@Two Part Report about Coronavirus in DRC-Kinshasa as at Monday, April 27, 2020
(English version for RAPAR)
 
Part 1  459 People infected - 381 People in care - 50 People healed – 28 People dead
Since the Coronavirus pandemic emerged in the DRC, a lot of effort has been made by the response team to try to control it. For three days, the figures have been growing sharply, enough to suggest that what Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe - Secretary of the response committee – feared, is coming to pass: the month of May could be one of great danger.
On March 24, 2020, the Head of State declared a state of health emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Immediately, teams from the Ministry of Health were deployed on the ground to quarantine Kinshasa, erecting barriers in Kasangulu, Mitendi (Kongo Central) and Mongata on the border of the provinces of Kwango, Kwilu, Maindombe and Kasaï Central, to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
44 health workers, including a team leader, were deployed to Ngobila beach for a period of 30 days: 21/03 to 20/04/2020;
60 health workers, including a team leader, deployed at N’Djili airport for a period of 30 days: 21/03 to 20/04/2020;
44 health workers, including a team leader, a data manager, a supervised worker, a driver and health officers deployed for a period of 15 days: 06/04 to 20/04/2020.
Buses have been made available. However, once the teams arrived at the various areas, no provision was made for their return and their care.
The agents are abandoned at the areas without accommodation or mission costs.
Today, day for day, it has been a month since the agents benefited either from the mission expenses, or from accommodation (they spend the night under the stars), but the Ministry of Health reports them as deployed on the ground and as part of the fight against the spread of Coronavirus. The agents are put in a position of not being able to produce a good result.
There is, for example, a lack of materials for disinfection, the rupture of travelers' registration forms, inventory shortage of liquid soap, pens, nose pads (masks), gloves, chlorine (bleach) for disinfection, fuels for the generator, water for washing hands and ruptured batteries to power the thermo flashes.  
In short, the agents are abandoned. How can it be then, that such agents be relied on to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
"Today, we are starting the second month and families are abandoned without means of food. Agents who are now sick ground are not being supported. Likewise for those recently deployed to the Gombe commune", complains an agent of the Ministry of Health deployed to Mongata.
There is terrible unease and, if conditions are not improved, many of the Agents are announcing a work stoppage soon.
​ 
Part 2  Deplorable conditions of detention in prisons in the DRC
The Congolese NGO "Bill Clinton Peace Foundation" is sounding the alarm, denouncing the conditions of detention, notably in Makala prison in Kinshasa.  The "Bill Clinton Peace Foundation" denounces the lack of food and adequate medical care which is said to have been the cause of the deaths of at least 17 prisoners there have died in Makala central prison in Kinshasa. This Makala prison hosts more than eight thousand detainees, 94% of whom are still awaiting trial.
Our correspondent on the spot who cites prison sources reports that, for two months, Makala has not received its endowment in food rations intended for the imprisoned.
According to this source, the prison is overcrowded, with more than 500 prisoners in particular in the establishment. The conditions of detention are so bad that the NGOs estimate that 100 or so people are seriously ill.
The Deputy Minister of Justice has declared to the local media that funds have been released to deal with the situation. He has promised to gradually mobilize more money to address the lack of food and medicine for the residents of Kinshasa central prison.
These reports are by Jenny DAKOSTA VAN MPUTU is the Directeur Exécutif National, Human Rights Activist-Founder and National Executive Director of ‘No Impunity for the Congolese State’ (NICS) based: C/O RAPAR. 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS.
Email:[email protected]/ [email protected]
Phone: 00447405082590 / 00447490875889

• ​​This MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

• Undocumented people are NOT being counted anywhere, about anything.

​
Who we are:  Women? Men? Children? Elders? People with disabilities?

Where we are from: East? West? North? South?

Where we live: London?  Birmingham? Manchester? Glasgow? Anywhere?

How many of us live there: Single room? Family in a room? Community cluster in a house or a flat?

Our health status: Healthy? Sick? Dying? Dead?

