Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

French authorities rescue 85 migrants trying to cross Channel

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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.

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Police raid migrant smuggling ring accused over small boat Channel crossings

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Final asylum seekers have now left the Bibby Stockholm

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Most claims from 400 men on vessel moored in Portland, Dorset have been processed, with majority accepted

The final asylum seekers housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge left the boat on Tuesday and crew members are set to leave on Wednesday, with the controversial vessel’s final day in port expected to be 8 January.

The accommodation on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, will now be dismantled after the Labour government decided to discontinue the previous government’s contract to house asylum seekers on the vessel.

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Revealed: Home Office ‘completely lost grip’ at notorious Manston asylum centre

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Court documents contain admissions by officials that they were unable to control the situation at the Kent facility where 18,000 asylum seekers were illegally detained

Home Office officials have admitted that “we completely lost our grip” on the situation at a notorious asylum processing centre that led to 18,000 people being unlawfully detained in horrific conditions.

Overcrowding at Manston, a former RAF base in Kent, in autumn 2022 led to an outbreak of diphtheria and scabies. Asylum seekers who had crossed the Channel in small boats were forced to sleep on filthy floors or on flattened cardboard boxes, while toilets were overflowing with faeces. Women and children were forced to sleep close to unrelated men and there were claims of assaults by guards.

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Keir Starmer to restart UK-India talks after previous negotiations stalled

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Whisky and migration thwarted earlier deal but UK PM hopeful of reaching agreement with Narendra Modi

Keir Starmer is to restart the aborted UK-India trade talks in the new year after an agreement stalled amid disagreements over whisky tariffs and migration.

No progress has been made on the deal since early this year after the last round of talks concluded. As prime minister, Boris Johnson promised a swift deal, but Rishi Sunak was said to be deeply uneasy with some of the provisions that had been negotiated by his predecessor. Talks were put on hold in March while both countries prepared for general elections.

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Home Office pressed on EU citizens removed while awaiting approval to stay

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Watchdog seeks clarity on legal right to go on holiday or visit family abroad after applicants denied re-entry at UK border

Hopes have been raised for EU citizens who have faced being removed from the UK post-Brexit even while they wait on their applications to stay, after a statutory body wrote to the Home Office demanding clarity on their legal right to go on holiday or visit family abroad.

The move comes after a number of cases came to light involving the removal of EU citizens when they returned to the UK after a visit abroad.

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UK charity declares ‘refugee homelessness emergency’ as numbers hit record high

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Naccom report says gaps in state support have led to more than 1,940 refugees having no accommodation

Homelessness among refugees has doubled in the last year to reach record levels as charities hand out tents and sleeping bags to those forced to live on the streets for the first time, according to research.

The No Accommodation Network (Naccom), an umbrella organisation for 140 frontline organisations working with asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants across the UK, has collated the data and shared it with the Guardian.

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Man suspected of supplying boats to people smugglers arrested in Amsterdam

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Turkish national accused of supplying engines and boats to cross-Channel smugglers in Belgium and northern France

A suspected supplier of “hundreds” of small boat engines used by people smugglers to transport asylum seekers across the Channel has been arrested in Amsterdam, officials said.

A 44-year-old Turkish national was arrested on Wednesday after arriving at Schiphol airport, the UK’s National Crime Agency said. The suspect was due to be extradited to Belgium to face charges of being involved in human trafficking as part of a criminal organisation.

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Pay for NHS chiefs to be linked to performance with ‘no more rewards for failure’, Wes Streeting says – as it happened

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This live blog is closed

Here are some of the main points from Jonathan Reynolds’s evidence to the Post Office inquiry so far this morning.

Reynolds said he accepted as business secretary he was responsible for ensuring the compensation scheme operated properly. He said in the past there had been “insufficient accountability”.

He said that since the general election there has been a “significant increase” in the pace at which compensation is being paid. The journalist Nick Wallis (who wrote a superb book, The Great Post Office Scandal) is live tweeting from the inquiry, and he quotes Reynolds as saying:

Since the general election there has been a significant increase in the pace at which compensation has been paid. The overall quantum of compensation is up in the last four months by roughly a third and the number of claims to which there has been an initial... offer being made in response to that claim has roughly doubled in the last four months [to] what it has been in the four months preceding the general election.

Home Office officials do not believe Labour’s plan to “smash the gangs” will work as a way of bringing down illegal migration to the UK, i can reveal.

They say that civil servants in the department have been “underwhelmed” by the approach that was being outlined again this week by Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

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Nine boats carrying 572 people intercepted while crossing Channel

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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.

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UK asylum system retraumatises women fleeing sexual abuse, says report

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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.

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More than 50 people rescued from Channel, says French coastguard

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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.

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Tamils stranded on Diego Garcia for three years allowed to enter UK

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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.

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Starmer says people smuggling should be seen as ‘global security threat similar to terrorism’ – UK politics live

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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.

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