Category Archives: Migration

Braverman says it will be ‘very clear’ to voters at next election if ‘stop the boats’ plan has worked – UK politics live

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Latest updates: home secretary says ‘it’s vital we fix this problem’ as Rishi Sunak prepares to face Keir Starmer at PMQs

Suella Braverman has denied the government is breaking the law with its illegal migration bill in interviews this morning. But, as my colleague Aletha Adu reports, Braverman struggled to clarify if the Olympian Sir Mo Farah would have been deported as soon as he turned 18 years old under the proposed regulations.

Good morning. When Rishi Sunak made five pledges in January, four of them looked relatively easy to meet, and one of them looked impossible. He promised to “pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed”.

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‘Stop the boats’: Sunak’s anti-asylum slogan echoes Australia’s harsh policy

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In Australia, hostile rhetoric has fuelled a toxic public debate and sought to dehumanise people fleeing harm

“Stop the boats.” The white-on-red slogan on Rishi Sunak’s podium on Tuesday was – word for word – the slogan used by Tony Abbott to win the Australian prime ministership a decade ago.

To Australian audiences, so much of the rhetoric emerging from the UK over its small boats policy is reminiscent of two decades of a toxic domestic debate. A succession of Australian prime ministers have led the rhetorical charge against asylum seekers, insisting that their arrival is an issue of “national security” and “border protection”. They are “illegals”, “queue jumpers” and “terrorists”, Australians have been told, while people-smugglers are the “scum of the earth”.

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UN refugee agency ‘profoundly concerned’ by UK’s illegal migration bill saying it amounts to an asylum ban – politics live

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UNHCR says bill extinguishes the right to seek refugee protection in the UK for those who arrive irregularly

Downing Street has said that Rishi Sunak is going to Dover to meet frontline officers dealing with small boat crossings. He will then return to London for a press conference later in the afternoon.

One of the questions raised by Rishi Sunak’s small boats bill – or illegal migration bill, to give it its formal name – is to what extent ministers believe it will work, and to what extent they are not that bothered about whether it works because they believe that, if it fails, they will be able to use this in election campaign against Labour.

Unlike Labour who have voted against taking action on this issue, this government has a plan to break the business model of people ­smugglers.

A plan to do what’s fair for those at home and those who have a legitimate claim to asylum – a plan to take back control of our borders once and for all.

Labour and others who oppose these measures are betraying hard-working Brits up and down the country - they don’t have any answers themselves but they will still seek to block us in parliament.

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New doubt thrown on Moria arson convictions on eve of appeal hearing

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Lawyers condemn EU asylum policies and demand freedom for young Afghans jailed for 2020 blaze at ‘hellish’ Lesbos camp

A new investigation has casts doubt on evidence used to imprison six Afghan teenagers over a fire that destroyed much of a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Four were sentenced to 10 years in jail for “arson with risk to endanger life” and two were given five years by a youth court. The fire reduced much of the infamous “hell on earth” Moria refugee camp to ashes in September 2020.

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Rishi Sunak’s asylum plan could lead to more small boats crossings in short term, says border officials’ union – live

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Immigration Service Union says criminals will get people across channel before rules change

Good morning. Rishi Sunak started the year with two urgent, intractable problems in his in-tray. Last week he unveiled a solution to the Northern Ireland protocol problem which has attracted more support, and less opposition, than had been expected. Tomorrow he will unveil his legislation to “stop small boats”.

Sunak announced the key elements of his plan in December. There has been more briefing over the weekend, but nothing that substantially alters what we were told three months ago, and nothing that addresses the claims made by many experts in asylum law who argue that trying to stop small boat crossings by legislating to say that people who arrive in the UK illegally will be banned from claiming asylum here just won’t work. The Nationality and Borders Act passed last year already says migrants arriving in the UK illegally are not eligible to claim asylum, but the small boats keep coming.

