Total number of arrivals by small boats reaches 32,691 this year, up 22% on same time last year but fewer than in 2022
Nine boats carrying 572 people have been intercepted while attempting to cross the Channel, according to the Home Office.
The latest crossings come after Keir Starmer announced plans to tackle what he described as the “national security threat” of people smugglers, pledging an extra £75m and a new team of detectives.
Continue reading...Women have had to share bedrooms with unrelated men and some have faced further sexual violence, charities say
The UK asylum system is retraumatising women and girls who have fled rape and sexual abuse and putting them at risk of further harm, leading charities have said.
Sexual violence and abuse is often a major driver for women to leave their country of origin, as well as a common experience on their journey to the UK, but when they get here they are failed, according to Rape Crisis England and Wales (RCEW) and Imkaan.
Continue reading...Several bodies pulled from sea after boat got into difficulty off coast of Audresselles on Monday night
More than 50 people have been rescued after attempting to cross the Channel and the bodies of several others were found floating at sea.
The French coastguard said 51 people were rescued on Monday night after a boat got into difficulty when its engine failed off the coast of Audresselles in northern France. Those rescued were met by emergency services at Boulogne-sur-Mer quayside and taken to safety.
Continue reading...Government drops opposition to case of 64 people, including 16 children, who fled persecution in Sri Lanka
Dozens of Tamils stranded on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia for more than three years are to be airlifted to the UK after the government dropped its opposition to their case, the high court has heard.
The 64 people, including 16 children, have been stranded on the island since October 2021, when a fishing boat they were using to flee persecution in Sri Lanka got into difficulties.
Continue reading...PM gave speech at Glasgow’s Interpol general assembly as Kemi Badenoch works on shadow cabinet appointments
Starmer went on to say the government was “going to treat people smugglers like terrorists”. And he explained what that meant.
So we’re taking our approach to counter terrorism, which we know works, and apply it to the gangs with our new Border Security Command.
We’re ending the fragmentation between policing, Border Force and our intelligence agencies, recruiting hundreds of specialist investigators, the best of the best, from our National Crime Agency, Border Force, immigration enforcement and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and our intelligence agencies, all working together.
We have the powers to trace suspects’ movements using information from the intelligence services.
We can shut down their bank accounts, cut off their internet access, and arrest them for making preparations to act before an attack has taken place.
I will work with anyone serious who could offer solutions of this, anyone, because without coordinated global action, it will not go away.
And unless we bring all the powers we have to bear on this in much the same way as we do for terrorism, then we will struggle to bring these criminals to justice.
Continue reading...Greek Cypriot Costa Koushiappis to be removed from UK even though his application is pending with Home Office
An EU citizen caught up in a Home Office backlog of applications for post-Brexit residency status is to be deported by Border Force officials in Scotland.
Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.
Continue reading...Home Office failed to show presence of Dana Abu Qamar ‘not conducive to public good’, according to tribunal ruling
A Palestinian student who was stripped of her student visa after remarks she made about the Israel-Gaza war has won a human rights appeal against the Home Office’s decision.
The Home Office failed to demonstrate that the presence of Dana Abu Qamar, 20, was “not conducive to public good” after the law student’s visa was revoked in December 2023, according to a tribunal ruling.
Continue reading...Forty-year-old has cardiac arrest after boat carrying 50 people deflates shortly after leaving France
A 40-year-old man died on Sunday trying to cross the Channel from northern France to the UK.
According to the prefecture in Calais, the man was of Indian heritage and had a cardiac arrest after the boat he was in with about 50 other men, women and children deflated minutes after leaving the French shore.
Continue reading...French maritime officials say rescue operation was launched after lifejacket spotted in sea off Calais
Three people have died after a boat sank in the Channel, French maritime authorities said.
The French maritime prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea said a further 46 people were rescued after the incident off the coast of Calais on Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...Government issues official document to Peruvian-born character, listing him as ‘Bear’ under its observations
He has been one of the UK’s favourite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear – official name Paddington Brown – has been granted a British passport.
The co-producer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the document to the fictional Peruvian-born character – listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear.
Continue reading...French authorities say 65 people rescued after overloaded boat sinks off coast of Wissant
A baby died after a boat carrying people in the Channel towards Britain capsized off the French coast, local coastguards have said.
