Shadow health secretary questioned by Guardian editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner
Q: You oppose the Rwanda policy because you don’t think it will work. If the supreme court rules it is legal, and deportations start and it is seen to be working, would you still reverse it.
Yes, says Starmer. He says it is the wrong policy. It is very expensive, and it only affect only a small number of people. And the policy does not deal with the problem at source.
Continue reading...GardaWorld has been investigated for safety violations and is also the same company that bussed migrants in from Texas
The mayor of Chicago is at loggerheads with fellow progressives and his own Democratic state governor over the city’s choice of a vexed company to erect controversial tents for asylum seekers during the bitter midwest winter – as wider tensions rise on the left at the local and national level over migration policy chaos.
While the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, are divided over how to house thousands of migrant families currently sleeping inside and outside Chicago police stations, the two are united in fury at lack of emergency funding coming from Joe Biden’s White House.
Continue reading...Viktor Orbán used provocative language at summit, saying EU had gone ahead without his or Poland’s support
EU leaders have clashed again with Hungary after the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, insisted at a summit in Granada that it would not support proposed laws to deal with migration.
Poland also joined the protest, accusing Brussels of imposing a “diktat” on other member states regarding the proposed laws that would apply in the event of a sudden refugee crisis such as that of 2015, when more than 1 million people arrived in the EU from Syria and beyond.
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said US measures to pressure Maduro’s government contribute to exodus of people from that country
Left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the US was “contributing to the destabilisation that drives migration” with measures such as sanctions on Venezuela and Thursday’s decision to resume deportation flights to the South American country.
She also demanded that Joe Biden reverse his recent decision to expedite border wall construction.
Continue reading...Five-point plan seeks to tackle organised crime across Europe as well as criminals operating boats
The EU has joined forces with the UK and Albania to extend the fight against people smugglers across the wider continent, after forceful interventions by Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak at a summit of 47 European leaders in Spain.
The plan was forged at the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Granada with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the leaders of France, the Netherlands and Albania – Emmanuel Macron, Mark Rutte and Edi Rama – joining the Italian and UK prime ministers.
Continue reading...The two prime ministers have forced immigration onto the agenda at European Political Community summit in Granada
Giorgia Meloni has turned to the UK’s prime minister Rishi Sunak to take her battle against migration beyond the EU, it has emerged.
In what some are dubbing the Spanish framework, the prime ministers have forced migration on to the agenda at a historic meeting of about 50 European leaders in Granada on Thursday.
Continue reading...In event of war, natural disaster or climate emergency, rules will allow frontline states to move people swiftly to other EU countries
The EU has reached a historic agreement on how member states will deal with a sudden increase in the number of people seeking asylum in the event of war, natural disaster or climate emergency.
The new rules will allow frontline states to fast-track asylum applications and move people swiftly to other countries in Europe, avoiding a repeat of 2015 when 1 million refugees came to the EU from Syria and beyond, and some countries accepted far more than others.
The pact was sealed early on Wednesday morning, ending three years of arguments between member states on the eve of 27 EU leaders gathering in the Spanish city of Granada on Friday.
The Spanish government, which now holds the rotating EU presidency, had confidently predicted it had majority backing for the deal at an interior ministers’ meeting in Brussels last Thursday.
But at the last minute, Italy said it would not support the deal after two clauses were drafted to satisfy German concerns about human rights.
While it is thought the EU had the numbers to push through the deal on a majority basis, ministers decided it would not be worth the paper it was written on unless Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s rightwing prime minister, was on board.
Italy has received about half the 250,000 people who have arrived in the EU this year. EU leaders, including the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and the European Commissioner, Ursula von der Leyen, have gone out of their way to ensure the rest of the bloc shows solidarity.
“EU ambassadors have reached an agreement on the regulation addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum,” the Spanish presidency announced on X, the company formerly known as Twitter.
The clash between Italy and Germany encapsulated the differing approaches of European governments. Italy wanted a clause allowing for minimum standards in detention centres to be breached in the event of a crisis spike in arrivals, which Germany had objected to. Italy also attacked Germany over its support for NGOs in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
The EU has already agreed new rules on dealing with irregular arrivals at current levels with “solidarity” relocation of migrants away from frontline countries. Under the new agreement, that will be replicated in the event of a rise in numbers.
Continue reading...Shift to ‘last in, first out’ processing aims to break the business model of those making unmeritorious claims, immigration minister says
The Albanese government will attempt to turn the tables on people making unmeritorious asylum claims by shifting to a “last in, first out” application processing system.
The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, will announce a $160m package to tackle the backlog of asylum claims, including $54m to prioritise processing new claims, an attempt to break the business model of those suggesting junk claims as a means to remain in Australia.
Continue reading...Wooden vessel is thought to have held largest number of arrivals to Spanish archipelago in one crossing
A wooden boat crammed with 280 people that arrived at the Canary island of El Hierro on Tuesday is thought to be the most crowded migrant vessel to have reached the Spanish archipelago after traversing the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa.
More than 500 people reached El Hierro on Tuesday alone, as smugglers took advantage of the calmer autumn weather to ferry people to the Canaries. Emergency services reported another boat arriving with 79 people, while 127 others were rescued from the sea.
Continue reading...The Old Oak, about tensions in a former mining village when refugees arrive, has touched a nerve more raw now than when filming began
The veteran film-maker Ken Loach is famous for storylines that depict life’s bleakest injustices. But his latest film has touched a political nerve that is more raw now than when it was conceived before the pandemic.
Loach, now 87, has said that The Old Oak, which opened in cinemas on Friday, will be his last in a career spanning more than six decades. The six-week shoot was challenging, he says, but plays down the difficulties of making a big film at his age with the sight in one eye almost gone.