The jobs we had before COVID19 arrived in the UK: manual labour as builders, careworkers, childminders, cleaners, decorators, prostitutes, sauna workers, seasonal workers, and security guards?

The jobs we still have:  Careworkers? 

How many more of us will die before 7th May?  That’s the next time the Home Affairs Select Committee will sit to hear  oral evidence session for its ongoing enquiry into Home Office preparedness into Covid-19.

The causes of our deaths: the systematic exploitation and oppression of working class people all over the world that results in Malnutrition, Overcrowding, Poverty, and Stress all of which compromise our physical abilities to stay well and fight any and all infections and diseases, including COVID19? Today's Guardian is telling us that COVID19 deaths are twice as high in poor areas.

One of the signatories to our 27th March 2020 Open Letter that was received on that date and remains UNacknowledged by the Prime Minister, is Positive Action in Housing.  This morning they advised us that, currently, they assist 2,500 families a year, 92% of whom are living below the poverty line or in destitution.

Within the last 6 hours, RAPAR has been contacted by an NGO describing the sequence of events that have culminated this morning with a woman carer, known to them for 15 years, presenting herself for committal at a mental health institution:

Emily (not her real name) came to Britain on a work permit 15 years ago.  She worked as a carer in the private sector, looking after the elderly.  When the visa rules for migrant care workers changed in 2007 Emily became undocumented.  When the campaign led by Kanlungan Filipino Consortium won concessions in 2008, she became redocumented, at which point she trained, became registered as a nurse and began to work in the privatised care home sector. 

​Since COVID19 emerged she has been expected to work without PPE.  As the pressure mounts for PPE to be supplied, Emily, alongside many other frontline workers, has asked for PPE to be made available to her. Two weeks ago, one of the Filipino carers working with Emily died with COVID19 and, at the same time, Emily  started to suffer with fever and cough.

The company that employs Emily  has told her that if she does not present for work she will be dismissed. 

She told us, via text overnight last night, “I don’t want to go back to work but the company is threatening staff to dismiss them if they won’t return to work”.   

​This morning, Emily has presented for mental health services and been admitted as an inpatient.  One of her last texts before admission read: “Regardless of color, skin or race we should be treated with dignity.  I don’t want to die but to live.”

For further information contact:
Rhetta Moran at rhetta.moran(at)rapar.org.uk / 0777-626-4646
Susan Cueva at info(at)kanlungan.org.uk/ 0739-779-6238

• The inventor of the procedure for inserting breathing tubes, Richard Levitan, explains what COVID19 is and tells us that if everyone gets the care that the Prime Minister did, we’ll all be alright. Read his New York Times evidence-based explanation of what it is and why Johnson survived it here.

• If it wasn’t for the knowledge that we will never give up, and therefore we will succeed, the State we’re in would defy description. 

• Meanwhile… it’s truly shocking, how badly we’re being ‘managed’.

We’re all in shock.  Not that we easily admit it to ourselves or each other, but we are.  We’re shocked about the existence of COVID19 and, every day, every time we hear another example of the shockingly bad management of COVID19 at Local, National and International levels by States and Agencies vested with the power to advance Public Health, our individually shocked selves get zapped again... and again.

What’s more, whether it arose from a single or multiple/continuous incidents, salt is pouring on the wounds of everyone, everywhere, who is living with any trauma that existed before Covid19.  

Right now, who are the people who aren’t:
1.  Able to access housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else?
2. Living in an environment where it is doable and sustainable to follow the Public Health directives: self-isolate as necessary, maintain social distancing, keep cleaning our environment and boosting our immunities, and thereby limit COVID19 viral transmission to the minimum?
 
In the UK… they are: 

Residents, who may also be families that include essential or front line workers, living now in care homes, detention centres, hostels and houses for people seeking asylum, london busses, overcrowded and under-resourced social /private housing/ flats, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and in the case of young UK people who are undocumented,  other peoples’ tenancies.

