Fight racism and defend migrants
The immigration system is not broken – it is violent and hostile by design. NO BORDERS IN OUR NHS.
Scroll down this page for:
1: End racism in the NHS
2: The hostile environment
3: What “anti racism” actually is
4: Championing patients and staff
5: Charging for NHS treatment
6: Pregnancy care
7: Access to healthcare for migrant children
8: Campaigning in the North East – 2019
9: Covid 19
10: Healthcare for All, Newcastle upon Tyne – July 2020
11: “Vaccines for All” Campaign – February 2021
12: Action in Leeds – September 2021
13: No Borders in the NHS, Newcastle upon Tyne and Whitley Bay – October 2021
14: Patients Not Passports, Northern March and Rally for the NHS – July 2023
15: National Day of Protest – Saturday 10th August 2024
16: Love Newcastle, Hate Racism – Saturday 27th September 2025
17: NOT TO BLAME: Thursday 20th November 2025
18: Challenging the hostile environment – what you can do to fight racist policies
19: And also….to clarify
20: National organisations
21: Translations – Covid19 information
22: Toolkits
23: Links
KONPNE, Patients Not Passports and Medact – supporting the North East Climate Change March and Rally, Newcastle upon Tyne, November 2021
1:
End Racism in the NHS
2:
The hostile environment
“The hostile environment is a sprawling web of immigration controls embedded in the heart of our public services and communities. The Government requires employers, landlords, private sector workers, NHS staff and other public servants to check a person’s immigration status before they can offer them a job, housing, healthcare or other support. Landlords and employers can face fines and even criminal sanctions if they fail to do so.
Immigration controls are now embedded in everyday interactions between trusted public sector workers and the people they are supposed to serve: nurses and patients, police and victims of crime and teachers and their pupils. New offences mean undocumented migrants find themselves criminalised for doing what they must to survive – in some cases simply for working or even driving”
Liberty: A Guide to the Hostile Environment (2018)
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“70 years after its creation, the Refugee Convention is under attack. Priti Patel hopes to punish refugees on arrival, normalise migrant prisons and limit access to justice. It’s time to take action. Our #SolidarityKnowsNoBorders”
Migrants Organise (August 2021)
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Click here for the Migrants Organise video
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and click here for the presentation by Zoe Gardner (“Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants”) to MPs about the dangers of the anti-refugee Borders Bill: Don’t criminalise Refugees (21st September 2021)
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3:
What “anti racism” actually is
Selvaseelan Selvarajah @DrSelvarajah
4:
Championing patients and staff
All hospital trusts now have the mechanisms in place to know exactly how much every individual patient’s care cost, whether you are required to pay, the ability to send you a bill and have in place debt collection agencies to chase you if you can’t pay.
We believe strongly that hospitals should not be a hostile environment. Keep Our NHS Public has campaigned against the introduction of NHS charges for migrants since their introduction in 2014. We believe that the NHS should be free at the point of use for all, and that these charges are an attack on our communities and the basic principles of the NHS.
5:
Charging for NHS treatment
Government policy has rendered 600k people, including 120,000 children, ineligible for free NHS care.
Since the law changed in 2015 many people are no longer deemed ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK and are charged for all NHS care at 150% of cost price except for emergency care. This has put many lives at risk and caused great hardship for many of our local residents. Since 2017 this policy has been further ramped up by the Government with more and more pressure being put on Trusts to collect money from those deemed as ‘non-resident’. Unpaid debts can lead to visas, or right to residency being removed.
See: The Guardian March 5th 2022 Revealed: scandal of NHS charges putting pregnant migrant women at risk
6:
Pregnancy care
Pregnant women are thought to be particularly targeted and a Freedom of Information request from Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign showed over 500 women in Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust in 2018 alone, were asked to pay up to £9,000 for having a baby. A new report from Maternity Action backed by the Royal College of Midwives in September 2019 showed these charges risked making women unable to access appropriate perinatal care.
See Maternity Action guide: I have Questions about Charging for NHS Maternity Care
7:
Access to healthcare for migrant children
From Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health: “We’ve just published our position statement on migrant healthcare. Evidence shows the migrant charging regime deters children from accessing healthcare, which negatively impacts health outcomes. We want charging to stop.” 12th August 2021
Read the position statement (12th August 2021) from RCPCH here
and the related RCPCH Insight article (6th November 2020) here
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Campaigning in the North East – 2019
In 2019 Keep our NHS Public North East asked all of our local NHS Trusts (via a Freedom of Information request) about the total cost of the charges sent to non EEC nationals, their total income, the percentage of the charges they recovered from non EEC nations, the name of their debt collection company and how much they paid for their debt collection.
