The government refused yet again to #FixTheDigitalStatus yesterday in the House of Lords, causing needless suffering to the most vulnerable. Ignoring countless calls to provide physical proof to EU citizens is wrong. We need to see meaningful engagement now.
Peers debated #Amendment79 of the #NationalityAndBordersBill to give physical proof of immigration status. Unfortunately there were not enough votes in support at the late hour it was debated. This problem isn't going away and we need the govt to address it.
Thank you to all of you who have raised your voices and demanded for the government to #FixTheDigitalStatus by writing to peers. Your stories have been heard loud and clear.
Our proposal for a solution using QR codes has been rejected without any acknowledgement of the problem. This simply isn't good enough.
The govt response: bit.ly/3MABZvZ and our rebuttal: bit.ly/3HY5XXf
“We had the Windrush disaster because people got nothing in writing. That was a shameful episode; many people suffered badly and we are now paying large sums of compensation.”
As Lord Sandhurst said, this govt needs to learn from past mistakes.
Lord Hannay of Chiswick explained that @LordsEUCom had no hesitation in unanimously - across all parties - recommending physical proof of status when they took evidence for their citizens’ rights report. committees.parliament.uk/publications/6…
The U.K. Government’s response is deeply unsatisfactory. We need meaningful engagement and ask the Home Office to meet with us, as we are certain we can alleviate every concern raised.
See also our letter to the minister which was sent yesterday: the3million.org.uk/_files/ugd/cd5…
Thank you to Lord Oates @oatesjonny and all members of @UKHouseOfLords who supported this amendment, and those who spoke in favour of it. We will continue to stand up for what’s right for all EU citizens and their families.
To read the full debate, see hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2022-03-….
To watch it, watch from 23:07 at parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/c8….
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