They are UNABLE to do 1. or live in 2.
 
If the British State wasn’t previously aware that members of these population groups are living and dying, every day, with barriers between them and environments where it is possible to exercise and sustain vital public health behaviours, IT - as in the British State - became aware of these incontrovertible public health facts on 27th March 2020 when 10 Downing Street received our Open Letter calling for Status Now to secure access to healthcare housing and food for all. 
 
Across Europe… they are: 

Among others, our Refugee Sisters and Brothers, advocating for the end of the Direct Provision centres in Ireland  and profoundly concerned about a very recent Death in Direct Provision: “is deeply traumatic… among people who escaped deeply traumatic experiences and have often experienced trauma on their migration journey.”

Trauma… that’s what’s being reported by Human Rights Watch too, on the outer edges of Europe where they describe Greek Island refugee camps, ill-prepared for COVID19:  ‘Greek authorities have not done enough to address the acute overcrowding and lack of health care, access to adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene products to limit the spread of Covid-19 in camps for asylum seekers’. They call upon Greece’s government to ‘immediately take measures to… avert a public health crisis in environments where “Even handwashing and social distancing are impossible in these circumstances".'

In the Mediterranean Sea itself, the emergence of COVID19 is reported as being used as an excuse not to action the rescue of people in boats within Maltese and Italian Sea Action Rescue zones, leaving people to die of dehydration.  Such fatal decisions make activists trying to save lives on the edges of Europe question why, for example, the International Office of Migration “seeks to criminalize so-called "irregular" migration instead of defending the rights of people on migration routes?"  They conclude that COVID19 is being weaponised in defence of fortress Europe while the people on those migration routes continue to be UNABLE to do 1. or live in 2.

Internationally... 

RAPAR didn’t know the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium before COVID19 but in practically no time our shared commitment to secure healthcare, housing and food for all has forged an indissoluble bond.  Illustrating another example of how COVID19 is being weaponised, its coordinator Susan Cueva told us yesterday: "In the Philippines destitution and hunger are growing, especially in urban poor areas as the government’s lockdown measures mean thousands have lost their incomes with no effective measures of government support. President Duterte has ordered his military to shoot-to-kill protestors:   on 21 April Winston Ragos, a retired resident in an urban poor area of Manila was shot dead on the spot by soldiers who claim he was violating the lockdown."

Similarly, messages to RAPAR members from family, friends and comrades around the world describe lives becoming evermore difficult in the shadow of COVID19.  Alongside every documented worker in the UK whose pleas for PPE and competent testing mechanisms remain unanswered, and every migrant worker in, for example, Singapore who is now experiencing a new 'hard end' as COVID19 resurges there, our Members and our Networks - already in deep distress at the UK and Irish Governments’ blanket non-response, to date, to our call - are also experiencing layer-cake levels of insult: they are stacking on top of our injuries, that are on top of our compounded traumas, that are on top of our original traumas, and if it wasn’t for the knowledge that we will never give up, and therefore we will succeed, the State we’re in would defy description. 

When we’re not pulling our hair out we’re scratching our heads at the managerial classes, as in those working to manage the pandemic on behalf of failing States.  For example, there is a COVID19 policy google group fronted by the British Red Cross that composes the visible communication interface between the British Home Office and those organisations working in ‘migration’, particularly ‘asylum’ and invited to its network.  This very morning the Refugee Council of Great Britain used this google group to tell workers in the sector that ‘the majority of the [Home Office] Statelessness Determination Team are now back up and running’…. The question is, where exactly are they running to? 

Some musical salve?  

• 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.”
​
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.

“Nothing in life is to be feared,  it is only to be understood.   Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”   Maybe Marie can help us to work out how we can minimise fear and maximise #healthandsafetyforall.

The ‘hostile environment’* was up and running  long before ‘COVID19’ developed.   And the Institutionalised Racism upon which the Hostile Environment rests was identified half a century ago. 

