering" is that it should be "voluntary". By forcing migrants to volunteer this government not only treats us as if we are a free resource, but also ignores everything else we go through. This policy is dehumanising and exploitative.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Rats, overcrowding and malnutrition common at UK asylum hotels, report finds Home Office’s three accommodation providers made combined profit of £380m over five years, charity estimates

When we published our report "No Rest No Security" into Home Office run hotels we found similar issues with the conditions. That was more than two years ago and @ramfel.bsky.social show the situation hasn't improved. People seeking asylum need to be treated better
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Visa fee U-turn for Ashington man hoping to reunite family Christopher Wade wants to bring his wife and two-year-old daughter who live in Canada to the UK.

The extortionate costs of visas, sometimes about ten times the actual processing costs, leave families ripped apart. While feeling waivers exist, they can be far too hard to access for many. We need a system which treats migrants with respect, not as magic money trees.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...