New immigration rules from the Home Office are expected to be published today (22 October), outlining that non-UK nationals rough sleeping could face deportation from 1 January next year. The rules would make rough sleeping grounds for refusing or cancelling the leave of non-UK nationals.

Responding to the policy, Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said “This new policy from the government is unacceptable and cruel. It will push people who are in the UK legally and facing homelessness further into the fringes of society, rather than encouraging them to seek support.

“While the government has stressed that this policy will only be used sparingly for people who refuse support, it is not as clear cut as this. We know through our services that people who have no recourse to public funds because of their immigration status have little or no access to support in the first place, and are forced into rough sleeping if they are unable to work. This is a situation that will only worsen as the economic impact of the pandemic begins to bite.

“Ending rough sleeping for non-UK nationals is always going to come down to providing housing and the right support to people facing homelessness, rather than threatening deportation. The government has made a commitment to end rough sleeping by the end of this parliament, but policies like this are not the way to do it and undermine the effective support they offered earlier in the year as part of Everyone In.

“We await to see further details on the policy and what this means for people.”

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