Life-Threatening Repercussions of the Hostile Environment During Covid-19

This is a guest post by Lynsey Burrows at the Immigration Advice Service, an organisation of immigration lawyers based in the UK & Ireland. I don’t normally publish guest posts here, but this one is important and timely, and I think you’ll enjoy reading it.

In 2012, Theresa May’s government created the ‘hostile environment’; a set of immigration policies and measures aimed at making life in the UK as difficult as possible for asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. It has certainly achieved that and more, as it has been felt by all migrants. However, in this ‘new normal’, when life is challenging for all across the nation and beyond, these policies are not just making life difficult, but are life-threatening and in some cases deadly.

A Preventable Death

Elvis had lived in the UK for around 10 years. He worked as a cleaner, sending money back to his family in the Philippines. After developing the symptoms of Covid-19, he self-isolated at home. He was too afraid to seek help due to “fearing that he would be charged thousands of pounds for treatment, or that he would face immigration enforcement if he tried to access care”. On the 8th of April, Elvis died. His wife reportedly remains in fear of UK authorities. This tragic case is not unique and, in the months to come, when the fog clears and more cases come to light, we will undoubtedly hear of even more preventable deaths.

Elvis’s story was highlighted in a cross-party letter sent to Health Secretary Matt Hancock back in April. The letter demands an end to the hostile environment policies, specifically those which regard the NHS during this crisis. It states that, despite the government’s positive move to list Covid-19 as a disease for which everybody will receive treatment free of charge, this “does not undo years of hostile environment policies, in which migrants have been told that they will be charged for healthcare or faced with immigration enforcement when accessing public services. In the present moment, this undermines the government’s efforts to respond to the pandemic.”

The UK immigration process is hugely complicated to begin with, never mind attempting to navigate it during a worldwide health crisis. Whilst we worry about loved ones, our own health, our finances, the future, we shouldn’t also have to worry about legal complexities.

Asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are so scared to be forced out of the UK through deportation that they would rather risk death than seek medical help. Many asylum seekers and undocumented migrants live in poorer areas and/or are part of the BAME community. A recent report by Public Health England has stated that these are both groups at a higher risk of being diagnosed with Covid-19. More worryingly, this demographic has a significantly higher mortality risk. Concerns over immigration status should not take priority over health fears. Nobody should live in fear that seeking medical assistance will lead to their arrest and subsequent deportation.

Medical Workers at Risk

And it is not only those who are suffering in silence from Covid-19 symptoms that are affected by the current immigration system—it’s those who are out on the frontlines fighting it.