Not as things stand at the moment. In fact, it’s actually going to be the converse when these things are published and announced in this way.

What it actually does is fuel the service, if you like, that the criminals provide.

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Pakistan crackdown on Afghan refugees leaves ‘four dead’ and thousands in cells

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Asylum seekers in Karachi tell of terror of being sent back to the Taliban and despair at being shackled and held in Pakistani jails

Refugees are reportedly dying in Pakistani prisons, and children are being arrested and tied together with ropes, as a wave of detentions and deportations spreads fearamong the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the border since the Taliban took power.

According to lawyers representing Afghans in detention, at least four people have died in custody, and thousands more, including children, are being held in prisons as Pakistan hardens its stance against Afghan citizens.

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Half of people trying to get permanent UK residency by 10-year route struggle to afford food

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Effects of ‘devastating and punishing’ Home Office system introduced in 2012 now being felt, experts say

More than half the people trying to secure permanent residency in the UK through the Home Office’s “devastating and punishing” 10-year route struggle to afford food and pay bills, a survey has indicated.

The 10-year route to settling permanently in the UK was one of a series of deliberately tough measures introduced in 2012 by Theresa May when she was home secretary, as part of drive to cut net migration. Researchers say the full effects of the policy are only now starting to be felt.

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Greece fortifies border to block refugees from Turkish-Syrian earthquakes

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Patrols dispatched to frontier as migration minister calls for fences and surveillance as well as aid to preempt migration

Greece has reinforced border controls along its land and sea frontier with Turkey amid expectations of a new wave of arrivals by people displaced in the earthquakes that have devastated south-east Turkey and northern Syria.

Hundreds of extra border guards began patrolling the Greek-Turkish land frontier in the Evros region at the weekend as contingency measures were stepped up to stave off the expected flows.

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Children among 59 people killed in sailboat crash off Italy’s coast

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Boat believed to be bringing refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan struck rocks off coast of Calabria

Fifty-nine people, including a newborn baby and other children, have died after a wooden sailing boat believed to be carrying refugees crashed against rocks off the coast of Italy’s Calabria region.

Many of the bodies were reported to have washed up on a tourist beach near Steccato di Cutro, while others were found at sea.

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Tunisia’s president calls for halt to sub-Saharan immigration amid crackdown on opposition

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Kais Saied claims migrants are part of campaign to make country ‘purely African’ in move critics say is to distract from economic crisis

Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, has told a meeting of security officials that migrants are part of a wider campaign to change the demographic makeup of the country and make it “purely African”.

The president’s comments come alongside an extensive crackdown on critics and opposition figures in a campaign that human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have labelled a witch-hunt.

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Refugee charity rejects Tory vice-chair’s claim they are ‘just as bad as people-smugglers’

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Care4Calais says it offers refugees aid and dignity and does not want them to cross Channel by dangerous means

A volunteer organisation has dismissed a claim by the new Conservative deputy chair that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people-smugglers”.

Lee Anderson, who was given the role by Rishi Sunak during the prime minister’s recent reshuffle, accused refugee organisations based in northern France of “fuelling” people’s desire to cross the English Channel in small boats.

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Six charged over deaths of 18 Afghans who suffocated in truck in Bulgaria

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Bodies found in vehicle transporting 52 people, in deadliest incident linked to people-smuggling in country

Bulgarian prosecutors have charged six people over the deaths of 18 Afghans who suffocated in a truck abandoned near the capital, Sofia.

The bodies were found inside a vehicle on Friday, in the deadliest incident linked to people-smuggling in Bulgaria as the country struggles with a rise in illicit border crossings.

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At least 18 people found dead in truck near Sofia

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Interior ministry says abandoned truck appeared to be carrying about 40 people hidden under timber

At least 18 people have been found dead in an abandoned truck near Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

The interior ministry said: “According to initial information, the truck was transporting illegal migrants – a total of about 40 people, who were hiding … under transported timber.”

