Treaty can be ended by either side at a month’s notice and France can refuse returns on certain grounds
The UK will pay the costs of transporting asylum seekers to and from France under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal with Emmanuel Macron, it has emerged.
The deal will have to be renewed by 11 June next year, and can be ended at a month’s notice by either side, documents made public by the government indicate.
Continue reading...Some asylum seekers will be sent back across Channel for first time under treaty agreed with French president
The UK will begin detaining people who arrive on small boats and returning some to France “within days” after the EU gave the green light to a deal agreed with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
The treaty between France and the UK will allow the Home Office to return some asylum seekers back across the Channel for the first time in exchange for accepting others directly from France via a safe route.
Continue reading...Rupert Matthews, elected to post as Conservative in 2021, claims police are ‘fighting crime with one hand tied behind their back’
George Finch, the Reform UK leader of Warwickshire county council, goes next. (Aged 19, he is the youngest council leader in the country.)
He claims the police have opposed his attempts to expose the immigration status of someone arrested in connection with an alleged crime.
It was dirty, run down and had major drug issues. My attitude to the task was assertive and no nonsense. That’s the approach that I will take for my role within Reform UK [advising on crime].
Continue reading...Home Office’s announcement follows growing number of protests outside asylum seeker hotels
Ministers will spend an extra £100m on measures to deter Channel crossings, including on the planned “one in, one out” returns agreement with France, the Home Office has said.
In a third immigration policy pledge within 24 hours, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the money would pay for up to 300 more National Crime Agency officers, as well as new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on people-smuggling gangs.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Anti-racism campaigners outnumber those opposing hotel being used as Home Office accommodation
Anti-racism demonstrators turned out in large numbers on Saturday outside a London hotel where asylum seekers are being housed to counter-protest against those opposed to it being used as Home Office accommodation.
Both groups of protesters gathered near the Thistle City Barbican hotel in Islington, north London.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...As ministers aim to ‘smash’ people-smuggling gangs, milestone passes almost a month earlier than previous record of 2022
The number of people arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats has passed 25,000 faster this year than since records began.
As ministers aim to “smash the gangs” involved in people-smuggling, 898 people made the journey in 13 boats on Wednesday, bringing the total for 2025 so far to 25,436.
Continue reading...Home Office to move 445 more people to MDP Wethersfield site, scene of previous anti-migrant protests
The Home Office is increasing the number of asylum seekers accommodated at a controversial military base by more than 50%.
There are about 800 asylum seekers housed at the remote former RAF base MDP Wethersfield in Essex and the Home Office is moving in 445 more.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says his new party will inspire hope, not fear, and promises to reset ‘broken’ political system
Jeremy Corbyn has accused the Labour government of “appeasing” Reform UK by “scapegoating” migrants and minorities for its own domestic policy failures, saying his new leftwing political party would take on Nigel Farage instead.
The veteran leftwing MP, who confirmed last week he was launching a new, as yet unnamed, movement with former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, said British politics was at a “critical juncture” with the rise of rightwing populism. He said he saw their role as providing hope, not fear.
Continue reading...Newly-appointed shadow housing secretary James Cleverly says there is no excuse for recent riots but government is making a difficult situation worse
Charities have warned of the increasing danger to asylum seekers posed by far-right protesters after small boat arrivals were moved from their usual landing place in Dover to further along the coast to avoid clashes.
The Guardian understands that Home Office officials received intelligence that some of those participating in what was billed the Great British National Protest in Dover on Saturday afternoon could have been planning to target Kent Intake Unit, where small boat arrivals are initially processed after being escorted to shore in Dover by the Border Force.
Continue reading...Home Office orders diversion from usual landing place to Ramsgate to avoid clashes with far right
Charities have warned of the increasing danger to asylum seekers posed by far-right protesters after small boat arrivals were moved from their usual landing place in Dover to further along the coast to avoid clashes.
The Guardian understands that Home Office officials received intelligence that some of those participating in what was billed the Great British National Protest in Dover on Saturday afternoon could have been planning to target Kent Intake Unit, where small boat arrivals are initially processed after being escorted to shore in Dover by the Border Force.
Continue reading...Deputy PM says government must show it is helping people amid concerns about potential for more riots in England
Immigration and deprivation are the main factors causing public disenchantment with politicians and the government that has led to social unrest and rioting, Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, has warned.
According to an official summary of Tuesday’s meeting of the cabinet, Rayner, who is leading a wider government project on improving social cohesion, also highlighted the increasing amount of people spending time alone and online as a driver of disturbances.
Continue reading...David Lammy announces sanctions regime to target anyone who helps people smugglers
Corrupt foreign officials, including police officers who profit from people smuggling, face being banned from the UK and having their assets frozen.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has announced a sanctions regime that from Wednesday will target anyone involved in assisting illegal immigration.
Continue reading...Coastguard log raises new concerns over safety and viability of flagship policy to intercept dinghies crossing Channel
New concerns about the safety and viability of the flagship UK-French policy to intercept migrant dinghies at sea have emerged after a coastguard log leaked to the Guardian revealed a recent boat-slashing incident that failed to stop people reaching the UK.
Despite the government’s pledge to stop overcrowded dinghies crossing the Channel, the number of people arriving in the UK on small boats this year has increased by about 50% compared with the same period last year, with more than 21,000 crossing so far in 2025.
Continue reading...Shapps, defence secretary when the superinjunction was imposed, said its use was ‘entirely justified’ to save lives
The former defence secretary Grant Shapps has defended the use of an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that led to the UK government relocating 15,000 Afghans.
The Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
Continue reading...Johnny Mercer, former veterans minister, sharply critical of how Afghan resettlement programme handled
In an interview with LBC Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, hit back at his former ministerial colleague Johnny Mercer rather more forcefully than he did on the Today programme (see 8.09am) over Mercer’s comments about the Afghan resettlement programme.
Tom Swarbrick, the presenter, quoted what Mercer said about how this “whole farcical process has been the most hapless display of ineptitude by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government”.
No, I don’t agree with it. I think my record would show the opposite. It was me and Priti Patel, before the collapse of Kabul, who decided we were going to accelerate bringing people back who were under threat …
People hadn’t come out before. And we made sure that we did this. I think what Johnny, you know, fails to grasp, is quite the massive scale of collapse that happened very quickly in Afghanistan, leaving people at risk, and we had to do our very best.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says it was ‘never the plan to bring everyone’ on dataset to UK, while Ben Wallace denies Tories sought superinjunction
The defence secretary, John Healey, has said there is no automatic right to resettlement for Afghans named in a leaked Ministry of Defence database, as the former Conservative ministers Ben Wallace and Johnny Mercer clashed over whether “thousands of people with little or tenuous links” had been admitted to Britain.
The controversy revolves around a dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) that was released “in error” in February 2022 by a British defence official.
Continue reading...Law firm representing thousands says some already killed and others in hiding as a result of government ‘blunder’
When Abdullah received an email from the British government saying his details had been included in the military data leak, it became “the worst day in all time”.
Speaking from Afghanistan, where he is in hiding, Abdullah fears he will be tortured and killed.
Continue reading...