Haringey groups oppose increase in NHS charging for migrants
The government plan involves Increasing the Immigration Health Surcharge by 66% and increasing visa costs to help fund pay increases for public sector workers.
The groups - brought together by Migrants Organise, Medact, JCWI and the Patients Not Passports campaign - argue the policy is divisive, pitting worker against worker, and will push more people into destitution and poverty.
They point out that there are many migrant workers in the NHS, helping to keep it going at a time of increased pressure, and that progressive taxation should be used to fund the NHS, and workers' pay.
The UK already effectively taxes migrants twice for healthcare, and has some of the most extortionate visa fees in Europe - a migrant family of four often has to pay around £50,000 over 10 years for the right to stay.
We have worked closely with Haringey Welcome, Migrants Organise, Medact, CARIS and other groups on a project to make it easier for migrants to register with Haringey GPs. As part of our research we heard from people supporting migrants who told us that the existing charging policy was already locking people out of healthcare.
