BC Bulletin 19th August - Humanity, OCC and Keith Vaz

19th August 2015

Marhaba! (Arabic). The last ten days or so have been relatively quiet on the immigration front as courts are for the most part in recess. The news for those waiting to hear about appeal dates is not particularly great, what with court closures and extraordinarily long waiting times. However there are some positive things to look forward to.

We are expecting clarification from the Home Office on its implementation of McCarthy this month.

Thanks to those who have shared refusal letters from the Home Office, we are also working with an esteemed barrister in the hope that the European Commission will take action against the HO for its breaches of EEA regulations, focusing on UK's 'centre of life' requirements. This hopefully leads to some positive action and relief for many families.

IN THE NEWS
A very happy video sharing the reaction of a child at discovering his 'baba' has been granted a UK visa. You'll laugh and you'll cry.

The raw emotion on this Syrian refugee's face is heartbreaking. Grief, hopelessness and fear are hard enough to see. How therefore this man must be feeling is inconceivable. A stark reminder that contrary to what you may hear from our politicians or media, these really are not economic migrants, but simply people desperately in need of some compassion and understanding from fellow human beings.

Thankfully, there are s ome Brits who are doing a much better job of representing our values than all of Westminster put together.

FAMILY OF THE WEEK
Ravi - British citizen Ravi wishes to sponsor his parents, aged 70 and 80 to live with him in the UK.

As a high earner, Ravi doesn't claim any benefits and as non-EEA nationals, his parents would be ineligible anyway.

Yet UK's divisive family immigration rules don't allow him to sponsor his parents.

OFFICE OF CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER
BritCits has been working with the OCC on a report they have commissioned JCWI and Middlesex University to write on the impact of UK's family migration rules on children.

The report will be launched 10am-12pm 9th September in London. If you wish to attend, please contact policy@jcwi.org.uk

KEITH VAZ, MP
For those who follow us on twitter, they know we're all for naming and shaming, and naming and praising, MPs, who are given a chance to respond.

So this relates to a recent experience we had requesting Keith Vaz update the expenses on his website since they did not include anything from the last 4 years. As it turns out that is something that is publicly available on the IPSA website. However rather than indicating as such or simply ignoring the request, Keith went from following us on twitter to blocking us. Not exactly a supporter of transparency in these times of austerity!

Keith was subsequently contacted by email to provide an explanation for his action - while this was not provided, Keith's office in response indicated interest in BritCits' work as apparently Keith is very interested in all matters related to immigration. When it was pointed out that we were in fact still awaiting a response from Keith on emails sent to him last year on this very issue (that he is apparently so interested in) and requested an update on the still unfulfilled promise to take forward the recommendations of the APPG on Migration report in Keith's role as Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, his office went quiet. Hmmm. Feel free to contact Keith to ask when he will deliver on his promise.

For any positive or negative experiences you've had of MPs please do share. At the end of the day whether they act in such a manner or not, they do work for us.