Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Lawyers urge Starmer to ensure safety of advice centres over far-right threat

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Police chiefs announce deployment of extra 2,200 riot officers as list of 60 immigration centres circulated online

Lawyers have called on ministers to address serious concerns about their safety after it emerged far-right groups were planning to target immigration advice centres in the coming days.

The Law Society and Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) said their members were at risk, after a list of 60 immigration centres was circulated on Telegram with a message suggesting they should be the target of protests on Wednesday.

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UK ‘stop the boats’ policy raising risk of deadly crushes on dinghies, NGOs say

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Groups say people are dying of crushing and suffocation as ever-growing numbers are packed into fewer vessels

Refugees are being crammed into boats on French beaches in ever-increasing numbers, human rights groups have said, leading to an increased risk of crushing and suffocation as a result of the UK’s “stop the boats” policy.

A seven-year-old girl is among at least eight people who have died of suffocation on a dinghy in the Channel in less than a year.

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Keir Starmer decisive on mob violence but faces dilemma over Reform

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Some within Labour worry that PM is failing to challenge Nigel Farage’s anti-migrant insinuations head-on

Keir Starmer sounded uncharacteristically angry as he appeared in front of a podium in Downing Street on Sunday to condemn the violent mobs causing damage and spreading fear.

Just a few weeks into government, the prime minister has been confronted with an appalling triple murder of three young girls, followed by days of rioting whipped up by online disinformation that a migrant was responsible.

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Robert Jenrick focuses Tory leadership bid on promises to cut immigration

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Former Home Office minister says he is open to capping immigration and wants to reimpose Rwanda scheme

Robert Jenrick has said he would hope to detain and deport people who arrive in the UK on small boats “within days” if he wins the Conservative leadership race and the next general election.

The former immigration minister said he was “open” to a cap restricting immigration to fewer than 10,000 people a year and shared his hopes of reimposing the Rwanda scheme.

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One dead and dozens rescued in latest attempt to cross Channel

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French authorities say they received call for help from overcrowded dinghy in early hours of Sunday

A woman has died trying to cross the Channel in an overcrowded dinghy, as a number of small boats made the dangerous journey over the weekend.

Thirty-four others were rescued from what was described as a “migrant boat” off the northern French port of Calais, after a call for help was made in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to French authorities.

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Tories ‘deliberately covered up’ true state of public finances, says minister

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Steve Reed hits out at Conservatives’ handling of public services as chancellor prepares to detail ‘£20bn black hole’

The last Conservative government “deliberately covered up” the true state of public finances, a cabinet minister has said, as the chancellor prepares to detail a “£20bn black hole” in the public finances.

The environment secretary, Steve Reed, said his cabinet colleagues “always knew” the inheritance from the Tories was “going to be bad”, but that since coming to office they had found “additional pressures” that had not been disclosed by the Tories.

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About 50 people brought to Dover as small boat crossings continue

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Children among group led ashore by UK Border Force as number crossing Channel since last Saturday nears 400

Small boat crossings continued on Saturday as the UK Border Force brought a group of people from the Channel into Dover.

Children were among the group of about 50 people who were led ashore from the first boat that docked. Other Border Force vessels remained in the Channel.

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‘I never expected this in the UK’: modern slavery expert receives death threat

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Migrants at Work founder Aké Achi claims police failed to act on letter sent to his home warning of harm to his family

A leading modern slavery expert who pursues employers on behalf of exploited overseas workers, recovering thousands of pounds for them in the process, has received a threat on his life.

Aké Achi, founder and chief executive of Migrants at Work, an organisation which protects workers’ rights, says the letter was posted to his home.

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Albanian man taken from UK psychiatric ward to deportation flight – report

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Watchdog raises concerns about Home Office decision in annual report about incident last summer

An Albanian man who was being held in a secure psychiatric unit was taken directly from his hospital bed to a Home Office deportation flight, a report has revealed.

The Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB), a watchdog for prisons and immigration removal centres, has raised concerns about the incident last summer in its annual report published on Thursday.

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Officer from Italy forced to quit UK police due to post-Brexit barriers

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Dani says his £26,000 salary is not high enough to sponsor his wife so she can join him in Britain

A police officer working in Manchester says he has been forced to quit his job after Rishi Sunak raised the salary threshold to sponsor his Italian wife to live in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration scheme.

Campaigners have warned that his tale of Brexit anguish is being repeated up and down the country in low-paid public sectors where many EU citizens work.

