A group of four Haringey activists campaigning for the better treatment of migrants and refugees presented a petition to the European Union about how a No Deal Brexit would be a disaster for migrants and refugees.

The activists from Haringey Welcome used an EU process that allows any citizens of a current EU member state to petition the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament in order to raise awareness of the risks of a No Deal Brexit for refugees and migrants in Britain. The petition was heard by EU commissioners and MEPs on Wednesday the 2nd of October in Brussels.

“We hope to underline and emphasise how crucial these issues are,” Lucy Nabijou, campaign coordinator for Haringey Welcome, said. “There are many people who are really worried about the way things are going.”

The four activists were from Haringey Welcome, which campaigns for "fairness, dignity and respect for migrants and refugees". They highlighted the fact that if the UK was to leave the EU on the 31st of October without a negotiated exit agreement passed into law it would have a disastrous effect for many migrants and refugees living in Britain. Migrants and refugees rely on the legal framework that the UK’s membership of the EU gives them to live in the UK. Haringey Welcome also wanted to highlight the problems with the government’s systems for updating the legal status of migrants living in the UK.

Lara Parmiani, a Haringey Welcome activist, said: “The UK has some commitments within the EU to take in refugees and to collaborate with EU issues for migrants coming across the Med. No one has clarified what’s happening if Brexit goes ahead, even worse, what if there is No Deal.

When asked about the process for petitioning the EU, Lara said it was “a very positive experience.” She added that: “For all that the EU has been portrayed as undemocratic it actually felt very open, so it was quite surprising.”

There were two areas of concern that the Haringey Welcome activist wanted to highlight. The first was the risk to vulnerable migrants from the inadequate system that has been put in place for EU migrants to apply for settled status in the UK. The second is the impact that a No Deal Brexit would have on family reunions for refugees.

On the issue of vulnerable migrants, the group highlighted the problem that many migrants who are, in Lucy’s words, “not so well-heeled” do not know that Brexit will change their legal status and that they needed to apply for settled status. Lucy gave examples of migrants who were in care or are otherwise not being reached by the relevant information. She said it was: “Another Windrush scandal in the making.” Lara said: “People are very concerned about having to interface with bureaucracy, especially those who might not have a full-time job.”

The government has provided a program for EU, EEA or Swiss citizens, and their families to apply for settled status, which will allow them to remain in the UK after the 30th of June 2021. The application must be made online, however, it is unclear if every EU, EEA or Swiss citizens living in the UK is aware that they need to apply for settled status to remain in the UK after Brexit.  

A Parliamentary Briefing on the scheme has confirmed that it will remain open in the event of a No Deal Brexit. The report, dated the 19th of September 2019, said: “Importantly, the Government have confirmed the scheme will continue to operate in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and the qualifying conditions will remain the same. Nonetheless, the deadlines to apply to the scheme do vary according to whether there is a deal or no-deal.”

As well as the issue that vulnerable migrants might not be aware of the need to apply, several other problems have been identified with the scheme. Many applicants are granted “pre-settled status” instead of “settled status” and it unclear what their rights are, especially in the event of a No Deal Brexit.

It has been shown that there are problems with the scheme for people whose circumstances are unusual. Earlier this year Ezgi Vissing was prevented from boarding a flight from Turkey to the UK because immigration officials did not understand if her pre-settled status allowed her to enter the UK. Ezgi is a Turkish citizen and thus not a citizen of the EU, but she is married to Arthur Vissing, a Danish citizen, which gives her the right to do so as a spouse of an EU citizen under EU rules of free movement. She applied to the scheme and was granted pre-settled status, however, this prevented her from returning to the UK after a trip to Turkey.

Ezgi’s case was reported in the national press and she told the Guardian that she was: “Asked time and time again if I held a UK visa. I said I held a pre-settled status. The officer, then, seemed puzzled by the very concept.” She also tweeted: “EU Settlement Scheme doesn't work. I am NOT allowed to cross the border in Turkey although I DO hold a pre-settled status.”

“People are very concerned and very worried. People who didn’t get the settled status and got the pre-settled status, they don’t know what it means and which guarantees they will have. Will it definitely be turned into settled status? It’s so up in the air,” Lara said.

The Joint Council For the Welfare of Immigrants has issued a report that calls for the complete overhaul of the scheme. Their recommendation is that all EU citizens in the UK would be automatically granted settled status. “The whole thing has been really badly designed,” Lucy said. “A few years down the line we will be looking at another Windrush scandal.”

The second area of concern is family reunions, which mainly affects people living in the UK who have been granted refugee status whose families are in other EU countries. The government has announced that it will stop family reunions for refugees after Brexit, which Lucy described as “really horrific.”

Family reunions for refugees are primarily provided under the Dublin III Regulation (generally referred to as the Dublin System), a piece of EU law that covers which EU member is responsible for an asylum application. The UK will leave the Dublin System if it leaves the EU without a deal. If the UK leaves the EU with a deal, then the Dublin System will continue through the transition phase and the UK government can negotiate continued membership of the system after the transition phase if it wants to.

