This is a new low from this government: Amber Rudd's Home Office recently put in place a law forcing banks to spy on every current account in the UK to check immigration statuses. And then block the accounts of anyone who appears -- often incorrectly -- on a Home Office list.

Young people, people with families in this country, and those who have fled here to escape persecution for their gender or sexuality could all be targeted by this inhumane scheme. And there are fears it could be further expanded to EU nationals after Brexit, too.

This government-sponsored programme of hostility towards migrants was spearheaded by Theresa May during her time as home secretary. It requires requires employers, landlords, NHS staff and other public servants to check a person’s status before they can offer them a job, housing, healthcare or other support.

And now banks have been added to its ever expanding reach.

A new report lays bare how the policies have spread to all areas of life and encourage racist and discriminatory behaviour. Enough is enough: tell Home Secretary Amber Rudd to stop using corporations and ordinary workers as border guards, and roll back hostile environment policies.

Amber Rudd: stop using corporations to enact callous, inhumane hostile environment immigration policies, that turn ordinary workers into border guards.

The government expects to identify 6,000 people in the first year of the banks' quarterly checks, whose accounts will be shut down or frozen “to make it harder for them to establish or maintain a settled life in the UK”.

Even the Home Office itself admitted that the move will simply force vulnerable people deeper into the ‘hidden economy.’ And the ‘hostile environment’ policy has a history of major errors, too -- with as many as 1 in 10 people wrongly refused new accounts because they ‘failed’ an immigration status check.

This week it’s come to light thousands of people who arrived in the UK as children from the Commonwealth face deportation, having in some cases lived and worked here for decades.

Satbir Singh, CEO for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: “Immigration status is very complex, and the Home Office consistently gives out incorrect information and guidance. Migrants and ethnic minorities with every right to be here will be affected by the imposition of these new checks.”

Such checks will undoubtedly target vulnerable people who are already struggling to survive and feeling the worst effects of precarious, gig-economy jobs -- and the increase in racist hate-crimes that followed the EU referendum.

We can’t stand idly by as Britain becomes a cold and unwelcoming place for those looking for a better life. By coming together, we can act in solidarity for a country that cares, and safeguards peoples’ rights, whoever they are and wherever they came from.

Amber Rudd: end hostile environment policies and stop forcing corporations and private sector workers to be border guards.

The Home Office is no stranger to controversy and abuses of power. But SumOfUs members have a history of resisting this government’s policies.

Almost 60,000 SumOfUs members like you signed in solidarity with the migrant workers of Britain against this government’s ‘foreign workers’ lists -- forcing the government to row back significantly on its proposal. And we’ve just learnt that people power has forced the government into a u-turn on another of its hostile environment policies and will not longer require schools to collect data on pupil’s nationality and place of birth!

Let’s come together again to stop the government from co-opting private companies to further its callous agenda.

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