Charity issues guide to foiling Home Office raids on illegal immigrants while taking taxpayer cash
By MARK HOOKHAM, ASSISTANT EDITOR (INVESTIGATIONS) and NICK CONSTABLE, REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
A taxpayer-funded migrants charity has published a guide to thwarting Home Office swoops on suspected illegal immigrants, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Despite receiving more than £1million in legal aid since 2019 and £47,015 from the Home Office itself, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is working with a network of Left-wing councillors to obstruct lawful enforcement raids.
The manual, issued through its 'migrant champions network', is titled Resisting Immigration Raids – A Guide For Local Councillors.
Written by the charity's advocacy and campaigns director Griff Ferris, it urges councillors to obstruct lawful Home Office immigration raids while they are in progress.
It tells local politicians to 'challenge' officers on the spot, film them and 'walk away' with those being targeted to disrupt the action.
It also proposes that councillors press local authorities into refusing to cooperate with the Home Office.
In 2021, Mr Ferris took part in a blockade of a removal centre at Gatwick Airport, aimed at stopping a deportation flight carrying convicted killers and rapists to Jamaica.
Griff Ferris, who wrote a guide on how to thwart to Home Office swoops on suspected illegal immigrants
He was prosecuted for causing a public nuisance but acquitted.
'Having councillors play an active role in resisting raids that target their communities is a strong statement of solidarity,' his guide states.
'Community resistance to raids can take the form of outreach work, awareness-raising or stopping raids when they happen,' it adds.
The £47,015 from the Home Office is described in public records as 'contract and other funding'.
A spokesman said it related to 'litigation costs' awarded to the charity against the Home Office.
The £1million-plus in legal aid is paid under a Legal Aid Agency contract for immigration and asylum cases.
Some £31,000 in EU funds was awarded for 'improving conditions of irregularised migrant households'. Last year, it was awarded £19,999 by the National Lottery Community Fund.
According to the grant-tracking site GrantNav, private trusts and charitable funders have given £3.38million since 2014.
The charity claims more than 160 councillors have signed a statement condemning policies which target migrants, asylum seekers and refugees suspected of arriving illegally.
In July, Green-led Lewisham Council became the first to refuse co-operation with Home Office Immigration Enforcement.
Five other Green-led London councils – Lambeth, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Southwark and Haringey – have since adopted the same policy.
Reform's Keith Prince said: 'Cooperation between local authorities and the Home Office is required to ensure the law is applied and vulnerable people are protected, rather than adopting ridiculous activist-driven policies.'
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