Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Calls for Home Office to protect asylum seekers after accommodation violence

Posted on by

Exclusive: NGOs say safeguarding policies need improving, as victims tell of multiple assaults and incidents of race hate

NGOs are calling for improvements in UK government safeguarding policies after multiple acts of violence and race hate incidents in Home Office accommodation.

The incidents include 20 assaults of asylum seekers in one small area of Essex and a separate incident where another was attacked and threatened with a knife by a man recently released into shared asylum accommodation from prison on licence. Slices of bacon were also laid over food belonging to Muslim residents stored in a communal kitchen fridge.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Conservatives spent £134m on never-used IT systems for failed Rwanda scheme

Posted on by

Home Office official says data protection laws caused the cost of its forced removal programme to increase

The Conservative government spent more than £130m on IT and data systems for the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which will never be used, the Observer can reveal.

Digital tools needed to put the forced removal programme into effect made up the second-largest chunk of the £715m spent in little over two years, behind only the £290m handed directly to Paul Kagame’s government.

Continue reading...

Home Office accused of ‘blocking’ people stuck in war zones from joining family in UK

Posted on by

FoI figures show Home Office apparently refusing to use biometrics waiver for people who have no way to submit them

The UK government’s family reunification policy has been criticised by charities and MPs after data revealed how Home Office bureaucracy was making it impossible for people stranded in war zones, such as Gaza and Sudan, to reunite with family members in the UK.

Existing policy is supposed to allow those in need of resettlement the opportunity to join relatives in the UK. In order to apply for family reunion visas, applicants must submit biometrics – usually a fingerprint and a photograph – at appointments at a visa application centre (VAC) in their country of residence.

Continue reading...

Visa-waiver system could overwhelm UK immigration services, law firm warns

Posted on by

There are also fears electronic travel authorisation will threaten post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland

The UK Home Office’s already burdened immigration services could be overwhelmed this summer when a new visa-waiver system comes into force for European business travellers and tourists in April, a leading law firm has said.

There have also been fresh warnings that the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) requirements could threaten the post-peace tourism sector in Northern Ireland, with Americans and Europeans travelling to Dublin and beyond deciding not to bother crossing the border because of the red tape.

Continue reading...

Home Office says record number of refused asylum seekers deported since July

Posted on by

Labour’s description of 16,400 ‘immigration offenders and foreign criminals’ angers campaigners

Keir Starmer has boasted of deporting a record number of refused asylum seekers and overseas criminals since scrapping the Rwanda scheme, using language that has dismayed human rights campaigners.

The Home Office said on Thursday it had returned more than 16,400 “immigration offenders and foreign criminals” since the election in July, the highest six-month total since 2018.

Continue reading...

Lib Dems call for Kemi Badenoch to sack Robert Jenrick over ‘divisive comments’

Posted on by

Shadow justice minister backs up previous remarks on immigration by telling BBC ‘not all cultures are equal’

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, should sack Robert Jenrick for “divisive comments,” the Lib Dems have said, after the shadow justice minister doubled down on his comments about immigrants with “alien cultures”.

Jenrick was challenged repeatedly on Tuesday morning for having failed to act on the outcome of an inquiry into grooming gangs while he was in the Home Office, despite now demanding one, and for rarely mentioning the issue in the House of Commons until this year.

Continue reading...

The nameless dead: scientists hunt for identities of thousands who tried to reach Europe

Posted on by

Experts’ group employs new technologies and techniques to help relatives of those missing in the migration crisis

Four years ago, the remains of a toddler encased in a lifejacket and a navy snowsuit washed up on a beach in southern Norway, having spent the previous two months being carried on North Sea currents. Though his face was barely recognisable, publicity about the sinking of the migrant boat he had been travelling on, and suspicions about his identity, enabled Norwegian police to locate a relative to whom his DNA could be matched, providing this lonely corpse with a name: Artin Iran Nezhad.

Others remain nameless. Of the tens of thousands who die trying to reach Europe, only about a fifth are ever formally identified. For their relatives, this lack of closure is a continuing trauma. However, a recently established network of forensic scientists is trying to change this, through the development of new technologies and processes to aid identification efforts.

Continue reading...

Labour government discussed Tanzania asylum camp plan in 2004, files show

Posted on by

Newly released files show proposals to divert £2m – earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa – to fund scheme

Tony Blair’s government discussed diverting £2m earmarked to prevent conflict in Africa in order to fund a controversial pilot scheme to process and house asylum-seekers in Tanzania, newly released government files show.

Under the scheme, Britain would have offered Tanzania an extra £4m in aid if it opened an asylum camp to house people claiming to be Somalian refugees while their applications to live in Britain were assessed.

Continue reading...

France rescues 107 people trying to cross to UK on Christmas Day

Posted on by

Authorities carry out series of operations off northern coast, as 451 people arrive in England on 11 boats

French maritime authorities carried out 12 rescue operations along the coast of northern France on Christmas Day, rescuing 107 people in distress from small boats trying to cross to the UK.

On Christmas morning, 30 passengers were rescued from a boat near Dunkirk, while the others onboard wished to continue their journey and were taken into British custody once they reached UK waters, said the French Channel and North Sea maritime prefect’s office.

Continue reading...

Syrian family left in limbo over Christmas as UK halts asylum claims

Posted on by

Decisions on fate of 6,500 Syrian asylum seekers suspended amid push to repatriate refugees after fall of regime

A Syrian family say they are “fearing for their future” this Christmas after having an imminent decision on their asylum application stopped by the UK government.