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Indonesians who paid thousands to work on UK farm sacked within weeks

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Exclusive: Several sent home for slow fruit picking face debts as watchdog investigates alleged illegal fees

Indonesian workers who paid thousands of pounds to travel to Britain and pick fruit at a farm supplying most big supermarkets have been sent home within weeks for not picking fast enough.

One of the workers said he had sold his family’s land, as well as his and his parents’ motorbikes, to cover the more than £2,000 cost of coming to Britain in May and was distressed to find himself unemployed with few possessions.

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Former factory in Dublin intended to house asylum seekers is set on fire

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Ex-Crown Paints building in Coolock had been the scene of a large protest

A disused factory in Dublin earmarked to house asylum seekers has been set on fire following a protest at the site.

More than 1,000 people were protesting at the former Crown Paints building in Coolock on Friday night, in the north of the Irish capital, and gardaí were on the scene.

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Home Office will decide asylum claims of thousands stuck in Rwanda scheme limbo

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Previous UK government had built up backlog of 90,000 people whose claims it deemed ‘inadmissible’

Thousands of asylum seekers left in limbo for more than two years as they awaited a decision on the Rwanda scheme will now have their cases decided in the UK.

The decision, revealed during a high court challenge on Friday, is a sharp shift in position from the previous government, which had passed various laws declaring that the claims of those who arrived after January 2022 were “inadmissible” – and so could not be processed in the UK.

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Keir Starmer says he is open to processing asylum seekers offshore

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PM wants to rethink UK’s immigration policies but did not make progress on returns deal at summit with EU leaders

Keir Starmer is looking into plans to process asylum seekers outside the UK as part of a rethink of the government’s immigration policies, even as a returns agreement with the EU appears more distant than ever.

The prime minister said on Thursday he was open to the idea of Britain processing claims offshore, after a day spent discussing illegal migration with fellow European leaders at Blenheim Palace. Those talks, as part of the European Political Community summit, included a meeting with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, whose country processes asylum claims on behalf of Italy.

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One person dies in Channel crossing attempt near Gravelines

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French and British coastguards rescued a further 71 people who had tried to cross in an overcrowded dinghy on Wednesday

A person has died trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain in an overcrowded dinghy, French officials have said.

A further 71 people were rescued after the vessel deflated off Gravelines on France’s northern coast on Wednesday, the regional maritime police authority said in a statement.

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Four people drown trying to cross Channel near Boulogne-sur-Mer

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At least 56 people survive after early morning rescue involving French coastguard, navy boat and helicopter

Four people died overnight trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain, French officials have said.

A rescue operation took place off Boulogne-sur-Mer on France’s northern coast after reports of people in the sea. Four of those pulled from the sea had drowned.

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Home Office U-turn grants Wirral ‘legend’ right to live in UK after 46 years

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Retired newsagent who fundraised £50,000 for legal battle was due to take case to court in autumn

A retired newsagent and “local legend” from Merseyside has said he feels marvellous after a Home Office U-turn granted him the right to live in the UK almost 50 years after he arrived.

Nelson Shardey, 75, launched legal action against the Home Office and fundraised almost £50,000 earlier this year after he was refused the right to stay in the UK permanently, despite living in the country since 1977 and running his shop, Nelson’s News, in Wirral for 31 years.

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Syrian asylum seeker in UK says he ‘lost everything’ after Rwanda roundup

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People held before planned removal from UK under Sunak government face disruption and relocation after release

A Syrian asylum seeker who was one of 220 people arrested and detained in preparation for forced removal to Rwanda says he has lost everything after his release.

Critics described the high-profile mass roundups before the local elections in May as a “stunt” that needlessly disrupted the lives of many.

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US blocks UK from holding court hearing in British territory Diego Garcia

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Authorities refused to grant access for judge and legal teams to visit island, where dozens of Tamil asylum seekers are stranded

The US government has blocked the UK from holding a court hearing in one of its own territories, it emerged on Tuesday.

The hearing was due to take place on the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to consider the fate of dozens of Tamil asylum seekers stranded there for more than 1,000 days who claim they are being unlawfully detained.

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Conditions at UK immigration removal centre ‘worst inspectors have seen’

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Report found ligature points previously used in suicide attempts at Harmondsworth had not been removed

The prisons watchdog has described “truly shocking” conditions in an immigration removal centre close to Heathrow airport as the worst its inspectors had ever seen.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons has published a damning report on conditions at Harmondsworth, a 658-bed centre, the largest of its kind in Europe.

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

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