At Right to Remain, we know that the already difficult situation for migrants and people seeking asylum in the UK has become more difficult over the decades, and rapidly so in recent years, months, and even days. 

The UK asylum and immigration systems are complicated. We created our Toolkit, developed our workshops and started publishing our Legal Updates to make sure that people who are in the system or those who are trying to support them are kept up to date with the law and regulations surrounding immigration and asylum law. 

Understanding the process of your application or case can be empowering. It gives you a better chance of navigating the system whether or not you have a lawyer. Things become slightly less scary when we understand them better and know what steps we need to take. 

When the Nationality and Borders Act became law earlier this year, some hostile (this means aggressive) changes were made to the law in the UK. It is our duty to communicate these changes and make sure that all the pages of our Toolkit are up to date and accurate, so that people know what the situation is in the UK when it comes to asylum and immigration law. 

However, we think it is important to restate our position and make our beliefs clear. Right to Remain believes in a world where everyone can exercise their right to remain where they need to be with dignity and humanity. We believe that no one is illegal, and that the hostile environment enforced by the UK government for 10+ years should be dismantled immediately. 

The boundary between providing information and appearing to be in support of anti-migrant and anti-refugee rules can be blurry, especially when taken out of context.

We feel profound discomfort when we have to present and try to explain these new laws to the public, especially when this risks making people think that we accept or approve of them – because we don’t. But, though it is difficult to share, we still continue to break down and put this information in our Toolkit and resources because it is the reality of the current situation in the UK and people need to know how to navigate the system. 

We want migrant communities in the UK to remain informed, because we firmly believe that knowledge is power. We cannot change the system unless we understand the system.

Our mission is to change the system and create an alternative world where we all recognise migration is life.

In solidarity, 

The Right to Remain Team