Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Top cancer experts ‘being put off UK by politicians’ messaging on immigration’

Posted on by

Exclusive: Leaked report says high visa costs also derailing clinical trials and research, denying NHS life-saving drugs

The world’s best cancer doctors, scientists and researchers are being put off moving to or staying in the UK by politicians’ rhetoric on immigration, a leaked report reveals.

Recruiting and retaining “global talent” to treat NHS patients and find new ways to cure cancer is vital, amid an acute British workforce crisis and rising numbers being diagnosed with the disease.

Continue reading...

Ten assaults a day on asylum seekers in Home Office care, figures reveal

Posted on by

Exclusive: There were 380 safeguarding referrals of victims of hate crimes from January 2023 to August 2024

The Home Office is recording an average of 10 assaults a day on asylum seekers in its care, according to internal government data, amid harsh government rhetoric on those crossing the Channel.

Figures reveal that there were 5,960 referrals of assaults upon asylum seekers while in the care of the Home Office between January 2023 and August 2024. There were also 380 referrals of victims of hate crimes to their internal safeguarding hub during this period.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Continue reading...

Syrian refugee says Home Office ‘breaking my heart’ by refusing dying mother entry to UK

Posted on by

Home Office intervened after initial ruling allowing grandmother with terminal cancer to join family in Glasgow

A Syrian refugee says the Home Office has “broken her heart” by trying to bar her mother, who has weeks to live, from coming to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met.

Ola Al Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015. They had lost their baby after a bombing and were unable to take Al Hamwi’s mother, Soaad Al Shawa, with them.

Continue reading...

UK riots led to deterioration in asylum seekers’ mental health, says report

Posted on by

Mental Health Foundation says civil unrest last summer left many fearful of attacks by far-right protesters

Last summer’s riots, which took place after the murder of three girls at a Southport dance class, led to a deterioration in the mental health of asylum seekers, with many becoming fearful of walking down the street in case they were targeted by far-right protesters, according to a report.

The report from the Mental Health Foundation, published on Tuesday, identified a decline in the mental health of asylum seekers as a result of the civil unrest and attacks on hotels, compared with the state of their mental health when they published a similar report in February 2024.

Continue reading...

‘I’m super worried’: fewer UK tourists visiting US amid Trump’s policies and rhetoric

Posted on by

Number of Brits crossing Atlantic down 14.3% from 2024 – and the travel industry fears decline could continue

After backpacker Rebecca Burke was arrested and locked up for nearly three weeks by US immigration ­officials in February, she started urging people not to travel to America.

Britons seem to have listened: UK residents visiting the US were down 14.3% in March compared with the same month in 2024, official figures show.

Continue reading...

Polish woman, 80, can stay in UK after Home Office U-turn

Posted on by

Elzbieta Olszewska had previously been told she faced deportation after mistakenly filling in form online

A Polish woman who had her application to remain in the UK rejected because she mistakenly filled in a form online instead of on paper has been granted permission to stay in Britain after a change of mind by the Home Office.

Elzbieta Olszewska, 80, had been living alone in her flat in Warsaw before arriving in the UK last September. Her only child, Michal Olszewski, 52, an aeronautical engineer and dual British-Polish citizen, who lives in Lincoln with his wife, had been travelling regularly to the Polish capital to support his mother.

Continue reading...

Hundreds of asylum seekers to be removed from hotels in England

Posted on by

Exclusive: Government source confirms action at nine establishments including one near Windsor Castle

Hundreds of people seeking asylum are to be removed from nine hotels across England within weeks as the Home Office attempts to show it has got to grips with the issue.

The crackdown will remove asylum seekers from a hotel in a village near Windsor Castle after claims of community tensions and racism, and hotels in the West Midlands and Cheshire that have been targeted by far-right activists.

Continue reading...

UK needs annual migration plan to end incoherent policies, says thinktank

Posted on by

With white paper imminent, Institute for Government urges ministers to abandon ‘reactive, kneejerk’ decisions

Ministers should introduce an annual migration plan to put an end to decades of “incoherent, disconnected and unpredictable” policies around work visas, according to a Whitehall thinktank.

The Institute for Government (IfG) said that successive governments have put forward “reactive, kneejerk policies” formulated when politicians have been questioned by broadcasters over net migration figures.

Continue reading...

Thousands on axed Rwanda scheme list to have asylum claims processed in UK

Posted on by

Home Office issues guidance hours before legal challenge on behalf of asylum seekers who were left in limbo

Thousands of people left in limbo since plans to deport them to Rwanda were axed will now have their asylum claims processed in the UK, Labour has confirmed.

More than 5,000 asylum seekers were on an initial list drawn up by the previous government to be sent to Rwanda under a deal between the two countries.

Continue reading...

Prince Andrew wrote birthday letters to Xi Jinping, ex-adviser told court

Posted on by

Released court statement says alleged Chinese spy helped draft private letters to Chinese president

The Duke of York sent letters directly to China’s president, the prince’s former senior adviser told a special immigration tribunal, with an alleged Chinese spy advising him on how to write them.

