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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Union for civil servants claimed Home Office staff could be open to prosecution if Strasbourg rulings on Rwanda ignored
• General election 2024: live news
Guidance drawn up by Conservative ministers which told civil servants to ignore Strasbourg rulings and remove asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, the high court has ruled.
The FDA trade union, which represents senior civil servants, brought legal action claiming senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.
Continue reading...PM says he ‘loves this party dearly’ and would always put himself at the service of it’
Rishi Sunak is speaking at a campaign event in Staffordshire. As the advance briefing predicted, he has just told his audience.
I tell you this: once you have handed Keir Starmer and Labour a blank cheque, you won’t be able to get it back.
We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may.
There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.
[In politics] some people think, if you fill your diary 24/7 and don’t do anything else, that makes you a much better decision maker. I don’t agree with that, I think you’ve got to make space, so we do it …
Actually, it helps me, it takes me away from the pressure, it relaxes me, and I think, actually, not only is it what I want to do as a dad, it is better.
Continue reading...Costs of trying to deport asylum seekers cannot be recovered if Labour wins and disbands policy
More than £320m spent by the government on the controversial scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is likely to be lost if the Conservatives are voted out of power at Thursday’s general election.
The sum has been spent on economic development money for Rwanda, along with set-up costs for the scheme, which cannot be recovered if it does not go ahead.
Continue reading...PM again declines to say whether he told Craig Williams in advance about his decision to hold the election in July
Rishi Sunak is returning to the campaign trail on Thursday, PA reports, after a two-day hiatus for the Emperor and Empress of Japan’s state visit and preparations for the final head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.
With one week to go until polling day, the deepening gambling scandal is still likely to feature heavily when he faces the media during a tour of the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
He is expected to visit a factory in Derbyshire and hold an evening campaign event in Leeds.
Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of using transgender issues “as a political football to divide people” during their head-to-head debate on Wednesday.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read our full report on this debate here
YouGov will have a snap poll on who won the debate, with the results available minutes after it finishes.
This is what Labour is putting out ahead of the debate, in a stateement from Pat McFadden, the national campaign coordinator.
Tonight, the British people will witness the choice at this election: five more years of chaos with Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives or change with Keir Starmer and Labour.
On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change. To stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country with Keir Starmer and a changed Labour party.
Tonight, Keir Starmer has the opportunity to announce loud and clear to the British public what his intentions are.
Throughout this campaign we have challenged the Labour party, time and time again, to come clean on their plans for taxes. Time and time again they have declined to do so.
Continue reading...‘Unfair’ rejection rates of up to 70% harm cultural diversity and create a ‘global apartheid’, say promoters and musicians
Musicians, authors, producers and festival managers have hit out at “humiliating” and costly visa-rejection rates for African and Asian artists visiting Britain and European Union countries, saying it is having a chilling impact on cultural diversity.
Analysis shows the UK last year raised £44m in fees for visa applications that were then rejected, mainly coming from low- and middle-income countries. The EU made €130m (£110m).
Continue reading...Prime minister faces claim Tories are ‘stealing the candlesticks’ on the way out of government
After a passage in his speech attack Labour on familiar grounds, Rishi Sunak also hit out at Reform UK.
[Reform UK] are not on the side of who you think they are.
Reform are standing candidates here in Scotland that are pro independence and anti monarchy.
Continue reading...