Yesterday, the New York Times carried a quote about this very issue from Professor Aneez Esmail.  He is the leader of our campaign for the Registration of Medical Professionals in the UK and you can read Professor Esmail’s comment, following the publication of  that NY Times article, here.

Hostility breeds fear: that’s exactly what it is intended to do.  How much fear is out there? And how quickly can the people and organisations who reject both institutionalised racism and the hostile environment learn? 

People who are Destitute + Documented + in the UK = DDUK = People…
who are denied the right to work legally and who the Government knows are in the UK, somewhere.  The Government knows they are in the UK somewhere because they are either:

• communicating with the Home Office and the Courts through their lawyers about asylum or human rights issues, visas, work permits etc.  

and/or

• in contact with specific Charities who feed and shelter them and share data with the Home Office about who and where they are.

Are You Destitute and Documented in the UK (DDUK)?
OR
Are you Destitute and Undocumented in the UK (DUUK)?
People who are Destitute + Undocumented + in UK = DUUK = British People and Anyone Else…
who has no address, which means that the Government does not know exactly where they are right now, there is no  lawyer currently on their case, and/or they don't have paper 'proofs' about who they are, like birth certificates or household bills.  If they are not British they have also been denied the right to work legally.  All of them have fallen through the cracks of either:

• the statutory and legal systems supposed to access them State support
• the statutory and legal systems that exist to
  • stop human trafficking or slave labour
  • process applications for refuge from political persecution
  • process work permits and visas

Currently, RAPAR’s Destitution Lead, Vitalis Mbah from Cameroon, is living with people in their house.  He is denied the right to work legally.  His shelter was found through our partnership work with Positive Action in Housing.  He is waiting for his lawyer to process more paperwork with the Home Office, he is DDUK.   Today, Vitalis sent this photo and writes: ​

​“With Covid19 our situation has worsened.  Some cases have been suspended altogether, and people cannot meet their lawyers to discuss issues relating to their cases. They are hoping for their cases to be treated and to be given the freedom they deserve but they are not getting this. They live with friends who are sharing their shelter with them or through charitable hosts set up to help destitute people.  Essentially, they are living with people who were strangers to them before they became destitute and who have offered them places to stay.
Very few people seeking asylum have phones and the few who do are unable to top up their phones so it is even more difficult for them to connect with their support networks. Some have laptops but cannot gain access to wifi.  This has greatly slowed down the support and advocacy activities the people had developed within our communities. It is a trying moment for most of us because we have no way of getting any money to buy top ups or wifi connection. Practically all the organisations that used to support us with bus fees to travel to get their food, or join in on their events, have now been closed down and, in fact, accessing food has become a very big problem. 
Many of the charitable organisations that people knew, that used to provide food or help us with food banks weekly, they are closed.  Worst of all is the fact that some people are on the verge of being thrown out of their homes and it will be even more difficult for them to survive on the street.”  

On Easter Sunday, RAPAR member Mary, Destitute and Undocumented in the UK, DUUK, sent this photo and writing:

Just i*
“RAPAR gave me good encouragement the other day, by saying to stay strong because the next day one of the lady that I work with she text me to come as she was missing seeing somebody. Then I call her she was crying as she was having some problem and I remember RAPAR said to be strong. So I had to be strong for other people and she was happy when she saw me she gave me food and some money. I keep remembering what you said. We have to be strong for each other. Some days I feel a bit low but I keep remembering what you said to me.  Before this, I worked in a shop in xxx.  Then I did caring and now I am working in family homes. I wasn't interested in working in people's home but out of it good came. I met good people who understand my situation and are helping me.” 

For almost 20 years, since it first began to systematically evict people failed by the migration system into destitution the British State has stoked a fire. But, thankfully, no human being is an island,  including the human beings who live in countries that also happen to be islands.  A ‘fog of war’*** surrounds us ALL. With each other’s help, can we clear our vision sufficiently to enable ourselves and each other to think out loud, reach rational decisions together and act accordingly?  

