This report focuses on the set of policies introduced as part of the UK government’s Hostile Environment immigration policies – which restrict access to public services and criminalise everyday activities – to expand border enforcement into the National Health Service (NHS) and restrict access to healthcare.

To understand what might happen if the government continues to restrict access to healthcare in this way, the authors explore what can be learned from international practice, describing levels of migrant access to healthcare across Europe and the impact of different policies and practices.

Throughout the report, the authors highlight campaigns and movements that have successfully challenged barriers to accessing healthcare. It's hoped that these experiences of broad-based opposition to charging migrants for healthcare, and their achievements in improving the accessibility of health systems, will be instructive to healthcare professionals, healthcare bodies, unions, and campaigners in the UK, and help inform collective organising against the policy in the months and years ahead.