The United Kingdom’s plan to add a reference number linked to a person’s immigration status to their health records has raised concerns from migrant rights groups, who worry about potential surveillance and the exacerbation of an already hostile environment towards migrants. 

Under this new plan, Home Office reference numbers would be included in the personal demographics services -- the electronic database of patient demographic data which includes the name, address, date of birth and National Health Service (NHS) number of patients, the British newspaper The Guardian reported last week. 

The Home Office reference number, which is also called the unique application number, is a number assigned to people who submit a visa application. 

Many visa applicants who want to stay in the UK for more than six months pay an immigration health surcharge in order to access health services. The National Health Service (NHS) receives notification of who pays the immigration health surcharge.

"Data-sharing within the NHS will further erode migrants’ patients’ data rights and expose migrant communities to greater surveillance," Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN) told InfoMigrants.

"The rationale behind why migrants’ data needs to be accessed by the Home Office is unclear. However, this new process feels discriminatory, and will likely be used as an immigration enforcement tool to further harm migrants, and deter them from accessing vital healthcare," Qureshi said.

MRN also expressed concern over maternity services being heavily monitored by immigration enforcement and the impact on those who require maternity services.

A Home Office spokesperson refuted these claims and told The Guardian, "The Home Office shares data with the NHS to ensure individuals can access healthcare free of charge where they are entitled to treatment. The use of a reference number is an established part of these data-sharing arrangements and there is no new reference number being introduced. To suggest otherwise is wrong."

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Previous attempts to access patient data

It is not the first time that the Home Office has caused an uproar over its initiatives to access to records of non-citizens availing of NHS services. 

In 2016, a secretly signed memorandum of understanding, published months later, revealed that NHS was required by law to hand over non-clinical patient details including last known addresses, dates of birth, doctor details, The Guardian reported. 

The NHS reportedly released an estimated 8,000 confidential patient records to the Home Office. 

The controversial data-sharing between the NHS and the Home Office was suspended in 2018 following strong opposition from doctors' groups, health charities, and migrant rights organizations who claimed that the initiative created fear and prevented people from seeking medical care. 

"We have previously challenged data-sharing arrangements ... and the revival of this practice for immigration enforcement purposes is highly concerning. We will be monitoring the situation closely to decide our next course of action and in the meantime, we call for greater transparency about these plans," MRN's Querishi said.

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