At this juncture, the only actions that are any use are those based in truthful information: concrete and real, coming from comprehensive, accurate, valid and reliable information sources that are as near to ‘objective’ reality as possible i.e. not intrinsically biased because of the way in which their ‘facts’ have been created.

In the 1990’s, Patricia Hill Collins explained to us :  'For any body of knowledge, new knowledge claims must be consistent with an existing body of knowledge that the group controlling the interpretive context accepts as true.’  She went on to say, ‘The methods used to validate knowledge claims must be acceptable to the group controlling the knowledge validation process.'   Her truth invites us to walk in the footsteps of the sociolinquistic theorist Volosinov, who developed a theory of 'language creation from below'.  We’ll come back, another day, to retrace those footsteps but, in the meantime, here’s a pdf of his book .

On Easter Sunday, one mainstream press article advised us, statistics wise, about what can we trust and what should we ignore.  It began with the assertion that statistics about ‘the number of people who have actually become infected… depend[s] crucially on the testing regime.’  

Of course, it’s a massive challenge to decide what to publish on the internet but, if it’s going to be of real use for the overwhelming majority of people, then whatever is published must be precise. 

In a Journal of Advanced Nursing website blog about problems with the government lockdown, its first point ‘There might be a real increase in cases but there is a form of categorization occurring in the NHS where deaths with the non-specific symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 (the presumed viral agent)(Covid19 is the disease) are being attributed to SARS-CoV-2 without serological or laboratory (tissue culture) confirmation.’ prompts many questions. As does its third point: The tests for Covid19 are not yet calibrated to different populations like those without symptoms. ‘Died after testing positive for Covid19’ (what we hear daily in the media) is not the same as ‘died due to Covid19’ which is an evidence-based statement of disease causation.   This Easter Rising blog began with a Clinical Governance-based reference to how organisations learn.  Just in is this early release (due out May 2020) paper from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention about Emerging Infectious Diseases. Public Health England, the UK Department of Health and the medical Royal Colleges must take the time to respond to all the points being raised through these scientific critiques from JAN and CDC. 

And while we’re on the subject of timely responses…

As yet, the Office of the UK Prime Minister has neither acknowledged, nor responded to our Open Letter sent to Downing Street on 27th March and now platformed as a petition for anyone to sign.   The Office of the Irish Taoiseach has advised us that he referred our letter to the Minister for Justice and Equality , but that Minister received his own copy of our Open letter at the same time as the Taoiseach and, like Number 10, his Office hasn’t responded, as yet. 

It isn’t the first time:   See Channel 4  in the spring of 2016 in News from Calais.

While we wait, and rest assured we’re not holding our breath, our Filipino Sisters and Brothers are preparing shrines to honour their dead, and  our Congolese Sisters and Brothers who continue to mourn their deaths, are also asserting are lives. 

For any Government to call itself Democratic it must be prepared to subject itself to scrutiny, hold itself to account and engage with its population, whether they are ‘Citizens’ or not. 

For those of you who’ve arrived here… we hope you enjoy this.
______
*Moran RA, (2003).  Clinical Governance: An International Journal. Volume 8 Number 1 pp. 46-56

**Also see Forthcoming, McMahon G. and Moran R.A. (2020) Young people seeking asylum: voice and activism in a ‘hostile environment’.  In Young people’s participation, Revisiting youth and inequalities, editors, Maria Bruselius-Jensen, Ilaria Pitti and Kay Tisda.  Bristol, Policy Press

***According to Wikipedia, the first known use of the exact phrase "fog of war" in text only dates to 1896, described as "the state of ignorance in which commanders frequently find themselves as regards the real strength and position, not only of their foes, but also of their friends." “The fog of war”  by Col. Lonsdale Hale, Royal Engineers (retired), Aldershot Military Academy, March 24, 1896.

