Category Archives: Migration

MPs vote to support the Illegal Migration Bill by 289 to 230 – as it happened

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Theresa May had warned bill will cause more people to be consigned to modern slavery while Geoffrey Cox also raised concerns. This blog is now closed

Q: [From Matthew Barber, the police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley] What can the Home Office do to cut bureaucracy for the police?

Braverman says, if someone is having a mental health crisis, there should be a healthcare response, not a police response. She says police officers are having to spend too much time in hospital with people.

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‘Putting their lives on hold’: Australian families kept apart as wait times for partner visas blow out

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New figures from the home affairs department show some families are waiting years for temporary visas to be processed

Australian families are living in constant fear of being torn apart, as wait times for partner visas blow out – to years in some cases, according to newly released figures.

The Department of Home Affairs has released figures on partner visa processing times to Guardian Australia in response to a freedom of information request.

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Senior Mexican official to stand trial over fire that killed 40 migrants

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Judge cites evidence that state immigration chief failed in duty to protect detention centre occupants in Ciudad Juarez blaze

A judge has ordered the immigration director of Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua to stand trial on charges of homicide, injuries and failure to perform his duties over a deadly fire at a migrant detention centre.

Juan José Chávez ordered the director, Salvador González, to be held in prison pending trial.

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UN refugee chief condemns Australia’s offshore detention regime and slogans like ‘stop the boats’

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Exclusive: Filippo Grandi praises Australia’s refugee reset but is ‘very upset’ by UK moves to mimic its offshore detention policy

“Myopic” policies of deterrence, and slogans like “stop the boats” are ineffective in addressing the movement of asylum seekers across the world, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi has said, in a major speech urging greater cooperation between nations.

Speaking at the University of Melbourne’s Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Grandi said: “Far too often, rich countries have a myopic approach to global forced displacement and population movements, focusing overwhelmingly on border controls.”

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MEPs approve plans for long-awaited overhaul to EU asylum system

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European lawmakers say that after seven years of deadlock it could be the final chance to resolve the issue

The European parliament has approved a series of proposals to overhaul the EU asylum system in a bid to end a years-long deadlock over the issue.

Voting in Strasbourg, MEPs approved plans on the distribution of refugees and migrants across the bloc, screening of people at the EU’s external borders and giving non-EU nationals long-term residence permits after three years of legal stay in a member state.

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Dominic Raab bullying claims: deputy PM refusing to resign after reading report – as it happened

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Dominic Raab denies wrongdoing after report on his behaviour delivered to Rishi Sunak this morning

Today’s announcement by the Association of School and College Leaders that it is to hold a formal ballot for national strike action for the first time in its history (see 9.49am) marks a significant development in the ongoing dispute between teachers and the government.

Up until now only members of the National Education Union (NEU) have taken strike action in England, with five more days of strikes planned for later this term. In addition a fresh ballot is to be held to provide the NEU with a mandate for further strike action up until Christmas.

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Arrest of Chihuahua migration chief spotlights abuses in Mexican system

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Last month’s fatal fire in Ciudad Juárez is latest in a series of deaths and injuries dogging the country’s militarized migration agency

Mexican authorities have arrested the head of migration for the state of Chihuahua in connection with a fire which killed 40 people at a government-run detention facility in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez last month.

The death of the migrants sparked outrage across Mexico after surveillance footage showed that officials failed to unlock the doors of the holding cell where migrants were trapped.

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‘Terrifying’: Critics decry US plan to stop migrants at Darién Gap

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Deal with Colombia and Panama aims to halt refugees crossing the lawless jungle region, but some say dangers will only increase

A US-backed plan to stop migrants from crossing the lawless Darién Gap will likely fail and only push desperate people further into the hands of merciless people-trafficking organisations, migration experts have warned.

The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that it had brokered a deal with the Colombian and Panamanian governments to halt migrants crossing the land bridge on their journey northward to the US.

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Thousands of Australian visa decisions may be affected by high court ruling, experts warn

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Advocates fear court’s decision rejecting Coalition-era policy could result in a hasty legislative fix

Migration and legal experts have warned the true number of visa decisions affected by invalid refusals of ministerial intervention is likely to be in the tens of thousands, after the high court rejected bureaucrats’ ability to block applications.

Advocates fear the court’s decision on Tuesday rejecting a Coalition-era policy that cases must show “unique or exceptional circumstances” could result in a hasty legislative fix.

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At least 25 dead after boat carrying people to Europe sinks off Tunisia

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Dozens of mostly sub-Saharan Africans have drowned in region in recent weeks trying to reach Europe

At least 25 people have died after a boat carrying people from sub-Saharan Africa towards Europe sank off the coast of Tunisia.

Fifteen bodies were discovered on Thursday, the Tunisian coastguard said, after 10 were recovered on Wednesday following the shipwreck the day before off the coastal city of Sfax.

