Closed petition Cancel plans to make banks check the immigration status of account holders

Closed on 2 April 2018

Starting in January 2018, UK banks will be required to carry out quarterly immigration checks on all account holders. Those found to be resident without permission will have their accounts frozen or closed down. This ramping up of the 'hostile environment' strategy will have disastrous consequences.

Under the immigration act 2014, status checks are required for anyone opening a new bank account in the UK. A 2016 report by the chief inspector of borders and immigration uncovered a 10% error rate. The Home Office simply does not have the administrative capacity or competence to execute checks on 70m accounts without causing huge collateral damage. More fundamentally, attempts to decrease net migration by denying irregular migrants access to necessities are draconian and inhumane.