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At least 39 migrants killed in Panama bus crash after crossing Darién Gap

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Vehicle carrying families migrating to the US plunged off escarpment near town of Gualaca when driver lost control – reports

At least 39 migrants have been killed in a gruesome bus accident in Panama after trekking for days through the Central American country’s southern jungles on their way to a new life in the US.

The accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday as a convoy of buses traveled from Panama’s border with Colombia towards a migrant reception centre near the town of Gualaca.

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Egyptian challenging Australia’s indefinite detention warned he faces forced removal within month

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Tony Sami, held for 10 years, is fighting to stay with his two children and had been preparing for landmark high court case

An Egyptian man challenging the lawfulness of Australia’s indefinite detention system in the high court has been warned that Border Force is preparing to remove him from the country “unwillingly” within a month if he doesn’t agree to leave on a commercial flight.

Tony Sami, who has been detained for a decade after his visa was cancelled in 2012 and who is fighting to stay in Australia to be with his two children, had been preparing for a landmark case that could determine the freedom of hundreds of asylum seekers and detainees.

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Nearly 20,000 refugees to get same rights as other permanent residents after being kept ‘in limbo’

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Labor clears way for temporary protection and safe haven visa holders to apply for permanency

Nearly 20,000 refugees will soon be able to apply for permanency, giving them the same rights as permanent residents after being kept “in limbo”.

The changes – hailed by refugee advocates as “a victory of unity and compassion over division and fear” – were part a Labor election promise. They mean that about 19,000 temporary protection and safe haven enterprise visa holders will be eligible to apply for a permanent resolution of status visa.

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UK recruiter of debt-hit Indonesians loses seasonal workers licence

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Some of the over 1,450 people brought by AG Recruitment owed thousands to unlicensed brokers

A British recruitment agency that brought Indonesian farmworkers to the UK who had debts of thousands of pounds to foreign brokers has lost its licence as a seasonal worker sponsor.

More than 1,450 Indonesians were brought to Britain last year by AG Recruitment to pick berries and other fruits to supply British supermarkets.

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Care worker whistleblower outed by Home Office over exploitation claims

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Zimbabwean worker whose visa relies on job says government disclosed confidential details of interview to employer

A victim of suspected labour abuse who confidentially disclosed details of exploitation to government investigators says she has been subjected to threats and intimidation after she was outed to her employer.

The Zimbabwean national, 25, was interviewed by Home Office compliance officers for an investigation into illegal recruitment practices and told them she had paid a fee of about £1,500 to an agent who arranged for a care home in Surrey to sponsor her visa.

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Baby among nine dead from cold and thirst on boat in Mediterranean

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Survivors tell Italian authorities vessel carrying about 50 people lost its way trying to cross from Tunisia

A baby was among nine people including his mother and a pregnant woman who died of cold and thirst on a boat carrying about 50 migrants across the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities have said.

Survivors who landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa after being rescued late on Thursday told investigators the four-month-old baby slipped out of the boat after his mother, who was holding him, collapsed and died from exposure.

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Labour renews call for ‘proper’ windfall tax as Shell declares record £32.2bn profit – UK politics live

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As it happened: Prime minister speaks in interview on TalkTV to mark his 100th day in office

On the subject of Rishi Sunak reaching his 100th day in office, my colleague Jessica Elgot has a great assessment of how it’s going. Here is an extract.

After Liz Truss left office, polls suggested that voters wanted to keep an open mind about Sunak and rated him significantly higher than his party.

That is now beginning to turn. According to senior Labour figures, their most recent focus groups, with swing voters in Southampton, Dewsbury and Bury last week, were described as being “utterly brutal for Sunak”, with participants engaging in “open mockery” of the prime minister. Even the most pessimistic members of Keir Starmer’s team say they have seen a decisive shift.

In the coming weeks, our new stop the boats bill will change the law to send a message loud and clear.

If you come here illegally, you will be detained and removed.

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