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Calls for better care for asylum seekers after rise in diphtheria cases in Europe

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Researchers say improved health screening of people arriving in small boats is needed to prevent outbreaks

Health experts are calling for better care for asylum seekers as research reveals small boat crossings have been linked to a sharp increase in diphtheria cases in the UK and across Europe.

Reception centres in the UK have hit by a series of scandals in recent months, including outbreaks of disease and reports that offers of assistance from public health leaders have been declined by the Home Office.

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Threefold increase in Mediterranean crossings this year, says EU agency

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Nearly 28,000 people arrived via sea route in first quarter, Frontex says, as UN decries deadliest period since 2017

Three times as many people sought to reach the EU across the Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 compared with a year before, the bloc’s border agency has said, as the UN’s migration arm decried the deadliest first quarter since 2017.

Overall, the EU agency, Frontex, reported 54,000 irregular crossings into the bloc via all routes in the first quarter of the year, up a fifth from 2022.

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Tories hail Greek migration policies as an example. Instead, they should serve as a warning

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Experience in eastern Mediterranean proves deterrence and harsh conditions do little to discourage refugees

Prominent Conservatives openly view Greece’s self-described “strict but fair” migration policies as a model to emulate. The former home secretary Priti Patel told MPs last week that “we would not be in this current situation” had she been allowed to replicate “Greek-style reception centres”.

British interest in the Greek model dates back to May 2021, when the former immigration minister Chris Philp made an “urgent” – as internal documents seen by the Guardian called it – trip to Greece. This was followed by an official visit by Patel in August 2021, who toured a newly constructed Greek camp, went out on patrol with the Greek coastguard and spoke of working “closely with Greek partners” on migration.

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Italian coastguard in rescue of two fishing boats carrying 1,200 people

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Operation comes as attempted crossings of Mediterranean from north Africa surge over weekend

The Italian coastguard said on Monday it was carrying out a rescue operation involving two fishing boats with a total of 1,200 passengers on board, as the number of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa surged over the weekend.

One vessel carrying about 800 people was more than 120 miles (190 km) south-east of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, the coastguard said.

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At least 20 missing after boat attempting to cross Mediterranean sinks off Tunisia

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Latest incident comes amid sharp rise in numbers trying to leave crisis-hit north African country

At least 20 people were missing on Saturday after their boat sank off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, amid a sharp rise in boats setting off from the north African country.

The coastguard rescued 17 other people from the same boat off the southern city of Sfax, two of whom were in critical condition, said a local judge, Faouzi Masmousdi.

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Young migrants take over Paris building in protest at treatment

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Young people had been sleeping rough across city after being rejected as minors by French authorities

More than 180 homeless young migrants have taken over a disused nursery school building in the west of Paris to protest against the inhumane treatment of unaccompanied minors arriving in France from Africa.

Backed by three French charities, the young people who had been sleeping rough across Paris for months arrived overnight at the old school building, which has no running water or electricity, and slept under blankets.

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Home Office to announce barge as accommodation for asylum seekers

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The Bibby Stockholm is said to have more than 220 bedrooms and facilities including a gym and bar

The Home Office is poised to reveal a barge as its first offshore accommodation for asylum seekers, the Guardian understands.

The Bibby Stockholm has been used “all over Europe” to accommodate asylum seekers, according to sources close to the Barbados Maritime ship registry, which oversees the use of this vessel. It currently has a gym, a well-furnished bar and more than 220 en-suite bedrooms over three decks.

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Manhunt for people-smuggling suspect after eight drown at US-Canada border

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The Akwesasne Mohawk police service continue a search for resident Casey Oakes as new details of victims emerge

Police investigating the drowning of eight people attempting to cross a river between Canada the the United States are searching for a man believed to be linked to people-smuggling, as new details of the victims emerge.

The bodies of eight people, including two young children, were discovered last week along the marshy banks of the St Lawrence River near the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, which spans Quebec, Ontario and New York state.

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Suella Braverman won’t say Rwanda deportation flights will start by summer

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Home secretary refuses to give a deadline for when her controversial policy for asylum seekers will begin

Suella Braverman has been unable to confirm that the first promised deportation flights to Rwanda will take off this summer, as the controversial policy continues to face scrutiny in the courts.

The home secretary, whose officials briefed that plans were on track during her trip to the African country last month, played down the prospect of the flights going ahead shortly.

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Tunisian morgue overflows as more people attempt risky sea crossing

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Migrant crackdown is prompting increasing number of people from sub-Saharan Africa to board boats

On a recent afternoon in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax, as shoppers hurried around a market buying food and drink for that evening’s iftar meal, a small group of men from sub-Saharan Africa gathered near a stall selling phone accessories.

One of them, Joseph, had made a two-week journey to the city from Cameroon eight months ago. His plan, like thousands before him fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better life, had been to board a boat from near Sfax and cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

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