Continue reading...Hopes fade of deal being struck, with one sticking point being right to occasionally breach detention centre standards
European Union member states have failed to reach an agreement on changes to the bloc’s migration laws after Germany and Italy clashed over key proposals relating to human rights guarantees in detention centres and the role of NGOs in facilitating migrant arrivals.
But, as hopes faded on Thursday of a deal being struck, ministers said they expected “fine tuning” in coming days to lead to a pact that would apply in the event of a sudden refugee crisis such as that of 2015 when more than 1 million people arrived from Syria and beyond.
Continue reading...The PM instead praised the UK’s ‘fantastic multicultural democracy’, saying the nation has done an ‘incredible job of integrating people’
The former SNP minister Fergus Ewing has claimed his party no longer stands up for Scotland as he was suspended for a week after a disciplinary vote by fellow MSPs.
The sanction, which was backed by 48 votes to nine with four abstentions, came about after Ewing voted against the SNP-Green government in a no-confidence motion against the Scottish Green minister Lorna Slater.
The SNP I joined would never have asked me, or indeed any other elected politician, to choose between loyalty to party and loyalty to constituents …
It was never an ordinary political party because it was one which put Scotland first.
Fergus is a long standing MSP, he has been a minister, he understands the procedures here and what the outcome is of voting in the way that he did.
No, you are and you’re her direct line boss. So why didn’t you deal with that situation, as her boss?
The way it works for MPs is slightly different, in the sense that they themselves are elected by their constituents and we have a separate process for them stopping the job that they’re in. It is not my ability to do that, actually. Ultimately people elect their MPs regardless of who the prime minister is.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed
Poland’s ambassador to the EU, Andrzej Sadoś, told the Guardian today that Warsaw “is refusing to accept any elements of mandatory relocation, the distribution of some mandatory quotas” and is also opposed “to any obligatory payment for not accepting migrants.”
EU countries, he wrote in response to a question, “should have full discretion in choosing between different type of solidarity measures.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former Manus Island detainees facing loss of accommodation, but the Australian government claims it is no longer responsible for their welfare
Refugees exiled to Papua New Guinea by Australia have been told they will be evicted from their Australian-sponsored accommodation after bills were not paid for more than a year.
The refugees and asylum seekers were formerly detained within Australia’s Manus Island detention centre before it was ruled unlawful and ordered shut by PNG’s supreme court. About 70 men remain held in PNG, most in rented accommodation in Port Moresby.
Continue reading...As EU prepares to send money as part of €1bn deal, people trying to reach north African country detail border ‘pushbacks’
Migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have spoken of their horror at being forcibly returned to remote desert regions where some have died of thirst as they attempt to cross the border into Tunisia.
As the European Union prepares to send money to Tunisia under a €1bn (£870m) migration deal, human rights groups are urging Brussels to take a tougher line on allegations that Tunisian authorities have been pushing people back to deserted border areas, often with fatal results.
Continue reading...Pato Crepin’s wife and six-year-old daughter were repeatedly pushed back by authorities in Tunisia, which has signed a €1bn deal with the EU
Pato Crepin had walked for three days through the desert and could not take it any more. Twice, he and his family tried to cross the border from Libya into Tunisia; twice, they had been pushed back. Crepin, who was recovering from an infection and had not had a drink for 24 hours, found he could not get up. In the blistering heat of the mid-July desert, his legs had given up.
His wife and six-year-old daughter, however, seemed stronger. Crepin, an asylum seeker from Cameroon, believed that if they left him behind they might yet make it to Tunisia and, from there, perhaps, on to Europe. He did not want to slow them down. “Go,” he told them. “I’ll catch up with you in Tunisia.”
Continue reading...Home secretary argued that ‘uncontrolled’ migration poses ‘existential challenge for institutions of the west’
The Sun is carrying a story today saying Rishi Sunak’s “decision to stall the net zero ban on selling new petrol cars has seen him catch up eight points in the polls”. It is based on the results of this Deltapoll poll.
For a more considered view, it is worth reading this article in the i by Prof Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading psephologist. He says the impact of the net zero speech on the polls has been much more modest. Here is his conclusion.
Whatever the popularity of the measures, if, as has been alleged, Mr Sunak’s motivation was to try to reduce Labour’s lead, it looks as though he has so far reaped little reward. Four polls of voting intention conducted after last Wednesday’s announcement have so far been published. Between them they put Labour’s lead on 17 points – just a point below the polling average shortly before last week’s drama.
Moving the polls is, it seems, just as difficult as dealing with climate change.
Continue reading...Operation Dudula changes tactics from evictions and violence, with plans to fight elections on platform of expelling foreigners
An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections.
Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers who arrived before the end of July – about 472,000 – will now be able to legally live and work in the US
Venezuelan asylum seekers in the United States have welcomed the news of temporary permission to live and work in the country as a vital “helping hand” after the Biden administration announced that it would extend temporary protected status (TPS) to nearly half a million Venezuelan nationals.
The Department of Homeland Security announced that the TPS extension now includes those who arrived in the US by the end of July, whereas the previous cutoff date was 8 March 2021.
Continue reading...Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, new leader of the Netherlands’ VVD party, is a talk show darling. Will that be enough to take her to the very top?
She is a former child refugee who wants to reduce immigration, has opened the door to the far right and could be the Netherlands’ first female prime minister. At a packed party conference in Rotterdam on Saturday, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), launched her campaign for November’s elections with a call for liberty and security.
“From my parents, I learned to cherish freedom and stand up for others when their freedom was threatened,” she said. “But we face losing ever more of this ‘oxygen’, with ever less understanding for one another and politics operating increasingly from distrust. It’s not for nothing that our manifesto is called: giving space, defining borders.”
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