New immigration rules from the Home Office are expected to be
published today (22 October), outlining that non-UK nationals rough
sleeping could face deportation from 1 January next year. The rules
would make rough sleeping grounds for refusing or cancelling the
leave of non-UK nationals.
Responding to the policy, Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis,
said “This new policy from the Government is unacceptable and
cruel. It will push people who are in the UK legally and facing
homelessness further into the fringes of society, rather than
encouraging them to seek support.
“While the government has stressed that this policy will only be
used sparingly for people who refuse support, it is not as clear
cut as this. We know through our services that people who have no
recourse to public funds because of their immigration status have
little or no access to support in the first place, and are forced
into rough sleeping if they are unable to work. This is a
situation that will only worsen as the economic impact of the
pandemic begins to bite.
“Ending rough sleeping for non-UK nationals is always going to
come down to providing housing and the right support to people
facing homelessness, rather than threatening deportation. The
government has made a commitment to end rough sleeping by the end
of this parliament, but policies like this are not the way to do
it and undermine the effective support they offered earlier in
the year as part of Everyone In.
“We await to see further details on the policy and what this
means for people.”
