The death of Mercy Baguma, 34, found next to her malnourished one-year-old son in a Glasgow flat, shows the cruelty of the government’s hostile environment (Mercy Baguma: appeal to pay funeral costs as calls for inquiry grow, 26 August).
There are thousands more like her who will go unnamed and unseen, their immigration status determining what help they can access. This includes migrant women fleeing domestic abuse, many of whom are turned away from refuges because a “no recourse to public funds” policy means they can’t access the housing support needed to stay in such facilities. They are left with a choice between staying with an abusive partner or becoming destitute.
We call on the government to immediately abolish the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) policy. Whether this is the cause of Baguma’s death or not, she should never have been forced into extreme poverty because of her immigration status. And no one else should be either.
Maya Goodfellow, Shaista Aziz, Sandhya Sharma, Chitra Nagarajan, Lola Okolosie and Elizabeth Jimenez Yanez
A collective of women campaigning to end NRPF
