1,000 signatures reached
To: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP
Protect against catastrophic eVisa cliff-edge of 31 December 2024
From January 2025, immigration status in the UK will only be available digitally, through the use of an eVisa. The eVisa system is deeply flawed. A rushed change risks jeopardising the rights of more than 4 million people and unfairly subjecting them to the “hostile environment”, despite having physical immigration documents and having called the UK their home for years.
The Home Office must put a safety net in place urgently. Action is needed NOW to avoid catastrophe:
- restart issuing physical proof of status
- communicate directly with all affected migrants
- change rules that lead airlines to deny boarding
- allow expired documents to be used in a transition phase
- provide free telephone helplines for those struggling to prove their immigration status to airlines and other carriers, employers, landlords, banks, NHS and others. These helplines must be available 24/7, be accessible from abroad, and include translation services
- engage constructively and meaningfully with organisations including the3million and ILPA on developing a better form of digital status which is not dependent on live access to Home Office databases and systems, and which allows for physical backups.
Why is this important?
Many migrants face terrible consequences if unable to prove their right to live, study, work in and travel to the UK.
In March 2024, leaked Home Office records showed that database errors had already hit 76,000 people. One person whose Home Office records had been entangled with another’s said:
“We are hostages to this ridiculous system. We are left trying to prove who we are. My life is no longer my own. We are being made to feel like failures but it is the system that has failed us.”
The EU Settlement Scheme first introduced the digital-only immigration status in 2018, and organisations like the3million have persistently raised awareness of the problems people face. Read Vivienne’s story who has struggled to prove her right to work. She says
“It would make me so much more secure in my rights if I had a physical document to prove my status. I hope the government does the right thing and provides us with the peace of mind we need.”
Or read Rosa’s story who was detained at the UK border because they couldn’t find proof of her status. She writes
“I don’t feel comfortable with the thought of travelling. It’s left me thinking that an error in a system somewhere could lead to me not being able to come home. No one should feel that stressed and anxious. We need more security in our status, and having a physical document would help a lot.”
If the Home Office doesn’t pause its digitalisation programme, today’s temporary detention at the UK border will turn into a denial of boarding your plane, train or ferry from January 2025.
If your ‘status in the cloud’ is somehow broken, it will be next to impossible to persuade a foreign airline staff member, with dozens of people queued up behind you, that you genuinely do have the right to return home to the UK. Someone in this position will have NOTHING in their hands to show their rights.
This is likely to cause a second Windrush scandal. Windrush was in essence about people who had rights but were unable to prove those rights.
There is a package of sensible steps that can be taken to mitigate this impending disaster - please sign this petition and share it widely.
