The Tories want you to think their new Data Protection Bill is empowering – but its ‘immigration exemption’ will make life hell for people like me

If the immigration exemption becomes law, I will lose my right to know when my GP – and other trusted public services – hand my data over to the Home Office for ‘immigration control’ reasons

The Data Protection Bill's ‘immigration exemption’ would enables state bodies to share people’s confidential data without them having the right to know this is happening (PA)

When MPs go to work tomorrow I’ll find out whether I can tell my doctor things in confidence. I’ll learn whether my future children will be safe in school. Tomorrow our representatives will decide whether I – and millions just like me – will ever again be able to access vital public services without fear of being taken away from our families and friends, thrown into detention centres and then deported from a country we consider home.

This is because the government’s Data Protection Bill – meant to give us all more power over our personal information – includes an “immigration exemption”. This enables state bodies and other organisations to share people’s confidential data without them having the right to know this is happening, or to object – all for “effective immigration control”.

The proposal is vaguely worded so no one really knows the full extent of what it will mean in practice. But, as Liberty says, we can be sure it would create a two-tier system where some of us have rights because of where we were born while others don’t.

It is a clumsy attempt to clamp down on illegal migrants, as part of the government’s hostile environment. But Home Office record-keeping is so inaccurate all migrants would be at risk – including those who have lived in the UK most of their lives and have lawful status. I know this from personal experience.

In 2015, I went to Jamaica on holiday. When I came back, I was stopped at the border. The UK Border Agency officer stated that although my documents showed my lawful residence, the Home Office had not updated its system, so the database said I had no status.

Held for an hour and questioned in public, I was terrified and humiliated. Eventually, the situation was rectified – but the outcome could have been very different. I have lived here since I was eight years old, but every day it seems we read about people who have lived and worked here lawfully for decades suddenly targeted for removal because of substandard record-keeping or sneaky changes to the immigration rules.

And the exemption will remove people’s ability to challenge errors. The Law Society recently said almost 50 per cent of immigration appeals succeed. But with no right to know what data the Home Office holds on us, it will be impossible for lawyers to obtain vital information needed to challenge perverse decisions.

I have read Twitter comments saying, “I am all for this if it helps to keep the undesirables out.” But the exemption doesn’t require any suspicion of criminal activity. And because it extends to the “investigation or detection” of activities undermining immigration control, the exemption could even apply to British citizens because of who they live or work with.

Secret – likely unlawful – data sharing deals already exist between government departments. If the immigration exemption becomes law tomorrow, it will legitimise this regime of fear and authorise its extension. No one from a migrant background will feel safe from border authorities when they go to the GP, apply for benefits or send their child to school.

I share information with my doctor, believing she is bound by non-disclosure. If the immigration exemption becomes law, I will lose my right to know when my GP – and other trusted public services – hands my data over to the Home Office for “immigration control” reasons.

This fundamentally changes the definition of “privacy”. Millions will no longer benefit from the strict confidentiality they deserve from the NHS or a bank.

It has become stylish for today’s government to be tough on immigration. Under Theresa May’s hostile environment, our society has become one where people are constantly cross-checked. I recently spoke with family members who told me they had been asked to bring their passports into school and name their country of birth. They are both British citizens and had provided the information without hesitation – but with no knowledge of who will have access to it and why.

It is time for all British people, migrants and non-migrants to join together to challenge the hostile environment. It starts tomorrow when principled MPs must strike down this divisive and dangerous immigration exemption.

Chrisann Jarrett is co-founder of Let Us Learn, a project based at the charity Just for Kids Law, which works towards ensuring all migrants have the chance to contribute fully to British society