Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Deadly experiment? UK asylum sites criticised for ‘horrific’ level of despair

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Critics of the government’s mass housing plan say it won’t save public money and at worst put asylum seekers at risk of suicide

Twice in January, ambulances rushed to the former RAF airbase at Wethersfield in a remote part of Essex, now the Home Office’s biggest mass asylum accommodation site, to attend to suicide attempts. On each occasion, an asylum seeker was admitted to hospital. Both survived.

Acts of self-harm have been common since part of the 325-hectare (800-acre) site, which first opened in 1944, started to be used to house refugees in July 2023.

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C of E reviews guidance for clergy supporting asylum seekers

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Move comes as church faces scrutiny from politicians over conversions of asylum seekers to Christianity

A review into guidance for clergy on supporting asylum seekers is under way as “a matter of urgency”, the Church of England’s parliament has heard alongside a claim of “buck-passing” between the government and the church.

The church has recently faced scrutiny from politicians over conversions of asylum seekers to Christianity, with a Conservative MP even suggesting taxpayers are being “scammed” by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on the issue.

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Home Office accused of cover-up over ‘golden visas’ for super-rich Russians

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Government refused to publish review of system that allowed Russians now sanctioned due to Ukraine war to live in Britain

The government has been accused of a cover-up for refusing to publish a review of the so-called golden visa scheme that allowed wealthy investors, including at least 10 sanctioned Russian oligarchs, to take up residency in the UK.

The Tier 1 visa scheme, whereby super-rich individuals could buy the right to live in the UK by investing in British-registered companies, was closed in February 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amid concerns that the system was being abused.

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Prosecutors target smuggled people who were forced to pilot small boats

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Campaigners say Ibrahima Bah should be treated as a victim of trafficking after he was forced to steer a boat. Instead he faces at least six years in jail

Ibrahima Bah will spend at least the next six years and three months in custody. He will do so for manslaughter, and for smuggling dozens of people into the UK on a perilous small-boat journey across the Channel during which at least four died.

In the words of the migration minister Michael Tomlinson, it was “right that he has been brought to justice” because Bah “put dozens of lives in extreme danger by taking charge of a perilous and illegal small boat crossing”.

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People helping asylum seekers in Europe face rising violence, report warns

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Aid workers being held at gunpoint and having communications monitored, Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner says

People and groups who assist asylum seekers are reporting a disturbing trend of escalating intimidation, with aid workers facing direct threats including being held at gunpoint and having their phone communications monitored by government authorities, according to a report from the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights.

Dunja Mijatović has warned of increasing harassment and in some cases criminalisation of people and groups who assist refugees, especially in Hungary, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Croatia and Poland.

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Closure of UK family scheme for Ukrainians described as ‘cruel’ move

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Government defends decision that opposition politicians say could put vulnerable people at risk

A scheme allowing Ukrainians to join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed, in what opposition politicians described as a cruel and “below the radar” move days before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full invasion.

The Ukraine family scheme is being shut but government officials said a separate Homes for Ukraine scheme would continue to fulfil people’s needs as a way of “simplifying” the process.

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‘I felt like a criminal’: the ruinous effect of the Home Office’s cheating claims

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Sajjad Sohag seeks compensation for false accusation that led to imprisonment and loss of earnings

The morning after Sajjad Sohag returned from his honeymoon, he and his wife were woken by the sound of immigration enforcement officers breaking down the front door of the building in London where they were renting a studio flat.

It was about 6.30am, and he was still half-asleep when officers used a battering ram to force open the door of his first-floor flat. They checked a piece of paper with his photograph on it and said “target identified” when they confirmed it was him. An officer told him he was being detained because he had cheated in an English exam.

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Family of man found dead on Bibby Stockholm calls for independent inquiry

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‘Closed quasi-detention conditions’ mean death of Leonard Farruku should be examined, lawyers say

The family of Leonard Farruku is calling for an independent inquiry into his death on the Bibby Stockholm barge, the Guardian has learned.

The Albanian asylum seeker, 27, was found dead on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, on 12 December last year, after a suspected suicide.

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Record one in five NHS staff in England are non-UK nationals, figures show

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Figure of 20.4% is highest since records began in 2009, prompting warnings over growing reliance

One in five NHS staff in England are non-UK nationals, according to figures that show the pivotal role foreign workers play in keeping the health service afloat.

Healthcare workers from 214 countries – from India, Portugal and Ghana to tiny nations such as Tonga, Liechtenstein and Solomon Islands – are employed in the NHS. And the proportion of roles filled by non-UK nationals has risen to a record high, according to analysis of NHS Digital figures.

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UK’s Rwanda bill ‘incompatible with human rights obligations’

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Damning report by MPs warns policy places UK’s reputation for rule of law and human rights ‘in jeopardy’

The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.