• Without approaching the NHS, undocumented people with severe COVID19 symptoms reported as dying in their homes in the UK
• Doctors of the World call for suspension of all NHS charges  
• 
  

Elvis (not his real name) died yesterday, RAPAR has been informed.  This followed  several days where it was reported that he displayed a range of increasingly severe COVID19 symptoms.  He didn’t have up to date papers that said he was allowed to live and work in Britain: he was what has come to be labelled as ‘undocumented’.  In these circumstances, he feared that if he sought help from the NHS he would be reported to the Authorities and charged thousands of pounds for treatment, so he did not seek that help.  Today, as we write, RAPAR has been advised that his wife is experiencing increasingly severe COVID19 symptoms, at home.  She says she cannot seek help from the NHS because she, too, is ‘undocumented’.   Elvis died a few days after Rey (not his real name either), also reported as having experienced increasingly severe COVID 19 symptoms before he died, and without seeking help from the NHS because of his status.
 
Susan Cueva is from the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium that supports vulnerable Filipino migrant people.  She says:  “We are aware that there are many undocumented workers in the UK who are in this situation. They have lost their jobs due to the lockdown and are ineligible for government support. They often live in crowded conditions with other undocumented workers and they are too scared to go to a doctor or hospital.”
 
Today, in partnership with RAPAR, the Consortium has followed up contact with several of the 60 MPs who are reported in both the Edinburgh News
and the Guardian as having written to the Home Secretary.  The MP's have requested that foreign nationals working in the NHS be granted indefinite leave to remain.  Writing directly to the MP’s and to other political figures who they know, the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium has asked for support in extending this request to all undocumented and destitute people living in the UK and Ireland.  They ask the politicians to sign the Open Letter Petition, dating from 27th March, so that “all people, irrespective of status, are extended human rights and offered hope and solidarity during this extraordinary period in the history of humanity.”
 
And also today, the day after Elvis died, Doctors of the World have been at the forefront of launching an open letter to the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care calling for the immediate suspension of NHS Charging Regulations.
 
For more information contact: 
Kath Grant, RAPAR Press Officer, 07758386208/ kath.northernstories(at)gmail.com
Dr Rhetta Moran, RAPAR Chair of Trustees, 07776264646/ rhetta.moran(at)rapar.org.uk

Today, a representative from a Filipino community organisation, which advocates on behalf of frontline nurses and care home workers in the UK, including undocumented workers who lost their jobs in the current crisis and who cannot access any State support, contacted RAPAR.  Deaths attributed to the coronavirus have occurred among undocumented workers in the Filipino community.
 
The representative described how one such worker, Rose, forced to leave her care home job because of Home Office changes to requirements for visas for migrant care worker, is living in a British City with six other undocumented people in cramped accommodation.  Rose is surviving from the money she is getting from the children of British elders who are paying her to go into the nursing home where their parents live to look after them.
 
No one outside of an environment where they can self isolate as needed, stay clean, and maintain social distancing has the power to follow the Public Health directives necessary to limit COVID19 viral transmission to the absolute minimum.  Anyone can now sign the Open Letter petition, launched by 37 organisations across Ireland and the UK, with receipt now signed for at Downing Street and the Dublin offices of the Taoiseach, calling upon the UK Prime Minister and the Taoiseach of Ireland to use their vested powers to instruct the British and Irish States to act immediately and in all ways necessary so that ALL undocumented people, destitute people and migrant people in legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now: Leave to Remain.
 
Also today, MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) told RAPAR “People seeking asylum in Ireland who work as care givers are risking their lives to protect the Irish people and are still having to return to over-populated rooms in Direct Provision Centres. The number of people in the Centres who are presenting with COVID-19 symptoms keeps on growing, yet no one from the Irish Government is disclosing the number of people living in Direct Provision who are testing positive.  We call on the Irish Government to house Carer Workers alongside everyone else currently in Direct Provision, in safe places from which they may continue their exceptional work caring for others.”
 
The Irish and British Governments have the power to enable undocumented people, immediately, to care and protect themselves, their loved ones and their living and working communities. RAPAR asks “When will they stop moving the deckchairs*, use their power and save lives?”  (*move (the) deckchairs on the Titanic’: To partake in or undertake some task, activity, or course of action that will ultimately prove trivial or futile in its possible effect or outcome. 