There is also UK domestic legislation that covers family reunions, which offers an alternative route for refugees seeking family reunions in the UK. The UK legislation method will become the only means to achieve family reunion in the event of a No Deal Brexit or the end of the transition period if the UK government does not negotiate access to the Dublin System.

The UK’s legislation provides a more difficult route to family reunification. For example, it charges a fee of £388, whereas the Dublin System does not charge any fee, and the UK laws have stricter requirements for applications to demonstrate that they can financially support and accommodate a child that they are reunited with. These differences have meant that the Dublin System has become a more popular way for refugees who want family members to join them in the UK. A recent Red Cross Report titled Refugee Family Reunion after Brexit said that 1,028 people were reunited with family members in the UK in 2018 under the Dublin System. The report also said that: “Around 90% of family reunion visas are issued to women and/or children.”

The Red Cross report has specific recommendations for how the UK’s family reunion legislation can be improved without the need for primary legislation. “The British Red Cross recommends that the ability for families to be reunited in the UK under the Dublin III Regulation should be protected when the UK leaves the European Union,” the report said. The report also said that without doing this the current system “would potentially leave family members in Europe, including separated children, without a safe and legal way to reach their loved ones here.”

The report stated that: “In order to ensure that families can continue to be reunited, even if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the Government should amend the domestic immigration rules and work with other Dublin States.” The Scottish Refugee Council issued a statement that said: “Leaving the EU does not mean leaving behind our legal and moral responsibilities to people in need. The UK remains a founding signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, the main international treaty that protects the rights of people in need of safety. We need to remember this.” 

Lara said: “I think if Brexit goes ahead with a deal then it’s important that these things become part of the legislation and that Britain makes some commitment to EU citizens and migrants that come through the EU and to refugees, and all the same commitments that Britain has in the EU would be respected even if we leave.”

The right to family life is protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. A report in The Guardian found that the government would end family reunion on the 1st of November if the UK left the EU without a deal.

The Guardian also discovered that government support for 30,000 refugees living in the UK will stop in the event of a No Deal Brexit. In 2014 the EU set up the asylum, migration and integration fund (AMIF) for EU member states to support the integration of non-EU nationals, such as refugees. The Big Issue reported that the UK’s Refugee Council said it alone would lose £2.6m of funding that would leave nearly 2,000 people at high risk of homelessness.

The right to petition the EU is a right of all citizens of the 28 EU nations and is available to British citizens until the UK leaves the EU. Successful petitions are grouped together and heard by the members of the European Parliament petition committee. “It was very well attended. I think because it was about Brexit in general a lot of British MEPs were there and MEPs from other countries,” Lara said.

The petition was initially suggested by Julia Ogiehor, a Liberal Democrat councillor in the Haringey ward of Muswell Hill and a supporter of Haringey Welcome. Cllr Ogiehor also works for a Liberal Democrat MEP and helped to organise the petition. The petition was presented by Lucy, Lara, Cllr Ogiehor and Majed, a Sudanese refugee.

“She [Cllr Ogiehor] said: ‘why don’t you put in a petition to the council because we were getting concerned about several issues, the treatment of EU citizens but especially vulnerable one … or people who have problems getting settled status, maybe they taken time off work or they are disabled’,” Lara said.

A No Deal Brexit will make life harder for many refugees living in the UK like Majed, who came to the UK in 2002 as a refugee to escape the violence in Darfur, Sudan. Majed said: “When I was there, there was a lot of problems, civil war. The government was always giving arms to other people who were coming to kill us. Killing everywhere. You can see, everywhere, you can see people dying.”

When asked if the Brexit process had made life more difficult for refugees, Majed said: “Before it wasn’t easy but now it has become more difficult,” adding that: “A lot of refugees have a really hard time.”

Majed said that he helped to present the petition to the EU because of his experience of being a refugee. “You have to go because you have some experience of this, you have been through this yourself,” Majed said. He added that: “Refugees really need help.”

Lucy said that the EU membership referendum and the Brexit process had made life worse of refugees and migrants. “Migrants and refugees have found themselves in a very vulnerable situation and are finding themselves victims of hate speech, harassment and racist violence.” Majed agreed, saying: “I think it has made things worse.” He added that: “The ones who are here maybe it’s not a problem but the ones who come new it’s very difficult for them.” 

The Haringey Welcome activists are hopeful that their petition will have a positive impact on the Brexit process and will help secure more rights for migrants and refugees living in the UK. “There was a lot of nice talk but very little commitment. We don’t know if it will just be lip service. Some people were saying it’s up to the individual countries. What a lot of people were asking for was for it to be the same in every country so that rights are the same and are guaranteed for everyone,” Lara said. “Hopefully it will make a little difference,” Lucy added.