Bilal*, 39, worked as a bank manager in Damascus, and has been living in Sheffield with his wife and four children for the past year. He had his second interview about his asylum application in November and had been told by the Home Office that a decision on his case was “very close”.

Continue reading...

Starmer accuses Whitehall of being comfortable with failure in landmark speech

Posted on by

Prime minister sets out milestones for delivery but faces claims of watering down targets and ignoring immigration

Keir Starmer accused Whitehall of becoming comfortable with failure as he challenged civil servants to hit a series of policy targets and deliver on 150 “major infrastructure projects”.

Ushering in the “next phase” for the five-month-old Labour government, the prime minister urged “a profound cultural shift away from a declinist mentality” and a relentless focus on getting things done.

Higher real household disposable income and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by the end of this parliament, as part of a long-term aim to make the UK the fastest-growing G7 economy.

Building 1.5m homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.

Putting the UK “on track” to achieve at least 95% clean power by 2030.

Meeting the NHS standard of 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective care.

Getting a record 75% of five-year-olds ready to learn when they start school.

A named police officer for every beat, and 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers for England and Wales.

Continue reading...

Hundreds detained in Northern Ireland in crackdown on people smugglers

Posted on by

Gangs charging €8,000 for illegal travel packages that avoid crossing Channel on small boats

Hundreds of people have been detained in Northern Ireland trying to get into Great Britain by crossing the border from Ireland in an operation aimed at cracking down on people smugglers.

Criminal gangs are charging up to €8,000 for the illegal travel package they present as a safer route to crossing the Channel on small boats , say immigration officials.

Continue reading...

French authorities rescue 85 migrants trying to cross Channel

Posted on by

Authorities say ‘numerous’ boats set out to sea and that one called for help after hitting a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region

The French navy rescued 85 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday, maritime authorities said, the latest in a deadly series of dangerous crossings.

One of “numerous” migrant boats that set out to sea called for help after hitting a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region, France’s Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Police raid migrant smuggling ring accused over small boat Channel crossings

Posted on by

More than 500 officers participated in the operation, which was co-ordinated with British, French and European agencies

Police have carried out dawn raids in several cities in Germany and France in an internationally coordinated operation to smash a network accused of smuggling migrants to Britain in small boats.

Coordinated with Europol, the French security service and British police after months of intelligence-gathering, the raids on Wednesday concentrated on western German cities where gangs are believed to have procured small boats and found migrants wanting to be taken to the UK from France across the English Channel.

Continue reading...

Tamils arriving in UK after three years stranded on Diego Garcia speak of relief

Posted on by

Lawyers and campaigners hail removal of 47 people from remote Indian Ocean island as ‘a big day for justice’

Dozens of people stranded in hellish conditions for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have arrived in the UK and told of their relief that their journey is over.

Lawyers and campaigners hailed the arrival of 47 Sri Lankan Tamils on Monday night as a “big day for justice”, with a further eight arriving on Tuesday morning from Rwanda, where they had been receiving medical treatment. Twelve children were among them.

Continue reading...

Many unable to access eVisas to prove right to be in UK, Home Office admits

Posted on by

Campaigners say problems with digital transfer could affect hundreds of thousands of people on ‘10-year route’ visas

The Home Office has admitted that many people who have the right to live and work in the UK cannot access their eVisas and provide proof that they are allowed to be in the country.

Human rights campaigners have said problems with accessing eVisas could lead to a scandal involving hundreds of thousands of people. Those affected are allowed to be in the UK but cannot show their right to work or rent a home.

Continue reading...

Weather blamed for small boat arrivals under Labour passing 20,000

Posted on by

Home secretary to highlight data showing record number of calm autumnal days that made Channel crossings likely

The number of small boat arrivals since Keir Starmer took power has passed 20,000, with the Home Office claiming a record number of calm autumnal days in the Channel was responsible.

A 31-day period in October and November had the highest ratio of so-called “red days” – when weather conditions make crossings likely or very likely – since records began in 2018, according to a leaked analysis.

Continue reading...

Girl, two, who drowned in bin in London was failed by council, coroner finds

Posted on by

Social workers declined to provide short-term foster care for Mazeedat Adeoye whose mother had overstayed visa

A two-year-old girl who drowned in a bin containing 9cm of water in a back garden in east London was a victim of “gross failures” largely by social workers, a coroner has concluded at an inquest.

At the time of her death, Mazeedat Adeoye was being cared for in Dagenham by an acquaintance of her mother, Balikis Adeoye, who had to stay in hospital with Mazeedat’s baby brother when he required urgent heart surgery.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer gives speech on migration after record figures for 2023 revealed – UK politics live

Posted on by

Prime minister holds press conference to announce plans as ONS announces net migration figures

Here is a chart from the ONS report illustrating the latest figures.

Here is the PA Media story on the figures.

Net migration to the UK hit a higher than previously thought record of 906,000 in the year to June 2023, revised official estimates show.

The measure for the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country then dropped by 20% in the latest period, the 12 months to June 2024, and now stands at 728,000.

Continue reading...

Starmer: record net migration shows Tories ran ‘open borders experiment’

Posted on by

PM says previous government ‘deliberately liberalised’ post-Brexit immigration as he announces deal with Iraq

Keir Starmer has accused the Conservatives of running an “open borders experiment” after new figures showed that net migration to the UK hit a record high of nearly 1 million in a period covering Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s administrations.

The prime minister announced a deal with Iraq to tackle people-smugglers and a white paper to overhaul the visa system, before demanding “an explanation” from Kemi Badenoch for her party’s decision to “deliberately liberalise immigration” after the Brexit vote.

Continue reading...