Anyong! (Korean)
Our meetup earlier this month was well attended, with about 20 people present. Most were there to find out about exercising free movement rights, and a couple of BC members who are now united with their family in the UK simply came to help and share their experience - thank you very much Mark and Sree for dedicating your Saturday afternoon to this cause.
It was especially rewarding as attendees stated they learnt more in these few hours than they had in the past three years! All thankfully appeared to leave with a clear understanding of how free movement works, what the requirements are and what Surinder Singh route is. We expect Ireland and Germany will see a few more happy families coming their way.
Fantastic Fran - volunteer and BC representative in Scotland - is organising a
meetup in Edinburgh on 4th September. Please attend if you can and show support in the opposition to these roles. It will also provide you with a chance to meet other like-minded people and kids are of course welcome too.
Two bits of good news on the general immigration front.
Germany has chosen to adopt a humane stance towards those seeking refuge, ensuring loyalty from generations of Syrians who also won't forget any time soon the UK government comparing their existence to that of insects. Just hope Syrians know British politicians don't in fact speak for us all.
You will all also have heard people fleeing war, famine, persecution being referred to as migrants - a massive bug bear of mine, not because migrants is a bad word - not remotely, as at one point or another all of us are migrants - but because of the tone the word is used in. It's therefore been fantastic to see
responsible journalism from Al Jazeera English, which has announced that it will now refer to these people simply as people, refugees or families. Slowly, but surely, we're seeing some positive change, in politicians (albeit not British ones, yet) and the media.
In a bit more detail below we share what appears to be yet another questionable decision by the HO and some disappointing statistics from the visa unit in Manila.
Wish you all a lovely long weekend from all at BritCits.