On Tuesday 19th September, These Walls Must Fall campaigners set up a stall outside of the Home Office reporting centre in Liverpool.
Liverpool campaigners aimed to talk to people going inside the centre to report and raise their awareness about our campaign to abolish reporting. On our stall, which is pictured above, we gave out hot drinks and biscuits to people who had just come out of the reporting centre, so they had some friendly human contact after a dehumanising experience inside of the centre.
Celine, a These Walls Must campaigner, said: “Everyone we talked to had been reporting there for at least two years with no sign of progress on their claim. We told them about our campaign to abolish reporting, because it is completely unnecessary and is just another way to punish people claiming asylum.”
Immigration reporting refers to ther requirement to “check in” with the Home Office regularly for mgirants with no leave to remain, including those with pending applications such as asylum seekers. Reporting is part of the Home Office’s Immigration Bail system introduced under the Immigration Act 2016 which has led to routine surveillance and criminalisation of all migrants.
Every reporting appointment carries the risk of being randomly take to a detention centre and every visit brings fear, worry and anxiety. This practice is unfair and unjust, and we believe it must end.
One of our main campaign priorities has been to remove the requirement for people to report in-person at a Home Office reporting centre. Following this campaign, the Home Office changed the requirements for reporting and announced that telephone reporting is going to be the standard method of reporting, instead of in-person reporting.
Despite the rainy weather, our campaigners were still determined to make raise awareness about reporting because whether it rains or snows, the Home Office demands people to report. We have members in These Walls Must Fall who are reporting, yet they still support and share information about reporting to others, so we can all work together to abolish this harmful practice.
We are proud to be apart of the Abolish Reporting campaign, along with Migrants Organise. It was great to see so many people interested in extending their rights and we hope to challenge reporting even more in the near future. We hope to continue our stall in front of the Home Office’s reporting centre, so stay tuned for more information on this.