By Ruth Grove-White
Those affected and campaigning against the new rules on family migration will know that we are fast-approaching their 1-year anniversary on 9 July. Over the next couple of months there is plenty that you will be able to do to raise awareness and ask the Government to think again.
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During the year since the Government announced its changes to the family migration rules, MRN has heard from hundreds of families who have been kept apart from one another – couples split across continents, young children separated from parents, elderly relatives kept apart from relatives who wish to care for them in the UK.
There has been plenty of coverage of the heartache caused by these changes in the media, highlighted in papers including the Evening Standard (here and here), the Telegraph, and Independent.
So what can be done now?
Here’s a heads-up on some of the opportunities over the coming months to make your voices heard:
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Launch of the APPG Family Migration inquiry report on 10th June – the final report of the APPG family migration inquiry will be available for download from the APPG website from 10 June. As an informal inquiry this report will not carry the weight of a Select Committee report. However it will provide an important evidence base to build further scrutiny of the rules.
- Parliamentary debates on family migration, June/July – as a result of widespread concerns among parliamentarians about these rules, there are now plans to debate the rules on the floor of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the next two months. As soon as we know the dates for those debates, we will let groups and affected families know how to feed in.
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Divided Families Day on 9th July – the most important way of supporting parliamentarians who want to debate these rules is to show that there is a groundswell of concern from many corners. MRN, JCWI, BritCits, the Family Immigration Alliance and many others will be working together over the coming weeks to organise a series of activities around Parliament from 4pm on 9th July. All details will be circulated nearer the time, but the date should be put in your diary now! Activities will include:
- Demonstration outside the Home Office – 4pm
- Meet your MP session
- Public parliamentary meeting with high profile speakers – 6pm
Keep a close eye on the MRN website, as well as those of other groups involved in campaigning on this issue, for further information on how you can get involved and show Government that it needs to think again.
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Read original story here.
This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.