Newcastle Hospitals, Northumbria, NTW Mental Health Trust, QEGateshead, South Tyneside Hospitals and City Hospitals Sunderland (now South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust) and County Durham and Darlington Trust all replied. All employ debt collection agencies, for charges that vary from 0.01% to 0.03% of their income. However, NTW Mental Health Trust told us that 0% of their charges had been recovered by them because ‘it is not cost effective to pursue as its destitute migrants with no access to funds’.
Over the last year KONPNE, have been working with “Connected Voice”, “Haref” and “Asylum Matters” on the issue of migrant charges and the sharing of data between our hospital Trusts and the Home Office. During the COVID period we have been talking to local authority councillors from Newcastle and Gateshead regarding the possibility of them writing to their local NHS Trusts to ask that they consider suspending charges and data sharing.
9:
Covid-19
During the COVID 19 pandemic Black and Minority Ethnic patients have died disproportionately, even while working as doctors, nurses, cleaners, in care homes and public transport. Migrants face NHS charges and may be reported to the Home Office if they can’t pay. Fear keeps people from seeking treatment, and women may have died in childbirth as a result.
“You don’t know if you have Covid if you’re too scared to see a doctor,” says Consultant
Microbiologist Dr Jonathan Folb from Liverpool. “We cannot defeat this pandemic if people are too scared to be tested, treated, or participate in ‘track and trace’.
The advent of COVID 19 has brought the matter of migrant charges and sharing of data into the limelight. The current NHS charging policy was amended on 29th January, meaning that no charge should be made for diagnosis or treatment of COVID-19 as a Public Health measure. This does not undo the years of hostile environment policies which have prevented many from accessing health services. The very real fears of sanctions or deportation as a result of accessing public services has long been documented by those working in the migrant rights sector. These fears have been shown to cause much morbidity and mortality among our most vulnerable residents.
COVID-19 has exacerbated an already urgent situation, with many undocumented migrants losing their livelihoods and now ineligible for government support. This prompted a group of 60 cross-party MPs, 7 healthcare unions (including multiple Royal Colleges, the BMA and Doctors of the World) and over 100 civil society organisations to write to the Health Secretary, calling for an immediate suspension of charging for migrants and all associated data sharing with the Home Office. This approach has also been championed by the WHO, who rightly point out that inclusion will not only help to protect the rights of migrants, but will also serve to protect public health and stem the spread of COVID-19.
They called on Priti Patel (Home Secretary) to:
– ensure access to healthcare – this means immediately suspending all NHS charging and data sharing with immigration enforcement, and launching a public information campaign that makes
clear that healthcare services are available and safe for all migrants to use
– ensure all migrants have access to vital public services by suspending ‘No Recourse To Public Funds’ conditions
– make assurances that no one will be penalised for missing appointments, reporting or court dates due to illness
– make sure no one is made an ‘overstayer’ because of being self-isolated or unable to return to a country that is not safe to travel to, by extending or modifying visas
– release everyone detained under immigration powers to reduce the risk of COVID-19 entering the detention estate and causing avoidable harm
– provide specialist support for those housed in shared Asylum Accommodation to enable safe access to medical services, testing, and where necessary, re-housing for particularly vulnerable people.
See Medact / Migrants Organise / New Economics Foundation: Patients Not Passports: Migrants Access to Healthcare During the Coronavirus Crisis
“Keep Our NHS Public North East”, with “Connected Voice”, “HARAF” and “Asylum Welcome” have been talking to councillors from Newcastle and Gateshead council about the situation locally.
On 24th June 2020 Cllr. Martin Gannon (Leader of Gateshead Council) and Lynn Caffrey (Chair of Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board) wrote to Yvonne Ormston (Chief Executive of QEGateshead) on the issue of migrant charging.
January 2022 – Click here to see the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants report “We also want to be safe”: “The Hostile Environment is undermining public health efforts and putting lives at risk. The Government’s Hostile Environment policies have undermined public health efforts, excluded undocumented migrants from the public safety net and subjected them to the worst COVID outcomes. If the Government is serious about protecting all our communities from COVID and returning to life as ‘normal’, it must put public health before anti-immigrant policies and immediately suspend the Hostile Environment from all areas of public life”.
10:
Healthcare for all – July 2020
KONPNE at the Monument, Newcastle upon Tyne; July 2020
11:
Vaccines for All https://www.vaccineforall.co.uk/ February 2021
The “Vaccines For All” campaign is co-ordinated by Patients Not Passports, with support from Migrants Organise, Medact, Docs Not Cops, Doctors of the World and Regularise.
We call on the DHSC to ensure that everyone has access to the coronavirus vaccine, regardless of immigration status, ID or proof of address. In order to address the coronavirus pandemic and strengthen public health efforts, the coronavirus vaccine must be safely accessible to everyone, regardless of immigration status, ID or proof of address.
