Hackney Council votes to lobby government over ‘inhumane’ hostile environment
L-R: Cllr Turbet-Delof, Hackney Speaker Sheila Suso-Runge, a volunteer named Gladys, and Jacobo Belilty from the Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK. Photograph: courtesy Claudia Turbet-Delof
Hackney’s councillors have unanimously backed a motion to lobby the Home Secretary to reverse the Conservatives’ strict rules for undocumented migrants.
In a rare show of cross-party unity, councillors came together on Wednesday (29 January) to approve a joint motion, which urges Hackney’s mayor to call on the Secretary of State Yvette Cooper to “end the hostile environment policy” adopted in 2012.
The initial motion, brought by Cllrs Claudia Turbet-Delof (Victoria, Independent Socialist) and Penny Wrout (Victoria, Independent Socialist), was amended by the Labour group ahead of the meeting and seconded by Cllr Jasmine Martins (Labour, De Beauvoir).
In the chamber, Cllr Turbet-Delof welled up as she recounted her family members’ forced removal from the UK, and dedicated “this very special moment” to asylum seekers, refugees and other displaced people.
Members of the borough’s migrant community were in the public gallery as Turbet-Delof spoke movingly of the damage the “inhumane” policies had caused to people in Hackney.
The councillor, a Bolivian national, told the chamber she had recently attended the burial of one individual who had put off seeking medical help for fear of deportation.
“This is the story for many who, through the inhumane hostile environment policies, have lived in extreme abuse [and] found themselves without confirmed migration status,” she said.
“Many [have been] forcibly removed, and many given no chance to integrate, work and be part of their wider communities.”
Speaking to the Citizen, Turbet-Delof said the animosity toward migrants, refugees and asylum seekers has been happening for decades “at different levels” but has gone unnoticed by many people.
“Unfair deportations have always existed and incentive schemes for voluntary removals have also been a tool used to discourage integration of those deemed not the type of ‘top’ migrants wanted in the UK.”
She added that her relatives were denied the right to stay united as a family before the hostile environment came into force.
The deterrents introduced by Theresa May during her time as Home Secretary were designed to make life extremely difficult for people without leave to remain.
These included employers and landlords being required to check people’s immigration paperwork, and data-sharing arrangements giving government enforcers access to the private information of NHS patients and school pupils.
The council’s amended motion removed the Independent group’s reference to these specific measures, though it did keep their request for the government to develop training for GP registration teams to “ensure no one is turned away from accessing healthcare”.
The hostile environment was blamed for the 2018 Windrush scandal, when it emerged that at least 83 legal UK residents, primarily from the Caribbean, were wrongly detained, denied legal rights and threatened with deportation due to their not having enough documentation.
In the same year, Hackney Council became the first local authority to pass a motion in support of the Windrush generation, pressing then-Prime Minister May for a public inquiry and calling on Whitehall to help anyone from the group obtain British citizenship.
The Town Hall also organised ‘justice clinics’ for residents affected by the scandal, and has lambasted the Conservative government for “limited and unsatisfactory” progress in compensating victims.
Cllr Martins, whose grandparents belonged to the generation who “helped rebuild this country” after the Second World War, said the policy was a “destructive force which has targeted many in our communities and created fear and division”.
She also praised the new government for having immediately brought an end to the previous administration’s Rwanda scheme, which saw zero deportations and cost an estimated £318 million.
“The Labour Party has also been a constant advocate for a fairer immigration system, standing against these damaging policies,” she said.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has claimed his government had deported a record number of refused asylum seekers and overseas criminals, provoking fears from human rights campaigners.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Cllr Turbet-Delof lamented the scale of migrant deportations in light of Donald Trump resuming the US presidency and drew a parallel with the UK government – in stark contrast to Hackney.
“We are seeing a mirror with Labour boasting about the number of deportations to date, including flights of 600 Brazilians in secret,” she said, but added that she “trusted” Mayor Caroline Woodley’s assurances that the borough would stand by migrant communities.
Mayor Woodley said: “We will not listen to Trumpian noise. We will stand by our residents and we will stand by our migrant history.
“We are so proud in Hackney – we will be a borough of sanctuary”.
Hackney’s Conservatives had left the chamber before the motion was debated and carried, and did not vote on the issue.