On Thursday 30 April, Haringey Welcome hosted a local election hustings at the Engine Room in Tottenham Hale. Prior to the event we invited all candidates to sign our HW election pledge:
Our pledge has now received 169 signatures.
The evening began with a special performance by our friends Legal Aliens Theatre in partnership with Voices for Equality, a campaign group of people with lived experience of the hostile immigration system. Three actors voiced verbatim accounts of migrant experiences in the UK provided by Voices for Equality.
These powerful performances focused the audience’s attention on the evening’s theme: how can we challenge the hostile immigration system together with our community?
Testimonies covered the realities for migrant residents and their families of living with No Recourse to Public Funds, often for 10, 20, or 30 years whilst struggling to regularise their status; the limbo and impoverishment of waiting to be granted status whilst spending thousands of pounds in visa fees in order to avoid becoming undocumented; and the emotional, financial, and health impacts of politically motivated arbitrary changes to immigration rules, which threaten to further increase destitution and homelessness amongst migrants. The performances also included an account of how an immigration lawyer embezzled client funds, and the mental health impacts of being placed in temporary and unfit accommodation for years with no end in sight. All of these voices of testimony represent common experiences amongst migrants subject to UK immigration rules.
After a short break the panel assembled for the hustings event.
The panel discussion and Q&A were hosted and moderated by Haringey Welcome’s Myria Georgiou. Myria drew attention to the four HW election pledges, noting how many signatories it had received so far from candidates before asking the panel for their initial reactions to the performance.
Cllr Peray Ahmet, the incumbent Labour panellist, noted that Haringey is a borough of welcome, and is in the process of renewing its Welcome Strategy together with community members, to address some of the issues raised in the performance. She acknowledged that problematic national government policy (both Labour and Conservative) undermines this local work and perception. (Shamim Muhammad, the Liberal Democrat candidate, joined the panel late).
Below: Shamim Muhammad, Liberal Democrat candidate for Highgate ward and Councillor Peray Ahmet, Labour Leader of Haringey Council since 2021 and candidate for Noel Park ward.
Ata Berk Akşit for the Greens referenced his own experience as a trade unionist working to develop the rights of migrant workers, many of whom (for example asylum seekers living in hotels, barred from employment and forced to live on £8.50 per week) are forced to work in the shadow economy just to survive, and therefore become easy targets for abuse and exploitation. He emphasised his party’s focus was on convening local communities, organisations, and unions to provide support.
The Socialist Alliance candidate Gary McFarlane highlighted the importance of such dramatic performances in creating a strong counter-narrative to the prevailing negative representation of migrants in the UK.
Below: Ata Berk Akşit, Green Party candidate for Hermitage and Gardens ward and Gary McFarlane, Haringey Socialist Alliance candidate for Northumberland Park ward.
The evening was then structured around the following four questions to the panel before opening the floor to audience questions.
1. How would you and your party/coalition respond to Hostile Environment policies that can harm local residents? These include the Earned Settlement proposal, Home Office raids in Haringey, and barriers to housing and healthcare. Please focus on at least one of these in your response.
2. What specific policy proposals would you bring to the Council to resist harmful central government policies and make Haringey genuinely welcoming and safe
3. How would you ensure that Council contracts — now or in future — are not held by corporations profiting from Hostile Environment policies?
4. How should our local authority work together with residents and community organisations to make Haringey a truly welcoming borough for all?
There followed a lively debate, with much agreement from the different parties on the importance of resisting the impact of the Hostile Environment in Haringey, and acknowledgement of achievements made so far. There was clear disagreement on the extent to which the Labour council is inevitably beholden to central government, as well as criticism of it being too inaccessible and out of touch with residents and communities.
Questions from the audience focused on access and availability of parks and open public spaces, the need for more housing and the dire condition of much existing council housing. The panellists were also asked to commit to a maximum period for people to be in temporary housing, and much greater oversight of private landlords making money from council rents while placing people in entirely unsuitable accommodation.
A commitment to not close down community centres or to provide more open public meeting spaces was also requested.
Photo Credit: Many thanks to Tom Newman for all images included here.