Thread by @GypsyTravellers

WATCH📺👇: On Wednesday 19 May, @GallagherGRT, @mwillersqc of @gardencourtlaw, @bowers_jake and Philomena Mongan from @LondonGypsyTrav made oral submissions to the Human Rights Committee on the potential impact of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. (1/6)

.@bowers_jake on Gypsies and Travellers:

🔴Treated as 2nd-class citizens;
🔴Chased from pillar-to-post despite having nowhere to stop, thanks to 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act;
🔴Locked into a cycle of trespass, evictions, race hate and discrimination.

(2/6)

.@mwillersqc outlines:

🟠Local authority failures on their obligations;
🟠The Caravan Sites Act and the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order;
🟠The never-ending cycle of having nowhere to stop and being forced from pillar-to-post, "effectively on a road to nowhere".

(3/6)

Continuing, @mwillersqc covers the compounding effects of decades of Government and Local Authority inaction, which means Gypsies and Travellers:

🟠Have a life expectancy of 10-25 years less than gen. pop.;
🟠High maternal mortality rates;
🟠Poor educational outcomes.

(4/5)

Philomena from @LondonGypsyTrav, on her and her family's experiences.

Poignant watching of experiences all too familiar for Gypsies and Travellers up and down the UK.

Everyone deserves to live free — no one should experience hate and discrimination from cradle to grave. (5/6)

.@GallagherGRT addresses the conjunction of discrimination at the local and political level, and the subsequent "lack of political will" that is necessary to address the critical needs of Gypsy and Traveller citizens. (6/END)