Homelessness, HS2 and Here to sign the petition #healthandsafetyforall
See ATD Fourth World's new platform for the Open Letter here. 

• With No Home you cannot Stay Home to protect yourself and those with you….
• With No Access to Money you cannot buy the cleaning materials that keep your Home clean…

Meanwhile, the UK Government’s Home Office: 

1. …Now has the power to enter your home without a warrant and remove any person living there if they think, with reasonable cause, that they are infected with Covid-19 – see police powers here. We are told by a Police Commissioner that "It's a collective endeavour. This is ultimately about saving lives and not putting a strain on the NHS and our other emergency services." Health Secretary Matt Hancock warns us "we cannot relax our discipline now"….

And yet the Home Office…

2. …Did not intervene when Bailiffs and HS2 security failed to maintain social distancing (see film here) during their attempt – under the cover of darkness on Monday night - to dislodge the young British people trying to stop more trees being cut down.  Someone involved in Reclaim the Power one of the signatories to the Open Letter Petition initiated by RAPAR says: 

‘This pandemic has shown us that business as usual has to change, but the state is pushing ahead with this expensive destruction of ancient woodlands instead of putting all available resources into healthcare and support for those affected. Tree and land occupations already take a stand for human health; as protecting natural spaces gives us cleaner air, and less extreme weather like floods. Evicting environmental protestors at a time of coronavirus and climate crisis means impacts on human health now and in the near future. To protect all of our health - evictions must stop!'

Just this morning, RAPAR was sent this update where activists claim police are citing "the need for social distancing" to justify blocking news outlets filming the HS2 site. 
​
And, if that wasn't enough...

3.… Homeless people are still on the streets despite government calls to house all during pandemic. Debbie from Youth House, based in Greater Manchester Law Centre, has spoken with RAPAR (See previous work with our UK Citizen Homeless People here) about a collective of three non-commissioned agencies who feed the street homeless on Manchester City Centre’s streets. 
​

Debbie says this week they have been telling her of incidents when Manchester City Council Officers threatened the people trying to feed the street homeless with Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO’s). On Thursday, Manchester City Council confirmed that there are in excess of 100 people still street homeless on the city centre streets.  See recent Local TV coverage about our Public Health campaign to minimise viral transmission risk here.  
​
And finally last, but most definitely not least, the Home Office is...

4. … Using UK tax payer’s money to pay the private companies that house refugees.

Correspondence sent on Wednesday from UNHCR to the British Red Cross and shared with RAPAR, sets out UNHCR's awareness of a lack of provision of cleaning products… they say that “many are experiencing anxiety over not being able to disinfect communal and personal, particularly given the difficulties in social distancing in shared accommodations and HMOs” and others “report that they are either unable to afford the level of cleaning products and hand soap needed to regularly disinfect the communal areas and to wash their hands…”. UNHCR also observes that information is not in the public domain about the sub-contracted companies who manage the day to day running of the accommodation for people-seeking asylum. Contractual obligations are outlined here. 

A recent individual signatory to the open petition wrote to RAPAR saying “I support this petition...it's the truth". Another new signatory, Baobab Women's Project in Birmingham told us they signed because "Human rights should apply equally to all, and this is especially important in times of crisis. We all should have equal access to resources in order to stay healthy. It is the same blood in our veins, we are human not numbers." 

• RAPAR wants to hear from undocumented workers. Please email RAPAR at admin(at)rapar.org.uk
• Please Sign, Share and Host your own link to the Open Letter Petition that calls for Access to Healthcare, Housing and Food for All. 

#healthandsafetyforall

 Overnight, this American article was drawn to our attention .

Meanwhile, a statement from the British and Irish Governments that does more than acknowledge receipt of our Open Letter - that anyone can now SIGN - is becoming overdue.   

We'll be back later today.  