Sixty-five people were rescued after the overloaded boat started to sink off the coast of Wissant, in northern France, on Thursday night. Some people were in the water when rescuers arrived. An unconscious baby found in the water was later declared dead.
Continue reading...Refugee Council says nearly 120,000 people await case processing with 63,000 set to be granted asylum by Labour government
Nearly 63,000 people who were waiting for their cases to be processed at the time of the general election are expected to be granted asylum by the Labour government, an analysis has found.
The Refugee Council said the government’s decision to scrap the plan to deport people to Rwanda and accelerate claims meant the asylum backlog was forecast to be 118,063 at the start of 2025 – 59,000 cases lower than if the government had continued with the policy.
Continue reading...Estimated 500 rejected cases expected to be overturned after fresh evidence they were employed by the UK government in Afghanistan
An estimated 500 elite Afghan soldiers who fought alongside the British are expected to become eligible to come to the UK after a previous decision rejecting their applications was overturned.
Fresh information has been discovered in about a quarter of the 2,000 rejected cases proving that the at-risk veterans were paid and employed by the UK government in Afghanistan, despite previous claims that no such evidence existed. A review had been launched by the Conservatives in February.
Continue reading...Migrant workers accuse Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from them
Migrant workers living in a caravan encampment raided by immigration enforcement officers have accused the Home Office of targeting the victims of labour exploitation rather than companies profiting from the hidden economy.
The Observer reported in August that about 30 mainly Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats were living in dilapidated caravans in the centre of Bristol. Many claimed they were, in effect, earning below the minimum wage and could not afford to rent in the city.
Continue reading...With the amount spent on refugees and asylum seekers this year on course to hit £3.6bn, the sum available for international projects must be cut again, warns thinktank
Ministers have been warned that £900m will have to be raided from UK overseas aid projects to meet the costs of supporting asylum seekers in Britain this year.
Projections seen by the Observer show that the amount of overseas aid set to be spent in the UK on refugees and asylum seekers this year is still on course to reach £3.6bn, despite a big fall in the costs of housing people from Ukraine.
Continue reading...Concerns are growing that funds from the migration deal are connected to abuses by the repressive regime in Tunis
The EU will be unable to claw back any of the €150m (£125m) paid to Tunisia despite the money being increasingly linked to human rights violations, including allegations that sums went to security forces who raped migrant women.
The European Commission paid the amount to the Tunis government in a controversial migration and development deal, despite concerns that the north African state was increasingly authoritarian and its police largely operated with impunity.
Continue reading...Assessment finds detention unit is subjecting families to ‘unnecessary suffering’ amid lengthy Home Office delays
Young children are being traumatised while held at a Gatwick airport deportation centre that should be closed down, a watchdog has found.
The independent monitoring board (IMB) also said the children’s parents were being subjected to “callous treatment and unnecessary suffering” because of the Home Office’s lengthy decision-making process over removals.
Children are witnessing or overhearing their parents’ “considerable distress” at their expected deportation, despite staff efforts to shield them.
Children are being asked by staff to translate for their distraught parents, despite having been taken from their homes and facing removal to a country they may know very little about.
The use of the Family PDA may prolong or add to trauma already experienced, particularly for children.
Continue reading...TRG says both candidates have ‘used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from … the values we cherish and uphold’
Robert Jenrick, one of the final two Tory leadership candidates, is delivering a speech in London. There is a live feed on his X account.
Jenrick started by promising “a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda”. He said:
The real choice this country faces is between Labour’s failing agenda and the new approach I want us to take, the new approach we need as a country.
Because if I am chosen as the next leader of this party we will stand to offer a complete break with Labour’s failing agenda.
Continue reading...Young child reportedly found on overcrowded boat trying to cross Channel, hours after G7 countries agree plan to combat smuggling gangs
A two-year-old child was crushed to death and three other people died in two attempts to cross the Channel from France on Saturday.
French authorities said the infant died after being trampled following a “wave of panic” among migrants trying to board a dinghy.
Continue reading...Risk found to be highest among black and north African people, as experts call for better mental health provision
People who migrate in adolescence have an increased risk of psychosis, researchers have found, noting the link is particularly strong among black and north African people.
While research has previously suggested migration could play a role in the increased risk of psychosis among people from ethnic minorities, the study suggests age could be an important factor.
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