Rwanda had sued UK government over alleged breach of agreement, after scheme scrapped by Labour on first day in office
The UK will not have to pay the Rwandan government millions of pounds over a failed migrant deportation scheme set up by Boris Johnson’s administration, an international court has ruled.
The east African nation had sued the current UK government for more than £100m, claiming it was owed after a breach of an agreement.
Continue reading...Children of those on care worker visas, who came legally before rule change, told to leave even if parents can stay
Children as young as five who are living legally in the UK are being told by the Home Office they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to remain.
The Guardian has seen five letters sent to children by the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK. A sixth letter has been sent to a woman who is six months pregnant and lives in the UK with her husband, telling her she must leave him and return to her country. The children have parents on care worker visas, which until March 2024 had allowed them to bring partners or children with them to the UK.
Continue reading...Refugee charities say the numbers revealed in freedom of information data are ‘shocking’
Lone children were held at UK-run detention centres in France on nearly 300 occasions last year, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Data obtained by the Guardian shows they are part of about 900 instances when unaccompanied minors have been detained at British short-term facilities near Calais and Dunkirk over the last four years.
Continue reading...Judgment outlawing forcing of survivors of trafficking, torture and other forms of violence to share rooms is blow to Shabana Mahmood’s asylum plans
Shabana Mahmood’s plan to house more asylum seekers in former army barracks is facing a major hurdle after the high court ruled on Thursday that a policy change forcing torture victims to share rooms was unlawful.
According to a judgment seen by the Guardian, the government failed in its duties when it forced survivors of trafficking, torture and other serious forms of violence to share rooms with strangers.
Continue reading...Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate understood to have changed stance on no recourse to public funds policy
Andy Burnham has rolled back from his previous calls for ministers to scrap a restriction on immigrants claiming benefits as the Makerfield byelection places greater scrutiny on his policy positions.
As Greater Manchester mayor, Burnham has called several times for an end to the rule known as no recourse to public funds (NRPF), which since 1999 has prevented new arrivals getting access to benefits or public housing before they are granted settled status.
Continue reading...Major report on young people not in employment, education or training warns ‘we have neither a system or a plan to deal with it’
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, is introducing Alan Milburn.
He says Milburn’s report is “really important and powerful”.
I could see in the first few weeks after being appointed as the secretary of state what was happening, both in human and in financial terms, [in terms of youth unemployment].
And I knew that we had to get properly under the bonnet of this problem, because there’s a lot more thing than one thing happening here …
Continue reading...‘Robert’s answer is not Reform policy’, Yusuf said about an answer that Jenrick gave to journalists days earlier
Keir Starmer has said that SNP leaders need to explain why they did not realise that Peter Murrell was stealing more than £400,000 from the party.
Asked about yesterday’s court proceedings in Edinburgh, where Murrell admitting embezzling money from the party to spend on luxury goods, Starmer said:
I think anybody looking at what’s happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn’t know anything about what was going on, so clearly there are questions that need to be answered.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers express dismay at continuation of scheme agreed last year that has failed to stop crossings in Channel
The Home Office is extending a controversial scheme to stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats, the Guardian has learned.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, signed a deal they hailed as “groundbreaking” last July, known as “one in, one out”.
Continue reading...All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisations
The UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs.
A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders.
Continue reading...Council of Europe members plan to change interpretation of ECHR to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers
Keir Starmer’s government has been accused of trying to water down legal protections for torture victims as ministers from 46 countries including the UK prepare to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers and foreign criminals.
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to agree a “political declaration” on Friday with other members of the Council of Europe, which oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
Continue reading...Exclusive: Council of Europe to meet in Moldova on Friday, with human rights body expected to recognise countries’ right to control borders
European ministers will this week discuss plans to send thousands of rejected asylum seekers to third-country hubs, the head of the continent’s human rights body has told the Guardian.
Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, said discussions about the removal of people who arrived in Europe by irregular routes would take place “at a multilateral level” at a meeting in Moldova on Friday.
Continue reading...Councillor announces plan to withdraw from government-funded programme in run-up to May elections
The Reform-led Lancashire county council will withdraw from the government’s refugee resettlement scheme, one of its cabinet members has said.
