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URBC Supports Sisters Uncut, UKBLM, & Others in Abolishing the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill, #KillTheBill!

URBC member Louisa, speaking at the Sisters Uncut Manchester #KillTheBill protest, 20 March 2021.

Statement from URBC, #KillTheBill

 Unis Resist Border Control (URBC) stands in rage and solidarity with Sisters Uncut and all other prison and border abolition organisations in opposition to the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill. It’s been a long week. we are thankful for all the work Sisters Uncut in London have done for linking the disappearance of Sarah Everard to wider issues about policing, state violence and highlighting the dangers of this bill.

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Emma Hardy, Shadow Minister for Universities has Resigned: URBC Documents Her Incompetence

Tweet from URBC saying "you're a hypocrite Emma Hardy MP! We warned you of this problem our #TuitionFeeAmnestyNow letter on 10 August 2020, 7 months ago! Don't pretend that you are appalled NOW when you failed to give us & the 500 lecturers, international students & union reps an adequate response!"
Former shadow minister for FE & universities tweeting on the 24th February 2021, concerning the situation of international student accessing food banks. URBC sent her a letter endorsed by 530 university lecturers, students (international and British) and union representatives about the precarity of international students during the first COVID lockdown on the 10 August 2020, and never received an adequate response from Hardy’s office.

Emma Hardy stepped down from her role as shadow minister for universities on Monday 8th March. Replacing Emma Hardy is Matt Western, MP for Warwick and Leamington. Western, married to Rebecca Earle, Professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick, is described in his They Work For You profile as having consistently voted against a stricter asylum system, yet there isn’t much information about his votes on higher education policy to ascertain his views on the current untenable situation in UK universities.

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Trade union work & building movements to fight the hostile environment: be like Birmingham UCU!

Tweet from Birmingham UCU that says "our new anti-racism working group made its first recommendations to the branch this week - all agreed in full. we're backing two key anti-racism campaigns aligned with our principles of promoting anti-racism: UnisNotBorders and FreeBlackUni"

Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) would like to thank the University of Birmingham branch of UCU for their donation of £250 pounds to URBC. Donations like these help us to sustain our work organizing, campaigning and providing casework support for those facing the hostile environment.

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#MichelleMocksStudents: Minister of State for Universities responds to URBC’s #TuitionFeeAmnestyNow for international students

  • Response from Michelle Donelan to the joint URBC & MRN letter sent on the 10 August 2020

On the 26th November 2020, after waiting over three months, Unis Resist Border Control (URBC) finally received a response from Michelle Donelan, Minster of State for Universities to our #TuitionFeeAmnestyNOW letter. URBC along with the Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN) sent a comprehensive letter on the 10th August 2020 that explained in detail why international students demand #TuitionFeeAmnestyNOW.

The URBC/MRN letter, signed by 530 students, university lecturers, UCU, Unison, IWW union representatives, along with anti-racist, and migrant rights organisations, indicated the following:

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The IHS is unhealthy for everyone: the hostile environment as a threat to wellbeing in Higher Education and beyond

Top image is a close-up of a visa permit card. The second image is a group of peolpe at a protest holding banners that say Patients Not Passports, and Stop Sharing NHS Patient Data with the Home Office. In the back is a large banner that says "Doctors acting as border guards? 70,000 doctors and patients say no to sharing patient data with the home office. Deterring patients from healthcare is dangerous."

by Gwyneth Lonergan (Lancaster University) and Samuel Solomon (University of Sussex)

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Health Surcharge (IHS) has gotten a lot of media attention as the government agreed, after much public pressure, to waive the surcharge for migrant NHS staff and care workers. The surcharge is a levy applied to work, spousal, and student visas, and was introduced following the 2014 Immigration Act, ostensibly to defray the ‘cost’ of migrants on these visas to the NHS.  Initially set at £200/year [£150 for students], it was increased to £400/year in 2018, and will rise to £624 in October.  A person applying for a three- year Tier 2 (General) work visa will therefore pay £1,872 for the health surcharge alone.  Non-EU migrants therefore pay a very literal price to work and study in the UK.  A Tier 2 (General) visa costs a minimum of around £450/year, in addition to the health surcharge, and applying for “Indefinite Leave to Remain” costs a minimum of £2,389.

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