Haringey Migrant Support Centre (HMSC) provides support, advice and casework to vulnerable migrants in London on immigration, welfare and housing issues.
While HMSC's core work remains unchanged, the hostile environment is only becoming harsher and we are responding to our visitors changing needs. We are fundraising to offer urgent financial support to those of our visitors (clients) who cannot afford the fees to progress their immigration case.
Many of our visitors are trying to regularise their stay in the UK by applying for leave to remain. Others already have leave but need to renew it every 2.5 years (they are on the “10 years route to settlement”). Each application is a hurdle, the fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) are exorbitant and increasing every year.
Most of our visitors are destitute and ask for a fee waiver (a complex application) when applying to the Home Office. However, there are many circumstances in which people cannot get a fee waiver and must pay part or all of these fees despite being destitute. We have seen visitors defeated by these huge costs and therefore unable to regularise their status or to renew their leave, falling deeper into destitution, debt and street homelessness.
This Solidarity Fund will be used to cover costs such as:
£10
could contribute to someone's legal fees to regularise their status
£30
could cover half of a child passport application fee
£100
could go towards application fees to renew someone's leave to remain