Protesters chanted 'no human is illegal' as they marched through Liverpool city centre today in opposition to what they describe as the Home Office's 'inhuman and insufferable' treatment of immigrants.
Migrants without permission to remain in the UK who are released on bail from detention centre are required to regularly report to immigration detention centres while awaiting a decision on their applications to live in the country.
The day of action, organised by These Walls Must Fall and Solidarity Knows No Borders, saw protests take place across the UK, including in Manchester, Leeds and London.
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In a statement, These Walls Must Fall said: "Every Home Office reporting centre is a site of state monitoring, intimidation and trauma for migrants.
"Our friends and neighbours have to come into these offices to 'report' on a regular basis, often weekly or fortnightly. At any point they could be detained and taken to a detention centre.
"Racism, intimidation and bullying is rife. Despite the Home Office claiming that this is a process of help and support, feedback from the people we’ve supported claim intimidation and threats of deportation.
"They have already been unfairly penalised during the pandemic, it is crucial that we bridge this class divide and stand together."
In-person reporting to the Home Office was suspended for several months during the first lockdown last year. Some people are still eligible for telephone reporting.
The only immigration reporting centre in Merseyside is located in The Capital Building in Liverpool city centre.
The protest in Liverpool today (July 15) included a march followed by a celebration of the value and contribution of immigrants. Song, dance and poetry were part of the celebration.
Kaya Purchase, a 26-year-old from the Wirral, organised the celebration.
She told the ECHO : "I think the way that the government alienates and dehumanises refugees and asylum seekers is just appalling. And I don't want to ever be a part of that kind of system.
"So anything I can do to oppose that and stand in solidarity with these people who've been through awful things and still continue with life and just want to get on with things.
"Anything I can do to stand in solidarity, I'll do whatever I can basically, especially with everything that [Home Secretary] Priti Patel is proposing."
The Home Secretary has put forward a new plan for immigration under the Nationality and Borders Bill making its way through Parliament.
A government policy paper published on July 6 says that the bill aims to 'deter illegal entry' to the UK and to 'remove from the UK those with no right to be here' while making 'the system fairer and more effective so that we can better protect and support those in genuine need of asylum'.
The bill may allow the government to move asylum seekers overseas while their claims are processed, which campaigners say will remove the public's ability to scrutinise treatment of people claiming asylum in the UK.
