In February, the Home Office dropped plans to allow landlords to rent unsafe housing to people seeking asylum. After a concerted campaign with partners including Shelter, RAMFEL and NACCOM, the Home Office accepted that it was not acceptable to have different standards of safety in housing based on citizenship.
JCWI’s 2024 in Review
2024 was quite the year for JCWI. In January, Yasmin Halima, our newly appointed Executive Director hit the ground running joining us in the midst of our campaign against the Rwanda Act. Yasmin, joined us as we led a joint mobilisation to respond to the Supreme Court ruling against the Rwanda Bill. Prior to the Act being passed, it suffered several defeats in the House of Lords with JCWI evidence quoted in the Committee inquiry into the Rwanda Treaty, who subsequently recommended against ratifying it.
Yasmin speaking to the MPs at the House of Commons
BBC news on Home Office's U-turn
In April, JCWI brought together our clients, allies and key voices in the sector of migrants’ rights for: ‘The Time is Now: Power, Accountability, and the Fight for Migrant Justice.’ Alongside, JCWI commissioned photographer Alex Kurunis to capture the people who make up the soul of JCWI – our clients, partners and allies. His work was presented as an exhibition, ‘I am JCWI’.
Speakers at "Time is Now" event
It was also where we launched our Manifesto – ‘We Move: a manifesto for migrant justice’ which was an essential part of our Advocacy work in preparation for the General Election in July. By then, our grassroots alliances helped us ensure that migrant communities were aware of their rights, mobilising their vote. At a parliamentary level, we spoke directly to power, demanding that future policies address the challenges faced by migrant communities.
Our We Move manifesto for migrant justice
In August, riots rocked the nation, their blatantly racist nature shocking many who worked outside the sector. As a migrants rights organisation, we feared both for those we advocated for and ourselves. But we took the opportunity to invite politicians and the media to reflect on the true causes of the riots – not fringe far-right elements but the unrelenting Hostile Environment towards migrants perpetuated by successive governments and the media.
People coming together in solidarity against the August race riots
We ended this year with some good news – our legal team were finally able to visit the Chagos Islands – a number of our Sri Lankan Tamil clients had been stranded there for almost three years. Not long after, we were delighted to welcome them to the UK.
Across the year our award-winning legal team provided advice and representation to a wide-range of people, from asylum seekers and stateless persons, victims of trauma and trafficking, and undocumented migrants, to complex cases with a history of refusals.
In 2024 we worked with 251 clients. We advised 758 people through our helpline for undocumented migrants, and responded to 1151 referrals to our bespoke helpline for Unison members. We advised 17 people in detention at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre and we ran regular outreach sessions at the Red Cross Destitution Centre, where we provided advice to 68 asylum seekers and victims of Gender Based Violence.