A Green-led London council is considering using taxpayer money for an information campaign advising people targeted by immigration raids about their rights and how to resist them.
Hackney Council is working with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants on the proposed initiative, which would come as several Green councils in London have pledged to stop co-operating with Home Office officials carrying out raids across the capital.
Seema Syeda, of the charity, told the Green Party conference in Brighton that it was “working with Hackney Council to potentially do a public information campaign” to “share information to people about their rights and how they can resist raids”.
The remarks were made during an event attended by Green Party leader Zack Polanski and MPs Hannah Spencer and Sian Berry.
The proposal follows a motion put forward in Brighton and Hove by Green councillor Nadia Barton Ahmad to support migrant businesses and people targeted by raids. Labour councillors voted down the motion in the summer.
Ms Barton Ahmad said the party hoped to revive the proposal after next May’s local elections.
“We have local elections here in May, and so we are hoping that within a year we will be able to pass something similar,” she said.
Green councils and immigration raids
The plans form part of a wider debate within the Green Party over how councils should respond to immigration enforcement. The proposed Hackney campaign has not yet been confirmed as council policy.
A Green Party spokesman said conference motions submitted by members do not become party policy unless they are debated and approved.
The party’s conference has also seen disagreement over other controversial proposals, including a motion that would define Zionism as racism and a separate plan to hide some criminal convictions from Disclosure and Barring Service checks after five years.