Dominic Hampshire, who worked for Andrew from 2019-22, said Andrew had “always had a communication channel” with Xi Jinping that was “accepted” and may even have been encouraged by Buckingham Palace and the late queen.

Continue reading...

Asylum system risks ‘damaging social cohesion’, Glasgow city council warns

Posted on by

Council says cost running into tens of millions, as homeless refugees granted asylum across UK come to city for support

The asylum system risks “damaging social cohesion” with homeless refugees putting “unprecedented pressure” on Glasgow services, the city council has warned.

Glasgow city council, the largest asylum dispersal area outside London, had welcomed asylum seekers for decades, said the city convener for homelessness, Allan Casey.

Continue reading...

Stereotyping a factor in loss of life in deadliest Channel crossing, inquiry told

Posted on by

Migrant dinghy was also confused with vessel from which 35 people were rescued, so incident was marked ‘resolved’

Survivors and bereaved relatives have told an inquiry into the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel that they believe stereotyping them as “foreigners” contributed to the failure to rescue them before the majority died.

The Cranston inquiry into how at least 27 people drowned on 24 November 2021 heard that survivors believed many on board could have been saved if rescue had been sent more quickly.

Continue reading...

Post-Brexit reliance on NHS staff from ‘red list’ countries is unethical, Streeting says

Posted on by

Exclusive: NHS England has dramatically increased recruitment of workers from states with critical medical staff shortages

Brexit has left the NHS increasingly dependent on doctors and nurses from poor “red list” countries, from which the World Health Organization says it is wrong to recruit.

The health service in England has hired tens of thousands of health staff from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe since the UK left the EU single market at the end of 2020.

Continue reading...

Second person in two days dies trying to cross Channel in small boat

Posted on by

Deaths occur after eight-day gap in crossings between, bringing death toll this year to at least 10

One person has died trying to cross the Channel in an overloaded boat, after another person died earlier attempting the same journey, according to the French authorities.

In the latest incident, 15 people were rescued after a boat containing 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines, in northern France, at around 3am on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Many victims of Channel dinghy tragedy could have been saved, inquiry lawyers say

Posted on by

Many of 27 people who drowned in 2021 might have survived if rescue services had searched for longer, lawyers argue

Many of the people who drowned in the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel could have been saved if rescue services had searched for them for longer, lawyers for their families have said.

Their comments came after the independent Cranston inquiry, which is scrutinising the circumstances surrounding the mass drowning, heard evidence from an expert into survivability in the water.

Continue reading...

Essex couple’s £1,500 fine for reporting Channel stowaway is cancelled

Posted on by

Adrian and Joanne Fenton hit with penalty after calling police when they found a boy hiding inside bike-rack cover

A couple who were fined £1,500 after reporting a boy who had stowed away on the back of their motorhome for their journey from France to Essex have had the penalty cancelled.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton from Heybridge were fined by the Home Office for “failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” when they returned to their home across the Channel.

Continue reading...

Ministers delaying inquiry into treatment of migrant carers, RCN says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Nursing union says it continues to receive complaints about low pay, unfit housing and illegal fees

Ministers are dragging their heels on an investigation into the mistreatment of migrant carers, the country’s largest nursing union has said, as it continues to receive complaints about low pay, substandard accommodation and illegal fees.

Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has written to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to urge her to speed up her promised investigation into the abuse of foreign care workers.

Continue reading...

Channel migrant dinghy tragedy ‘entirely predictable’, inquiry hears

Posted on by

The Cranston inquiry has begun hearing evidence into the biggest ever loss of life in a Channel migrant crossing

An inquiry into the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel has heard that it was ‘entirely predictable’ that a catastrophic event involving mass casualties would occur.

On Monday the Cranston inquiry began hearing evidence into the drownings of at least 27 people on 24 November 2021 in the narrow stretch of water separating the UK from France.

Continue reading...

Planned change in British citizenship rules faces first legal challenge

Posted on by

Young Afghan refugee brings case after move to prevent those who arrived on ‘dangerous journey’ from citizenship

Plans to prevent refugees who arrive in the UK on a small boat, lorry or via other “irregular” means from becoming a British citizen are facing their first legal challenge.

The challenge is being brought by a 21-year-old Afghan refugee who arrived in the UK aged 14, after fleeing the Taliban and being smuggled to Britain in the back of a lorry. He was granted refugee status and after five years was granted indefinite leave to remain. He was due to apply for British citizenship on 1 March.

Continue reading...

Top judge ‘deeply troubled’ by PMQs exchange on Gaza asylum case

Posted on by

Lady Carr says politicians should respect judicial independence, as Starmer calls decision to grant family asylum a ‘legal loophole’

England and Wales’s most senior judge has written to Keir Starmer about an “unacceptable” exchange with Kemi Badenoch at prime minister’s questions, saying she was “deeply troubled” by the discussion on a Palestinian family’s asylum case.

Lady Sue Carr, the lady chief justice, criticised the Conservative leader’s questions about the case, in which a family from Gaza had applied through a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees.

Continue reading...