Homeless Charities Accused Of Helping To Deport Rough Sleepers

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Homeless charities have been sharing information with the Home Office about rough sleepers, leading to their detention or forced deportation, a new report has claimed.

The report, Round Up, claims that Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) patrols are out targeting rough sleepers in London. But the officers rely on the active collaboration of the Mayor, local councils, and homelessness charities. Charity outreach workers set out to help homeless people but, through a creeping process of changes, they are being turned into informers.

According to Corporate Watch, outreach teams from charities St Mungo’s, Thames Reach and Change Grow Live (CGL, formerly CRI) conduct regular joint “visits” with ICE officers, as often as fortnightly in central boroughs of London. Joint visits in just eight of these areas led to 133 rough sleepers being detained, while 127 people were deported in under a year in Westminster alone.

Charity bosses say their role is to persuade non-UK rough sleepers to leave “voluntarily”. But their outreach teams also routinely pass on locations of non-UK rough sleepers to ICE through the London-wide CHAIN database and other local co-operation agreements.

The Greater London Authority has contracted St Mungo’s and Thames Reach under “payment by numbers” schemes where fees depend on the number of rough sleepers they get out of the country. EU and other European Economic Area (EEA) nationals are the main targets, as they make up nearly half of London rough sleepers. Migrants from Romania, Poland, and other East European countries are particularly affected.

Deporting non-UK rough sleepers is at the forefront of Prime Minister Theresa May’s “hostile environment” approach, where immigration controls are spreading across schools, hospitals, and housing. In May last year, the Home Office tightened the rules so that rough sleepers from Europe can be arrested for deportation if found sleeping rough on just one night.

According to Home Office rules, European Union citizens and their family members have the right to enter and live in other Member States. Where admission is permitted, an EU citizen is allowed to remain in the UK for up to three months from the date of entry, provided they do not become “a burden on the social assistance system of the UK or abuse their rights.”

But Green Party GLA member, Sian Berry, told The Independent homeless charities should not be asked to contribute to the Government’s “toxic” policy or facilitate forced removals. “Fearing forced removal has the potential to make rough sleepers feel they can’t approach charity-run services that they desperately need and could push destitute people into even worse situations,” she said. “Charities should be left to help people, not undermine their core purpose in this way.”