Six Home Office officials from specialist units of the UK immigration department engaged with nearly 200 attendees in a webinar discussion to build trust and understanding with the community.
The event on 5 March was organised and facilitated by an elder of the Milton Keynes Seventh-day Adventist Church, Dr Robbie Osei Addaih and his ministry team called 'The Legal Team'. The group have been helping and supporting people with immigration challenges over the past ten years.
The Home Office team was led by Cheryl Daldry, Assistant Director for the immigration, compliance and enforcement team. She said in her introduction that they were partnering with 'The Legal Team' to help build understanding with regards to the work the immigration department does and to clarify the misunderstanding some people have about the immigration department. She said they are humans, and they appreciate the difficulties that people with immigration issues face. She also added that they have helped many people secure their immigration status because they were brave enough to contact them.
Rebecca Amissah, from the Home Office branch of Future Border Immigration Systems, also said they were there to find out and understand the needs of the attendees and clarify issues that they may have.
They shared information about their 'National Community Engagement Team', which started in 2016 to raise awareness within communities and build trust. Laura, one of the officers, said their function is to build relationships with faith organisations and charities. They also needed to understand what motivates people for illegal migration and why they cannot resolve their immigration status. They want to encourage people to discuss their immigration situation so that they can be signposted and helped appropriately with their specific needs.
The teams' topics covered included vulnerability and scenarios, student visas, voluntary returns, the upcoming social mobility workshops, home carers and general questions and answers.
One of the officers, Sharon, said, "the worst thing we find in my experience is people who don't do anything to sort out their immigration status. We regularly come across people who have lived here for many, many years without status. Maybe they don't know where to go to get help. Perhaps they don't trust where they can go to get help. But all I would say is that this is no kind of life to live. This is about ensuring that we can help by whatever means appropriate to get people to get their papers sorted out, to get the help they need. So they can go forward and live their life better."
She then shared a success story of how they helped to signpost people for help. She said, "I want to tell you about a Kenyan lady my team dealt with last year. This lady had initially come to the UK 20 years ago. She had come thinking that she would be a student and had been promised that her visa would be sorted out for her.
"Once she got to the UK, she found herself abandoned. She had no help. She didn't know where to turn. She spent many hundreds of pounds paying different people to try and get some status, but they were all unsuccessful. This lady had been here for 20 years when my team encountered her in the middle of last year. So, some of our work was to reach out to people by telephone."
She continued, "We understand that people are fearful when they hear we are from immigration enforcement. It is our job to try and reassure people that we are here to help, that they can be honest with us. This is what one of my officers did with this lady from Kenya. She was very brave. And she decided to be honest with the officer. It took her a while to think about what she would do. She sent all the information to the officer who passed it on to the caseworker. And subsequently, she was granted leave to remain in the UK. That was a brilliant outcome that perhaps surprises some of you, and I think equally the officer was very surprised when he arrived at work a few days later to find a thank you card from this lady."
Attendees were allowed to ask questions answered by the Home Office team. Speaking after the programme, Amos Osei Ntansah, the facilitator and member of 'The Legal Team' based in Milton Keynes, said they were delighted to have been able to bring together the Home Office team. He said they were willing to partner with them to address immigration issues that cause many people to live in fear.
Dr Robbie Addaih was grateful to the Home Office team for the partnership and their first such meeting and added that this is only the beginning of an ongoing endeavour to support many people who are not aware of the help at hand.
