| SPOTLIGHT |
Campaigners are looking to crowd fund a legal challenge over the Department of Education’s (DfE) policy of collecting country of birth and nationality information on eight million children in England.
Against Borders for Children, which describes itself as a coalition of parents, teachers, and campaigners, is closing in on its initial target of raising £3,000 via Crowd Justice for the case. It is being supported in the challenge by human rights group Liberty.
On its crowdfunding page the group said: “Collection of nationality and country of birth data is a toxic policy that has led to highly divisive and discriminatory collection practices such as asking only children assumed to be migrants to bring in passports and birth certificates.
“The information is not being collected for educational purposes, but as part of a compromise with the Home Office on harsh measures that would have seen the children of undocumented migrants ‘deprioritised’ for school places.
“Nationality and country of birth information was going to be handed over to the Home Office as part of a broader data-sharing scheme to track down undocumented children and families through school records. Only public outcry has prevented this, and it could still be shared in the future.”
The group added some parents feared that sending their children to school could lead to deportation.