MPs and peers from the cross-party joint committee on human rights have delivered a critical analysis of the safety of Rwanda bill, which is progressing at speed through parliament.

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C of E refutes claims of ‘conveyor belt’ of asylum seeker fake conversions

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Suella Braverman and a former priest accuse church but Justin Welby says its role has been mischaracterised

The Church of England has refuted a claim that it operated a “conveyor belt for asylum seeker fake conversions”, saying parish records disproved the eye-catching allegation.

Churches have been at the centre of a storm over “fake conversions” in the past week after it emerged that Abdul Ezedi, the Afghan man suspected of a chemical attack on a woman and two children in Clapham, was granted asylum on his third attempt after converting to Christianity. Police said on Friday that Ezedi was believed to be dead.

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UK home secretary apologises over unlawful detention of Bahraini activist

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Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei receives compensation from government after being stopped at Gatwick

The home secretary, James Cleverly, has apologised and arranged for compensation to be paid to a human rights activist after officials unlawfully detained him at Gatwick airport on his return to the UK from a UN meeting in Switzerland.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist and advocacy director of the London-based NGO Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, is a torture survivor who was granted asylum in the UK in 2012 after he fled persecution at the hands of Bahraini authorities.

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Italian man removed from UK despite post-Brexit Home Office certificate

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Massimiliano Melargo, who was stopped at airport, has permission to enter and leave UK while awaiting settlement decision

An Italian man has been removed from the UK despite holding a Home Office certificate explicitly stating he has a right to travel in and out of the country while officials process his application to live and work in the country post-Brexit.

Massimiliano Melargo, 27, told how he was detained overnight, separated from his Ukrainian partner, and put on the first plane to Venice by Border Force officials in a step lawyers say contravenes the withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK.

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Council of Europe calls on UK not to process asylum claims in Rwanda

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People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdog

Europe’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.

In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment raises a litany of concerns after an 11-day visit to the UK in March and April last year.

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Sunak ‘out of touch’ for betting £1,000 on Rwanda plan’s success, says Labour

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PM also criticised for saying ‘the facts speak for themselves’ when asked if Keir Starmer was a terrorist sympathiser

Rishi Sunak has been called “out of touch” after taking a £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan on whether deportation flights to Rwanda will take off before the general election.

Morgan said to the prime minister on TalkTV: “I’ll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity you don’t get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?”

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Asylum seekers evacuated from hotel near Heathrow after power failure

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More than 500 people forced to leave site, with some unsure of where to spend the night

There were chaotic scenes on Sunday night as the Home Office carried out a mass evacuation of one of the largest hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers after a failure of the power and water supply.

The hotel near Heathrow airport accommodates more than 500 asylum seekers – a mix of single adults, families, children and babies. The Guardian was sent video footage of adults and children walking around the darkened reception area asking what was happening.

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Dublin not expecting EU objections to new trade rules for Northern Ireland – UK politics live

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Irish foreign minister says he does ‘not anticipate any particular difficulties in respect of the EU side’

Back at the home affairs committee James Daly (Con) asks why so few police investigations end up in people being charged.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, says the Crown Prosecution Service is independent. He wants to make sure investigations are as professional as possible.

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More than 30,000 UK asylum seekers on bail under Rwanda deportation threat

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Home Office reveals 33,085 will not have claims examined while government tries to remove them

More than 30,000 asylum seekers are on bail and under the threat of deportation from the UK to Rwanda, the Home Office has disclosed, as James Cleverly insisted that the total backlog of 94,000 cases should instead be referred to as a queue.

A senior official has admitted for the first time that 33,085 people who arrived in the UK by irregular means such as small boats will not have their asylum claims examined while the government attempts to remove them from the UK.

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British police and security services to help protect Paris Olympics

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France and UK also agree to deploy more drones and sea barriers to stop small boats crossing Channel

UK security experts will help France to protect the Paris Olympics in a sign of closer cooperation, the Home Office has said.

Both governments also plan to deploy more drones and sea barriers to prevent small boats carrying asylum seekers from crossing the Channel.

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UK and France’s small boats pact and doubling in drownings ‘directly linked’

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Report says greater police presence on French beaches and more attempts to stop dinghies increases risks to refugees

The most recent illegal migration pact between the UK and France is “directly linked” to a doubling of the number of Channel drownings in the last year, a report has found.

The increased police presence on French beaches – along with more dinghies being stopped from reaching the coast – is leading to more dangerous overcrowding and chaotic attempts to board the boats, the paper said.

12 August 2023: six Afghan men drowned in an overloaded dinghy which got intro trouble close to the French shore

26 September 2023: Eritrean woman, 24, died in Blériot-Plage after being asphyxiated in a crush of 80 people trying to board one dinghy

22 November 2023: three people drowned close to Équihen-Plage as the dinghy collapsed close to the shore. Fifty-seven survivors returned to the beach.

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