Is your Member of Parliament acting as a Home Office Border Guard?

The BBC has reported that an immigration enforcement hotline was called 68 times last year by MPs or their staff.

MPs contacted enforcement only 19 times in 2012, the year when Theresa May first announced the creation of the ‘hostile environment’.

In the six years since then, over 700 calls have been made by MPs to the hotline.

The trend has prompted concerns that members of parliament are betraying the trust of immigrants within their constituencies who approach them for assistance.

Rather than helping them with their problems, many MPs have been reporting their presence to the Home Office.

This leaves vulnerable immigrants seeking assistance from MPs with matters as diverse as housing, domestic violence, anti-social behaviour and schools, at risk of being reported to enforcement.

So how do you know whether your MP is one of those who will inform the Home Office about you?

A group of charities have asked MPs to sign a pledge not to report their constituents.

At the time of writing, 119 MPs have signed the pledge.

You can check if your MP has signed the pledge by clicking here.

If one of these happens to be your MP, you can assume his or her surgery is a safe space.

If your MP has not signed the pledge, you can use this form to contact them and ask them to do so.

Until your MP signs up to the pledge, it is probably advisable to treat them as a potential border guard playing his or her role in the ‘hostile environment’.

Visadreams.com,  Diary of an Immigration Lawyer, is a blog run by Fahad Ansari, the director and principal solicitor of Riverway Law, a niche UK immigration and nationality law practice based in London.  If you would like any advice or assistance in relation to your immigration matter, please do not hesitate to email me at fahad@riverwaylaw.com or submit your details here.