Category Archives: UK news

‘I will die here, I can’t go back to Africa’: migrants respond to Rwanda removal

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Asylum seekers say there is no freedom in Rwanda and fear for their lives if sent to Africa

Small boat arrivals on the Kent coast have expressed fears that they will be removed from the UK and transferred to Rwanda, after hearing the government’s announcement that asylum claims will be processed offshore.

“If they send me to Rwanda, I will not go. I will die here, I will take my life,” Jemal, a new arrival from Eritrea, said. “Do you know how many thousands of miles I travelled to be here? How long I was in [the] desert …? To reach this point, to be here, we all had to make so many sacrifices. A lot of [people] lost their lives on the sea. I left my country now – I cannot go back to Africa.”

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.

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UN refugee agency condemns Boris Johnson’s Rwanda asylum plan

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Gillian Triggs, assistant high commissioner at UNHCR, says plan is ‘symbolic gesture’ that will prove unworkable

The UN’s refugee agency has condemned Boris Johnson’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “a symbolic gesture” that will be unworkable in practice.

Speaking to the Guardian, Gillian Triggs, the assistant high commissioner at the UNHCR, said the proposed arrangement would only accommodate a few hundred people a year, making it extremely expensive as well as illegal and discriminatory.

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Wakefield’s disillusioned residents say it is time for political change

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Ahmad Khan’s conviction, Partygate and recent Conservative policies have swayed constituents to the left

“Labour is definitely due a comeback now,” said Wakefield market stall owner Mohammad Javed. After coming to the area from Pakistan aged 16, he has spent the last four decades observing life in the town centre from his busy high street spot.

“I’ve seen the rise and fall of this town, I know the locals, and I’m telling you – the Tories have outstayed their welcome.”

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Hugh Grant brings phone-hacking claim against the Sun

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Ten years after settling case against News of the World, actor now taking action against another Rupert Murdoch title

Hugh Grant is leading a renewed attempt to prove phone hacking took place at the Sun, even as Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper continues to maintain no illegality took place there.

The actor has followed Paul Gascoigne and Sienna Miller in bringing a so-called “Sun-only” phone-hacking claim, specifically alleging that illegality took place at the daily tabloid in the 2000s. Rebekah Brooks, the current chief executive of Murdoch’s News UK business, was editor of the Sun during the period in question.

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XR protesters shut down central London bridges including Westminster

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Activists close some of the largest routes through capital in protest at continued use of fossil fuels

Several central London bridges, including Waterloo, Blackfriars and Westminster, have been shut down by protesting Extinction Rebellion activists.

The group has carried out a series of protests this week demanding an end to fossil fuels. On Friday afternoon, activists staged a series of sit-ins on the bridges, cutting off some of the main traffic arteries of the capital.

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Vote down executive pay at Barclays and Standard Chartered, investors told

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Rebellions loom as Glass Lewis advises banks’ shareholders to reject higher base pay and excessive pensions

Barclays and Standard Chartered face the prospect of rebellions over executive pay after an influential adviser said investors should vote down pay and pensions packages for executives at the FTSE 100 banks.

Investors should defy directors and reject higher base pay for Barclays’ new chief executive and potentially “excessive” pension awards at Standard Chartered, according to Glass Lewis, which advises investors such as pension funds on how to vote at annual meetings.

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UK rail passengers face ‘disastrous weekend’ of Easter travel disruption

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Dozens of services to and from London cancelled, and strike action hits TransPennine Express routes

Rail passengers face a “disastrous weekend” of disruption as engineering works and strikes hamper one of the busiest Easter getaways in years.

Dozens of services to and from London have been cancelled as Network Rail carries out 530 engineering projects across the bank holiday weekend.

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Jeremy Clarkson’s beekeepers raise funds to send 4x4s to Ukraine

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First vehicle bought after fundraising effort backed by TV host heads to war-torn country next week

The first 4x4 bought as part of a fundraising effort for Ukraine backed by Jeremy Clarkson has been delivered, and will be journeying out to the country next week.

Viktor Zaichenko, 48, originally from Ukraine, and his wife, Lucy, 55, are the beekeepers at the TV presenter’s Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire. The couple have been raising money to send 4x4s to Ukraine, with the help of Clarkson and his partner, Lisa Hogan.

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Sending UK asylum seekers to Rwanda will save money, claims minister

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Claim about long-term benefits disputed by MP Andrew Mitchell who describes reported cost of £30,000 a person as ‘eye-watering’

Britain will save money in the “longer term” by sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, a minister has said after the reported cost of about £30,000 a person was described as “eye-watering”.

Defending the decision to fly out many of those who arrive on the Kent coast to a country more than 4,000 miles away, the Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said it would “crush” the business model of people smugglers.

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BBC Three: relaunched live TV channel struggles to win viewers

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Most broadcasts fail to attract more than 100,000 viewers, according to official ratings

When BBC Three relaunched as a live television channel earlier this year, the corporation hoped its counterintuitive punt on a youth-focused broadcast outlet would help it reach new audiences. Instead, the channel’s shows are consistently being beaten in the ratings by repeats of old history programmes featuring the deceased steeplejack Fred Dibnah on BBC Four.

Most of BBC Three’s programmes have so far failed to attract more than 100,000 viewers on live television, according to official viewing figures, while some shows are lucky to get a tenth of that. Even the programmes that do perform relatively well – such as episodes of MasterChef Australia – are rarely the original distinctive in-house shows that the channel exists to provide.

