A/HRC/41/54/Add.2 2014 and 2016,81 many of which remain in place today. Originally, the policy aimed to restrict access to housing, employment, health care, banking and other such services to migrants in an irregular situation. 82 It included high-profile enforcement campaigns that controversially included vans printed with the slogan “Go home or face arrest”, as well as legislation restricting access to basic services for a range of categories of foreign nationals and facilitating punitive treatment of those without regular immigration status. The hostile environment policy has had an impact not only on irregular immigrants, but also on racial and ethnic minority individuals with regular immigration status, many of whom are British citizens or are entitled to British citizenship. 53. In consultations with racial and ethnic minority communities and civil society representatives, it has become clear that the rotten core of the hostile environment policy resides to a great extent in the Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016, although the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 is also a part of this picture. These laws have created a framework that deputizes immigration enforcement to private citizens and civil servants in a range of areas. In a national context that is deeply polarized, including on issues of race and ethnicity, and that is characterized by the scapegoating and negative stereotyping of minorities on racial, ethnic and religious bases, it is no surprise that a policy that ostensibly seeks to target only irregular immigrants is destroying the lives and livelihoods of racial and ethnic minority communities more broadly, including many that have been instrumental to the prosperity of the United Kingdom for decades, and are rightful claimants of citizenship status. 54. A study by Warwick University on the Home Office’s “Go home or face arrest” campaign found that many members of the wider public have difficulty understanding the distinctions between regular and irregular immigrants (for example, among refugees, asylum seekers, residents and workers, and between immigrants and ethnic minority British-born people). It also found that many people reported harassment related to their perceived or presumed immigration status when they held settled status or were British citizens.83 55. Through the “right to rent” requirement, the Government obliges landlords and agents in England to check the immigration status of all potential tenants and to deny tenancy to certain categories of immigrants, or risk civil and criminal penalties. 84 Research shows that Black and minority ethnic households are more likely than White households to be in private rented accommodation.85 Black and minority ethnic communities are therefore more likely to be required to produce residency documentation than their White counterparts. A survey found that 51 per cent of landlords said the “right to rent” scheme would make them less likely to rent to foreign nationals, while 48 per cent stated that the fine made them less likely to rent to someone without a British passport. 86 The survey also found that United Kingdom citizens from racial and ethnic minority communities may be subject to increased racial profiling as a result of the policy, as landlords stated it made them less likely to rent to individuals with “foreign accents or names”.87 Of great concern is the fact that asylum seekers and victims of trafficking do not have a right to rent and must gain “permission to rent” from the Home Office, which can further deter landlords from renting to such individuals.88 This facially race-neutral immigration enforcement provision is ultimately racially discriminatory in its effect. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 See www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/22/contents/enacted and www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-bill-2015-16. https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/LLN-2018-0064#fullreport. https://mappingimmigrationcontroversy.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/end-of-project-findings-leafletfinal.pdf, p. 3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment _data/file/573057/6_1193_HO_NH_Right-to-Rent-Guidance.pdf. www.intersecting-inequalities.com/copy-of-report, p. 11. www.jcwi.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=ffcde3b5-e590-4b8e-931c-5ecf280e1bc8, p. 31. Ibid., pp. 5 and 31. Ibid., p. 71. 15