The Government has stated that everyone is able to access the coronavirus vaccine, but in practice, people are being asked for ID, are unable to register with a GP, and are afraid to access services because of longstanding and entrenched barriers to healthcare. Without further action, the pandemic will continue to have a disproportionate impact on all marginalised groups, including migrant communities, people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness, and BME communities.
We therefore call on the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure the vaccine programme works for everyone, and seeks to address the specific barriers faced by these communities in line with calls from the JCVI.
The Department of Health and Social Care must:
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Guarantee a firewall that prevents any patient information gathered by the NHS or Test and Trace being used for the purposes of immigration enforcement.
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End all Hostile Environment measures in the NHS, including charging for migrants, to combat the fear and mistrust these policies have created.
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Provide specific support to all GP surgeries to register everyone, including undocumented and under-documented migrants and those without secure accommodation, and ensure that all other routes to vaccination are accessible to everyone.
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Fund a public information campaign to ensure that communities impacted by the Hostile Environment are aware of their right to access the vaccine and the steps taken above. https://www.vaccineforall.co.uk/
Thursday 15th July 2021: Report on Channel 4 News highlights the fact that the majority of people in vulnerable situations who try to register with a doctor are still missing out on the healthcare that they so desperately need. This is due to a lack of knowledge about their rights both on the side of the patient, who is therefore unable to advocate for themselves, and the GP surgery who should know the rights of the patient and inform them. The report demonstrates to the wider public just how much more work needs to be done.
Channel 4 Report is here
12:
Leeds KONP – September 2021
Leeds KONP joined the march in Sheffield to protest against charging for those without settled status. No credit to @SheffieldHosp for not being able to find representative to accept 75k petition……
10:02 AM · Sep 20, 2021Twitter for iPhone
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No Borders in the NHS – RVI, Newcastle, Monday 25th October 2021
**Click here for the Chronicle report following the KONPNE / MEDACT NE action in Newcastle on Monday
October marks four years since the introduction of upfront charging for migrants in the NHS, and two years since the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found in a lorry in Essex. We remember Nasar Ullah Khan, who died after being denied treatment for heart failure. We remember Elfreda Spencer, who died because she could not pay £30,000 upfront for chemotherapy. We remember Kelema Mulat, who died following a 6 week delay in breast cancer treatment. We remember Elvis, who died of coronavirus without help because he was too scared of being charged or deported if he came forward for treatment. We remember all whose lives have been made disposable at the hands of Britain’s hostile border controls—their bravery, their struggles to survive and their campaigns for a better world.
This week, in the North East, we join forces with others across the country to make a very clear message: no borders in healthcare. The NHS must treat #PatientsNotPassports.
This morning, KONPNE were proud to support the Newcastle group of “Patients Not Passports” in campaigning against the charging of asylum seekers and refugees for NHS services.
From outside the iconic Whitley Bay Dome, Clare Bethell from the “Patients Not Passports” group said: “My work with asylum seekers with Care for Calais has shown me that migrants and asylum seekers in need of health care will not use the NHS for mental health issues, pregnancy or infectious diseases care because they know that they will be sent a bill for thousands of pounds. When they don’t pay, our hospital trusts send the debt collectors after them. When they try and register with GPs they are often asked for a myriad of documents to prove who they are and where they live, which they don’t have. They then become more unwell and need more care than they would have done. We must stop patient charging in the NHS and return to an NHS with no Borders.”
More information
More information about the “Patients Not Passports” week of action is here
#patientsnotpassports #medact #nobordersinthenhs #refugeeswelcomehere #setherfree #migrantsorganise #careforcalais #NEAR
https://www.patientsnotpassports.co.uk/
https://care4calais.org/
@patientsnotpassports
@medact
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Patients Not Passports, Northern March for the NHS, Saturday 1st July 2023
Dr Helen Groom (retired GP, Keep Our NHS Public North East, Patients Not Passports) speaking at the Northern March for the NHS, Leeds, 1st July 2023.
“In 2012, the year the Health and Social Care Act was passed, the Government also passed one of many migrant bills. This brought in the system whereby Trusts now do identity checks; they have the ability to work out for every single patient what your care costs, and if you’re of migrant status then they have to legally charge you, and if you can’t pay then they send the debt collectors after you. They have to share this information with the Home Office, which stops many migrants from seeking the care that they are entitled to”.
Click the link below to listen to Helen’s speech to find out what you can do to oppose this. We need to ensure that OUR NHS is available to all.
Many thanks to Leeds KONP for organising the NHS@75 rally; we celebrate 75 years of healthcare in the UK, and also protest the underfunding, hospital closures, ongoing privatisation of services and low wages of NHS staff.
15:
National Day of Protest, Saturday 10th August 2024
Statement from Keep Our NHS Public national office
Keep Our NHS Public condemns the far-right rioting that has taken place in Southport last week and around the UK over the weekend of 6/7 August and beyond. This Islamophobic and racist violence is shocking and upsetting. We extend our solidarity to Muslims, migrants and people from ethnic minorities at this time of increased threat.