64Open Letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is calling on both governments to create access to health and safety for all. People can sign the petition, just launched, HERE.  

#healthandsafetyforall

The Open Letter, which has been signed by 64 organisations (as at 17th June 2020) in the UK and Ireland, says it is imperative that everyone’s basic needs are met during the current Covid-19 pandemic and the only way to ensure this happens is by giving Leave to Remain to all refugees and migrants both inside and outside of the asylum and immigration system.

People living in extreme poverty, destitution and without immigration status are unable to socially isolate, many cannot access health care and other support, and they are prevented from helping to make the population as safe as possible during this time of global crisis. Migrant people who are in the legal system cannot keep physically safe on their allowances because those allowances are not enough for them to eat healthily or buy appropriate cleaning materials. Many are living in accommodation where it is impossible for them to socially isolate.
 
People who are destitute or undocumented  fear what will happen to them if they identify themselves. They cannot access healthcare, emergency shelter and food. Or report or seek protection from domestic violence, rape, exploitation and other abuses – the levels of which are already rising.
 
One of the signatories to the Open Letter, All African Women’s Group, said:
“Many of us are living in dangerous and abusive conditions, either in slum asylum hostels or as unwelcome guests in other people’s homes. We need money of our own and the right to stay. Now is the time for the government to take practical measures to prevent infection. Now is not a time for racism, segregation, enforced destitution or a hostile environment for anyone. We will only survive if everyone has status in the UK and can get food, healthcare and housing.”

Black Women’s Rape Action Project added: “We know that domestic violence has soared but what remains hidden is the violence and exploitation against women seeking asylum, or with no status, who have been left dependant on others for their survival. Women must have the right to stay and an independent income and housing so they can be safe.”

ATD Fourth World UK said: "Now, more than ever, it is imperative to ensure that the most vulnerable of us are protected. Those in immigration limbo are overlooked, unsupported and left to struggle; the COVID 19 pandemic once again shows the fragility of their existence and we call for them to receive the care and attention we all deserve, not just now, but always.

"Although we are glad to see some public policy measures being taken to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on people in deep poverty, we are reminded that it is only on the ground that it is possible to measure that impact and to understand whether policies are actually reaching their intended beneficiaries. Expertise by experience is essential to getting the response right, as demonstrated by this Open Letter." 

Fizza Qureshi, CEO of Migrant Rights’ Network: "At a time of an unprecedented public health crisis, we need this government to react with a humane response so no migrant fears accessing healthcare, or any other service they need. MRN along with others urges the UK government to offer legal status to all undocumented migrants, and those awaiting a decision on their immigration claim, and on public health grounds because everyone deserves safety and protection during these difficult times."

Lucky Khambule, co-ordinator of MASI – Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, says: “Since the start of the Covid19, MASI has always been critical of the way the Department for Justice and Equality responded in assuring the safety of those seeking asylum and living in direct provision. Currently there are over 60 direct provision centres and emergency hotels accommodating, with about 7,500 asylum seekers in the Ireland. For the past 14 months there has been an increase in the number of new applications and this has made the government accommodate people beyond centres’ capacity.

“The life style and living arrangements in direct provision is a recipe for disaster and should there be an outbreak in any of the centres, it would be very difficult for the department to cope. There is no social distancing as advised by the HSE, it is impossible for those living in direct provision as they are forced to share the same space with no privacy as all.

“Even the suggested on site isolation rooms are a joke as they put six to eight beds in one room very close to each other. We have been proactive in letting the Justice Minister and his colleagues know our concerns and made suggestions on what the immediate attention should be. On the 18th March 2020, we wrote to the Minister and amongst other things, we requested that all vulnerable people above 60 years and on long term illnesses be moved immediately from the direct provision set up and housed in a safer environment.”
​
Dr Rhetta Moran, from RAPAR, added: “Deeds not words save lives and create futures worth living.”
 
Please contact admin(at)rapar.org.uk for more information.

#healthandsafetyforall