CALLOUS CHAOS FROM THE HOME OFFICE

In the last 48 hours RAPAR members who are destitute - no secure shelter, no money and no right to legal work - have been:

• Left, via a no recourse to public funds unit, with a severe and enduring chronic illness in a single room, with no access to any safe cooking space (they are cooking using their kettle) no cleaning products, no care support and no way of going outside because they are so infirm  they cannot negotiate stairs 

• Texted by the Home Office and told not to report to usual reporting centres.

• Emailed from its 'Asylum Operations' via at least one Local Authority 'Homelessness Directorate' to say: 

                         ...   "Send applications via post or email"

                         ... "We have decided to pause face to face substantive interviews"

without any guidance on how they are supposed to access computers to email or printers to print paperwork, or to pay for any of the above, or postage.   It's no surprise then that, just now, led by the Runnymede Trust, race equality and migrant rights organisations have begun to call for independent review into institutional racism in the Home Office.

​This is destitute RAPAR Member Jenny DaCosta from the Democratic Republic of Congo, this morning, on the steps of the Friends Meeting House, the site of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.  

He accepted a small amount of cash from RAPAR because "Yesterday I had to speak with the court service to find out if my hearing is postponed to a later date, taking into account the period we are going through, to my great surprise I was invited to appear in court on the date initially planned because no change or modification is planned, the hearing will indeed take place.  So I had to contact the organisation ... ". 
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​After giving Jenny a small amount of cash this RAPAR volunteer drove out of the city centre and, while they were waiting at a red traffic light, photographed this homeless man near Piccadilly Station... 
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When is the State going to reach out to these vulnerable people and help them, and the people around them, to protect themselves and each other? It's called Public Health.