NCADC has a new name …
Right to Remain: campaigning for migration justice
As you may know, at our last AGM our members voted to change our name to better reflect the work we do, (and for a name that is much easier to say!).
We are very excited to finally publicly launch our new name to the world, and we have a new website to prove it: www.righttoremain.org.uk
We have shiny new email addresses too, but don’t worry – we will still get your emails if you forget and use our old email addresses by mistake.
We also have a new Facebook page so please come and say hello online. We’re still in the same place on Twitter but now tweeting as Right to Remain.
So, what led to the name change?
The new name doesn’t mean we’re suddenly changing what we do. Our work has changed for the last few years after careful thought and discussion with the groups we work with, members and supporters, to be more effective in campaigning for migration justice. The new name now reflects the focus of our work for the last few years – a focus that makes better use of our small resources to tackle an increasingly difficult climate of xenophobia, racism and anti-migrant rhetoric and policy, and a focus that reflects the campaigning for justice that we seen to work.
A hostile environment
Since 1995, successive governments have introduced ever harsher immigration controls, extending them from the port of entry deep into our society – into our communities, workplaces, schools, colleges, and hospitals.
Access to justice in the legal system has been stripped away, with migrants facing a culture of cynicism and disbelief, and having limited access to good-quality, free legal representation. There has been a vast increase in the numbers imprisoned in detention centres. The rights to work, education and healthcare have been cut back. Migrants often face barriers in accessing the basic necessities of life, leaving people homeless and utterly destitute. These measures were described by a Home Secretary as part of a strategy to make life so “uncomfortable” that those who could not be deported would choose, in desperation, to leave.
Our response
Campaigners and supporters were increasingly contacted by people at crisis point – usually in detention, and facing imminent removal. More people with little or no community support are in need of help, but long-term, community-based anti-deportation campaigns had become rare, because of the changes detailed above.
The methods of migration control have been transformed. How we campaign for justice in the system, for the right to remain, has had to change too.
One of the key ways that campaigning has had to change is that, in order to be effective, it has to begin earlier in the process. When people contact us with only a matter of days until a removal or deportation is due to take place, there is little that can be done through campaigning.
Community campaigns, with broad active support, take time to organise and grow. But it can be done, and it is essential if we are serious about campaigning for justice.
Campaigning for justice, campaigning to stay
Campaigning for justice in an asylum and immigration case cannot just begin when removal/deportation is imminent. Our work is increasingly around raising awareness of the legal processes involved in the asylum and immigration system, helping to make sure migrants understand the process better and know what their rights are. They are not (just) campaigns against deportation/removal: they are campaigns for the right to stay.
An anti-deportation campaign may be understood to mean stopping a flight. This may be an important part of a campaign, but is just one step in a campaign for the right to remain.
Find out more about the work of Right to Remain – formerly known as the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
Hi, please we are looking for help, we asylum seekers since january 2 2024, we are profesionals and we want to get work permit in order to paid for our own expenses, we are under migranthelp benefits but we want to work. please we need legal advisor.
Hello Oscar, thank you for your email. Unfortunately, people who seek asylum in the UK cannot apply for permission to work unless they have been waiting for a decision from the Home Office for at least 12 months. You can learn about applying for permission to work on our Toolkit page here: https://righttoremain.org.uk/applying-for-permission-to-work-asylum/
However, all people seeking asylum are able to volunteer at charities and other organisations in the UK during any point in the process.
In solidarity,
Right to Remain