What a difference a day (doesn't) make

• Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal has described President Trump’s most recent action that cut USA funding to the World Health Organisation  as a ‘crime against humanity’.  Donald Trump is not the only culprit. 
• It has never been truer that 'an injury to one is an injury to all.' 

It is one month today since RAPAR published its first response to the emergence of COVID19. 

It is one month minus one day since its first public statement and press release  called upon the State to suspend all detention and deportation activities, including legal processes, and invite all undocumented, displaced and destitute people, i.e. those most acutely vulnerable to COVID-19, to come forward for safe housing, without fear of being snatched or locked up, and so that they may contribute, openly, to making the population as safe as possible.  This grounded the Open Letter Petition that anyone can sign here.

RAPAR Patron, Mark George Q.C. says:  “The current health crisis has shown us all that when necessary governments take all sorts of action they would not normally consider taking. Now we need the government to take this important action to protect the health and welfare of everyone in our society.”
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In the last 24 hours, RAPAR has been:

• Sent this article, just published in the Irish Times -  about an Irish woman dying alone in an English care home.  Ten days ago RAPAR wrote about how undocumented workers are looking after British elders in care homes 

 

• Updated with a single man Member who was granted his Leave to Remain just before the lockdown.  He is living in the UK in NASS accommodation where the population density of 15 men to four bathrooms and one kitchen makes it impossible for the household to maintain social distancing.  The description is very similar to that exposed weeks ago and still unresolved in the Irish Direct Provision Centres . Meanwhile, via British Red Cross, we received a Home Office letter template of what, as of today, will be sent to our Member and everyone else recently granted refugee status.  It says that people ‘will be able’ to stay in their accommodation after the 28 day timeframe that usually applies.  

• Contacted by a mother and father of three children under 10, two of them with underlying health problems, living in 2-bedroomed NASS accommodation, who have just received a letter from the NHS stating that their toddler is at high risk of catching the corona virus due to their underlying illness.  Government guidelines previously issued on how such situations should be handled includes social distancing and limiting time parents  are with such children within premises. 

• Talking with a journalist about why the deaths, following COVID19 symptoms, of members of the undocumented UK population have not been reported at all in the mainstream British media.  She says: “Covering the plight of undocumented migrants can be a challenge from a journalist's perspective. I find the reasons differ according to a country's political, social and media environment. In the UK, where hostile environment policies have created an atmosphere of fear and pushed people to the margins, it can be difficult to get through to an undocumented person unless it is via the mediation of an organisation that knows them. But their [the organisation’s] priority, understandably, is the person's welfare, while the person might see talking to a journalist as an unnecessary risk. While journalists have a duty to protect the identity of their sources when the information they publish could put them at risk, too many journalists have breached that duty and other basic ethical standards when it comes to reporting on migration, and some level of mistrust is justified.”... ​RAPAR has been told that undocumented people too frightened to call upon health services as their COVID19 symptoms appear to  worsen have died, being nursed by the family and friends around them.  In one instance, RAPAR was told, the dead man’s body was taken directly to a funeral directors i.e. not a morgue where cause of death may be established: the usual practice when a death occurs outside of a hospital setting and the person has not been seen by a medical practitioner in the previous 24 hours.

• Informed that the British Government which has neither acknowledged nor responded to the Open letter sent on 27th March 2020 intends to resume Brexit discussions. 

RAPAR Patron, Canon Professor Nicholas Sagovsky says: 'The Covid-19 crisis has shown us how reliant the NHS and carehomes are on people from many countries who have made Britain their home.  Sadly, a growing number have given their lives caring for others.  RAPAR is showing us that for many migrants, especially the undocumented, it is impossible to remain safe.  This is not acceptable and must be changed.'

Over ten years ago, sitting in the garden of a house inside the Westminster village, a RAPAR member was in discussion with a Lord whose family had been vested with the title in the 1100’s.  He observed “The ruling class have perfected the art of doing nothing.  They grind you down by doing nothing.”

When people know that what they are doing - or failing to do - is both completely avoidable and deadly, they are committing crimes against humanity.  

Today, I'm a part of you dear.