Typically, those on the right choose to scapegoat migrants for crumbling public services. The crisis in the NHS is often blamed on migrants coming to the UK to use NHS services ‘fraudulently’. This is false.
The crisis in the NHS can only be blamed on the governments since 2010 who are responsible for 14 years of underfunding, cuts to services and outsourcing to private companies. This has led to a situation where the NHS has been severely undermined.
Without migrant health and care workers, the NHS would cease to function, be they consultants or auxiliary staff: one in five NHS workers are non-UK nationals, including 35% of doctors.
Migrants are not a threat to the NHS, they hold it together. And they are double charged via the health surcharges levied in advance, and the taxes they pay.
The idea that migrants and undocumented people use the NHS fraudulently is a right-wing myth: the last government’s ‘Hostile Environment’ ended universal access to healthcare, free at the point of need, for over a million people in the UK, including 215,000 children, who do not have access to free health care.
The use of GPs and emergency care in A&E is free of charge, but ongoing treatment is heavily charged. People who, under the hostile legislation, can’t prove their right to free care, pay 150% of NHS prices for most other hospital or mental health care, even in life-threatening emergencies. Additionally, 60% of migrant charges are aimed at women: mothers are charged £7500 for having a baby, and up to £15,000 for more complex delivery if things go wrong.
Keep Our NHS Public condemns migrants charges for NHS care as another example of racism and scapegoating being fuelled from the very top.
We condemn the role of the previous government, and right-wing politicians and media, encouraging the scenes we are seeing today: violent mobs at mosques, outside immigration lawyers, and attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers and random racist violence to individuals and families.
We encourage our members and supporters to oppose racist and Islamophobic threats and to join local counter-protests and anti-fascist initiatives where possible. As Keep Our NHS Public campaigns to restore an NHS that is publicly funded and provided, and free for everyone and anyone who needs it, we urge everyone to remember that the fight for the NHS includes the fight against racism.
…and in Newcastle city centre: Hope not Hate
Hundreds of counter protesters turned out in Newcastle city centre today with a clear message in the wake of days of violent disorder across the country.
Geordies made their presence felt on Newgate Street with speeches and chant: “Refugees are welcome here” . Many held up signs spreading messages of peace and unity, with one reading: “Immigrants welcome – racists not!” and another declaring: “Hope not hate”.
16: Saturday 27th September 2025 – Love Newcastle, Hate Racism
Good to meet up with many KONPNE supporters at the Anti Racism Rally / counter protest in Newcastle this afternoon. Apparently, Tommy Robinson, prominent far right wing racist was in town for a conference / protest march – but they very soon found that they, the far right, were not welcome in the North East. In short, the far right were massively, totally outnumbered. The counter-protest from the people of the North East was IMMENSE. We made it clear that there is no place for racists on the streets of Newcastle.
When immigration is considered in the cold light of day, the reality is that the UK would be unable to function as a society if it weren’t for people from other countries. Every aspect of public life would be significantly damaged were it not for those who have moved from abroad to live and work in the UK. Major cultural, educational, political and civic institutions would cease to function, especially the NHS and care system. We must dispel the myth that immigration harms society, and particularly the NHS. Austerity and cuts are to blame for the NHS crisis, not migrants.
FACT CHECK: The NHS and social care would collapse without overseas workers. Around 35% of doctors are from abroad and 27% of nurses and health advisors. See this data from The House of Commons Briefing paper, 20th November 2023 – click here
Huge thanks to Newcastle Unites, Stand Up To Racism North East and other groups and individuals for organising todays very successful counter protest. You did a superb job. Respect from all at KONPNE.
17: Thursday 20th November 2025 – NOT TO BLAME
We celebrate the great contribution migrants make to our society and the NHS in particular. It is simply not true that migration harms our NHS and social care. WE NEED TO FIGHT THE RACIST SCAPEGOATING OF MIGRANTS. Powerful statements this evening from a broad panel of speakers at an open meeting hosted by KONP national office.
Members of KONPNE joined via Zoom; we hope that a recording will be available for all to watch. In the interim, please click here to read the leaflet produced by KONP – and order some to distribute….
“Yes – the NHS and social care are in crisis. And it is Government policy that is responsible, not migrants”
“The NHS is not over-run my migrants – it is run by migrants”
“We are not your enemies – we are your work colleagues, your neighbours and your friends”
“When you walk into a hospital, you’re far more likely to be treated by a migrant person than see one in the waiting room”
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18:
Challenging the hostile environment – what you can do to fight racist policies
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Hospitals, dentists and GP surgeries have been asked by government to display posters explaining that NHS care is not free for everybody.
konpnortheast.com 