Councillor Joshua Roberts announced plans for Lancashire to leave the scheme, which would make it the first local authority to do so.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage’s party proposed to place detention centres in places that vote for Green council leaders or MPs
Keir Starmer has said that Europe has to face up to the fact that its alliance with the US is under strain.
He made the remark in public comments during the plenary session at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan in Armenia.
And both of those are impacting all of us in a very material way.
In the United Kingdom, if you look at the economic forecast now and compare it to the economic forecast just three or four months ago, they are in materially different places, and this is going to play out with our electorates in all of our countries.
Reform are now openly threatening voters and not only that they’re threatening them with a power they don’t actually have. This is absolutely pathetic. People across Scotland are proud of the fact that this is a welcoming country that shows solidarity to people who need it.
Reform are essentially saying ‘If you don’t vote the way we want you to, we will punish you’. I think the people of Scotland and voters across the UK are not going to take kindly to that kind of Donald Trumpesque threat.
Reform know that absolutely bombed last week. The only thing they’ve got to move on to are open threats, not against the Greens but against voters across the country. It’s really quite sinister. This is exactly the kind of politics you see in Donald Trump’s America. People across Scotland are going to reject that on Thursday.
Continue reading...Two were found dead in the early hours of Sunday in boat carrying about 82 people, several of whom were injured
Two female Sudanese asylum seekers have died trying to cross the Channel in the early hours of Sunday morning, off the coast of Boulogne.
According to some reports, one was a teenager aged 16 and the other a woman in her 20s. They were found dead in the boat, which had run aground on the beach of Neufchâtel-Hardelot, according to Christophe Marx, the secretary general of the Pas-de-Calais Prefecture.
Continue reading...Kurdish Syrian man, 26, said he fled forced conscription by YPG militia because he ‘didn’t want to kill people’
An asylum seeker sent back to France under the controversial “one in, one out” scheme faces being returned to Syria after authorities in Paris ruled it was safe to do so, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.
When the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced the “groundbreaking” deal in July 2025 to stop small boats crowded with asylum seekers from crossing the Channel – by forcibly returning one small-boat asylum seeker to France in exchange for bringing one in northern France legally to the UK – they emphasised that France was a safe country for returnees.
Continue reading...Home secretary indicates Whitehall talks about returns programme, a move that would shock humanitarian groups
Shabana Mahmood has refused to rule out sending rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the Taliban-controlled country.
The home secretary said she is “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and EU countries about a returns programme for refused claimants. She also indicated that “additional conversations” about Afghan returns were happening inside Whitehall.
Continue reading...In a letter to the Guardian, Uran Ferizi criticises ‘obsession’ with demonising Albanians
Albanians in Britain are paying the price in schools and workplaces of being scapegoated by rightwing media and politicians, the Albanian ambassador has said.
Uran Ferizi also criticised Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, for comments in parliament where she singled out Albanians when discussing problems with immigration.
Continue reading...Two men and two women were swept away by currents while attempting to board dinghy off French coast
A man has been arrested on suspicion of endangering life after four people died in a small boat Channel crossing on Thursday.
The man, described by prosecutors as a 27-year-old Sudanese national, was arrested by National Crime Agency investigators on Friday.
Continue reading...John Healey says navy forced Russia to abandon activity in month-long operation
In interviews this morning Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, declined to confirm reports that a Russian warship has been escorting two sanctioned Russian ships through the English channel.
Sanctioned Russian ships carry oil being sold to fund the war in Ukraine, and the UK government recently announced that the armed forces have been authorised to board these ships in British waters to stop them.
What I can tell you is that we have given permission now for action to be taken against the Russian shadow fleet. Operational decisions then have to be taken in the right way by the military.
There are indications of the way in which not just the Russian shadow fleet is operating, but also the way in which we are seeing increased Russian threats, not just to the UK, but across Europe as well.
Continue reading...At least 42 others rescued after incident in strong currents off coast of Boulogne
Two men and two women have died after a small boat sank in the Channel between France and Britain, French local authorities have said.
They died after being swept away by strong currents while trying to board a dinghy, according to François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. The dinghy was described as a taxi-boat, which travels along stretches of the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking up refugees and migrants along the shore.
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