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Prince Harry and Meghan visit Queen on way to Invictus Games

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The couple stopped off at Windsor Castle while travelling to The Hague in the Netherlands for the games

Prince Harry and Meghan have visited the Queen at Windsor Castle on their way to the Invictus Games.

The couple were travelling to The Hague in the Netherlands for the games, which begin on Saturday, and on Thursday visited the UK together for the first time since stepping down as senior working royals more than two years ago.

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Derry to mark 25 years of Good Friday agreement with John Hume musical

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Playhouse to stage Beyond Belief in 2023 to ‘say a proper goodbye’ to late SDLP leader who helped persuade IRA to give up arms

A musical drama about the life of John Hume, one of the main forces behind the Good Friday agreement, will be staged next year to mark the 25th anniversary of the historic deal that helped end 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

Beyond Belief, written by Damian Gorman with music by Brian O’Doherty, is the second part of a “peace-building trilogy” at the Playhouse in Hume’s home town, Derry, after The White Handkerchief, a play about the events of Bloody Sunday, earlier this year.

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UK asylum seekers to be housed in no-frills hostel in Rwandan capital

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People fleeing persecution to be taken to stripped-back Hope guest house in Kigali, which has only 50 rooms

Asylum seekers flown to Rwanda by the British government will be put up in a no-frills hostel a mile away from Kigali city centre.

People fleeing war and persecution will be taken to a guest house, built in 2014, which only has 50 rooms available, although there are plans to expand the facility.

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UK Rwanda plan for asylum seekers decried as inhumane, expensive and deadly

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Politicians, legal experts and refugee groups condemn Johnson’s plan to ‘offshore’ Channel crossing crisis

Boris Johnson’s plans to send unauthorised asylum seekers on a one-way ticket to Rwanda have been roundly condemned amid warnings that it will be challenged in the courts and could result in further deaths in the Channel.

After the prime minister outlined plans to hand an initial down-payment of £120m to the Rwandan government in the hope that it will accept “tens of thousands” of people, politicians and refugee groups condemned the move as inhumane, unworkable and a waste of public money.

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What are the Tories trying to achieve by offshoring asylum seekers?

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Analysis: Tories keen to shore up support with tough immigration policy but there are concerns about the detail

When Boris Johnson’s position was at its most precarious two months ago, he had to convince Conservative MPs sticking by his side was worth it.

A plan was devised – dubbed “Operation Red Meat” – to give those losing faith in his administration some belief that there was a higher purpose than just defending their leader through scandal after scandal.

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MP Imran Ahmad Khan resigns after conviction for child sexual assault

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Byelection triggered in Wakefield as MP expelled from Tory party says he is withdrawing from political life

Imran Ahmad Khan, the disgraced MP expelled from the Conservative party after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, has announced he will resign, triggering a byelection in the Yorkshire seat of Wakefield.

Although Khan is appealing against Monday’s conviction, he admitted in a statement that the legal proceedings would last “many more months” and leave his constituents without proper political representation.

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‘Inhumane’: some Tories criticise plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

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Small but vehement group have already expressed doubts about government’s outsourcing plan

Conservative opposition to plans to send asylum seekers for processing in Rwanda is likely to be led by a small but vehement group of peers and MPs who have already criticised outsourcing the issue overseas.

The House of Lords has now twice amended the nationality and borders bill to block the idea of non-UK processing for asylum claims. However, these government defeats were largely caused by Tory members staying away, giving opposition and crossbench peers a majority.

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Rwandan opposition criticises deal to accept UK’s asylum seekers

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UK accused of shifting international obligations and Rwanda of ignoring issues causing its own refugees

Opposition politicians in Rwanda have criticised its agreement to accept thousands of unauthorised asylum seekers flown from the UK, saying wealthy western countries should “own up to international obligations on the migration issues”.

Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, the leader of DALFA-Umurinzi, said officials in Rwanda should focus on solving its political and social issues that made Rwandans seek refuge abroad before offering “to host refugees or migrants from other countries”.

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Metropolitan police officer found guilty of child sex offences

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Francois Olwage convicted of grooming after arranging to meet undercover officer he believed to be 13-year-old girl

A Metropolitan police counter-terrorism officer has been found guilty of three child sex offences after he arranged to a meet a 13-year-old girl for sex when he was “on duty working from home”.

Francois Olwage, a detective constable who was serving with the Met’s specialist operations unit, was convicted of grooming someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had met on the Lycos online chat forum.

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UK plans to send thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda, says Boris Johnson – UK politics live

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Latest updates: opposition parties denounce plan as ‘shameful’ and ‘evil’; home secretary Priti Patel in Kigali today to unveil more details

Simon Hart, the Welsh secretary, made a rare appearance on the morning broadcast round earlier today. He said the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda would mark a “humane step forward”. He told Sky News:

We have to deal with this problem. We have a very good relationship with Rwanda: it’s an up-and-coming economy, it has got a very good record with migrants in this particular issue.

And it’s an arrangement which I think suits both countries very well and provides the best opportunities for economic migrants, for those who have been in the forefront of this particular appalling problem for so long now.

We’ve put forward proposals to make it more difficult for smuggler gangs to advertise online on social media, which is partly how they do it.

We think there should be safe and legal routes that people need for family reunions and so on, so that they don’t have to arrive through these illegal routes in order to make their asylum claims.

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