Home Office declares war on Polish children and Polish disabled

Two more examples of deliberate insensitivity by the Home Office. They are obviously pandering to the hopeless Tory manifesto pledge of bringing down immigration to the "tens of thousands". Because it is unachievable the application of existing and new Home Office rules will be applied all the more indoscriminately and with scruples over the mst vulnerable in society.

Have already passed this information to the Polish EuroMPs I made contact with in Brussels.

Firstly, Polish children normally received British passports after they were born here when their parent(s) could show they had worked here for at least 5 years and so were eligible for permanent residence.
Now, when it comes to passport renewal after 5 years, the children are stripped of their British nationality where it transpired that the parent had not registered earlier for the Worker Registration Scheme which had been valid in the period 2004 to 2011. Please remember that WRS was optional when it came to the legality of working here, but necessary only when an EU national applied for any benefits, These children are now left stranded without any travel document and quite understandably upset. They can apply separately for British citizenship again but only after paying a fee of £973.

Secondly, elderly Poles, many now bed-ridden and frail, who have lived here for 30 or more years and who have applied for attendance allowance or for disability benefit (under its new euphemistic name - personal independence payment) have been turned down if they receive a pension (no matter how paltry) from Poland. The Home Office response is is that if they are eligible for a small pension in Poland from their earlier years, then they should also apply for these benefits in Poland.

At the "Keep Race out of the Election" meeting I attended in Stratford on Tuesday I explained the work of the3miilion and we had an interesting discussion about
the issue of EU rights and the racist implications of a restrictive immigration policy. NUT teachers were very concerned about the Home Office requiring that schools now seek to record the place of birth and the nationality of children as well as their home language. There was a fear that it would be part of a Home Office plan to identify potential deportees for the future - Roma, Muslim, asylum seekers, East Europeans. Who knows? These points made with Nahella Ashraf.

They wanted to organize a series of mass rallies after June 8th "whoever wins" against racism and on behalf of EU citizens rights. They asked if the3miilion would be interested to participate. Of course I did not commit us but said I would mention it to my colleagues..
We'll be in touch tomorrow.
Cheers