On 14 May the Immigration Bill received Royal Assent and became the Immigration Act 2014.
The Act’s main provisions include:
- Reducing the number of immigration decisions that can be appealed from 17 to 4 while preserving appeals for those asserting fundamental rights.
- Making it harder for those who try to gain an immigration advantage by entering into a sham marriage or civil partnership.
- Requiring private landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, which will be implemented on a phased basis in one geographical area first.
- Introducing a new requirement that temporary migrants must make a financial contribution to the National Health Service.
- Making it easier for the Home Office to recover unpaid civil penalties.
- Requiring banks to check against a database of known immigration offenders before opening bank accounts.
- Introducing new powers to check driving licence applicants’ immigration status before issuing a licence and revoking licences where immigrants are found to have overstayed in the UK.
NGOs concerned about the equality and human rights impacts of the measures produced briefings and other material during the passage of the Bill:
- Equality Impacts of the Immigration Bill (Equanomics, NAT briefing for EDF)
- The Immigration Bill: Creating a Hostile Environment for Migrants in the UK (Migrant Rights Network)
- Immigration Bill Briefing (ILPA)
- Why challenge Government proposals on migrant access and their financial contribution to the NHS provision in England? (NAT)
- The Immigration Bill: Health impacts for migrants and the wider community (Entitlement Working Group submission to Immigration Bill Committee)
- National Aids Trust and Regional Asylum Activism Project have launched an online campaign to oppose new eligibility checks for a range of public services – including healthcare – which will make it harder for everyone to access NHS care in future
- CORE briefing on the Bill for House of Lords, Committee Stage: February 2014
- The Immigration Bill – developments so far at Report stage in the Lords (Migrants’ Rights Network, 7 April 2014)
- Open letter from academics and researchers and openDemocracy article (May 2014)
- Migrants’ Rights Network’s summary of What you need to know about the Immigration Bill (12 May 2014)
