My mom got a UK driving licence a few years after she moved to the UK in the late 1970s. She’s now trying to renew it. @DVLAgovuk wants her to send her passport and proof of her immigration status but will not guarantee safe return of original documents. #hostileenvironment 1/ 🧵
She needs to swap old licence for a photo licence but it’s unclear why immigration status is relevant to licence renewal.@DVLAgovuk ‘s website makes the process sound simple for GB residents but in fact this is not true if you don’t have a British passport. #hostileenvironment 2/
One major issue is that many non-British citizens are invisible in UK systems because they’re not on the electoral roll. Every year when she tries to renew her car tax @DVLAgovuk refuses to believe that she has lived in her house for 30 years. #hostileenvironment 3/
When she tried a few years ago to set up an account with @BritishGas she was told that they couldn’t find her on the electoral roll so she didn’t exist in any system and she should get her husband to set up the account instead. #hostileenvironment #sexism 4/
My mom has paid taxes as a UK resident for decades now and has contributed to society in many different ways. This has been recognised not least by the award of an MBE (hon. since she is not a British citizen). Yet she still cannot set up a @BritishGas account in her own name. 5/
She is constantly harassed by border agents when she enters the UK and quizzed about why she lives in the UK when she is a foreigner. She was once told that when travelling with her British husband she can go through the UK entry queue but when on her own she cannot 6/
Sometimes she is asked why she doesn’t get British citizenship since it would make things easier. Would you want citizenship of a country that treated you like this when you had lived longer there than in your country of origin? She is constantly made to feel unwelcome. 7/
My mom is highly privileged in UK society as someone who is white, middle-class, well educated, speaks English as a first language. Her situation is replicated but at least 1000% worse for people who don’t have the privileges that she does. #hostileenvironment 8/
A truly “Global Britain” needs to be welcoming and inclusive, not the inward-looking and xenophobic place it is now. And I really fear for those @InLimboBrexit @the3million who may now be treated similarly (and even more those who miss the deadline for #eusettlementscheme). 9/
There are so many problems with #SettledStatus (especially that there is no physical proof) and as my mom’s situation shows, legitimate proof of right to reside in the UK often doesn’t prevent problems anyway. I am so angry with this country. #notoxenophobia 10/10
It turns out that if you are not a British citizen and you are out of the UK for more than a certain length of time they can / will revoke your British driving licence. Why?? What if you have no other driving licence? Why should citizenship be relevant here? #notoxenophobia
Update, since she has no photocard right to remain, only a letter from the home office from the late 1970s, she has to send in the original letter with her passport. It’s possible @DVLAgovuk will keep all her documents for 6 months because of a backlog so she will be unable to 1/
travel or more importantly to prove her immigration status if she needs to. This is deeply worrying given the #hostileenvironment and the current xenophobic government. this is totally unacceptable and deeply problematic. She has renewed her car tax every year for decades 2/
so her residence is not in doubt; she has job & house in UK & her tax records show she’s been resident for decades. lack of joined up systems and the xenophobia and #hostileenvironment cause real problems for legitimate immigrants who contribute to UK society. #notoxenophobia 3/3
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