Airport says ETA scheme introduced by Conservatives is ‘devastating’ for competitiveness
Heathrow airport has said it experienced a 90,000 decline in passenger numbers on routes included in a £10 a person government scheme.
It described the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) system as “devastating for our hub competitiveness”.
Continue reading...Amira Al Shammari says they have no other options as she describes horror of 21-year-old Dina’s death
A mother from a stateless Arab minority say she and her family have no choice but to try to cross the Channel again despite the death last month of her eldest daughter on a previous attempt.
Dina Al Shammari, 21, was travelling with her parents and three teenage siblings when she was crushed to death in an overcrowded dinghy off the coast of Calais on 28 July.
Continue reading...Severe cases of far-right violence need to be recognised as terrorism and not ‘thuggery’, write Rusi researchers
The recent riots in the UK, sparked by the Southport stabbings, have exposed troubling double standards in how society perceives and responds to far-right violence compared to Islamist extremism. This disparity calls for a serious redefinition of how we address far-right extremism, recognising it as the grave threat it truly represents.
Far-right motivated violence is often classified as mere “thuggery” or hooliganism, while similar acts motivated by Islamist extremism would is likely to be swiftly labeled as terrorism. This inconsistency undermines the perceived severity of far-right threats and hinders the political will to take equivalent action.
Emily Winterbotham, Claudia Wallner and Jessica White are researchers at the Royal United Services Institute.
Continue reading...Fifty-three people were rescued by helicopter on Sunday morning, French authorities have said
Two people have died attempting to cross the Channel in a dinghy, according to the French authorities, bringing the death toll since mid-July to at least nine.
Fifty-three people were rescued by a helicopter and several ships sent to the scene by Gris-Nez Regional operation and surveillance centre. HM Coastguard also provided assistance, but two people were declared dead after being found unconscious onboard.
Continue reading...Brighton organisation is inviting UK public to hand write notes of ‘solidarity’ after far-right violence
A Brighton-based organisation has promised to deliver handwritten messages welcoming refugees and asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK in the wake of far-right violence and anti-immigrant unrest.
Conversation Over Borders has invited the public to submit messages of “solidarity” online, which they plan to write by hand and deliver to people in accommodation hotels across the country.
Continue reading...Veteran Conservatives on the party’s liberal wing have criticised the rightwards shift by some senior figures
Tory grandees have accused senior figures in their own party of using divisive language that inflamed anger over immigration before the recent rioting, amid warnings that too many Conservatives have “turned a blind eye” to a shift to the right.
The criticisms come as fears grow on the party’s liberal wing that the leadership election risks pulling the party further into populist polices designed to take on Reform UK.
Continue reading...People who threw stones, hurled racist abuse and pushed a burning wheelie bin at police also sent to prison
Two men have been sent to prison for stirring up hatred and violence online after the Southport attack, in the first cases of their kind linked to the recent riots seen across the country.
Jordan Parlour, 28, was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred with Facebook posts in which he advocated an attack on a hotel in Leeds as part of the violent public disorder that swept England last week.
Continue reading...Hospital worker from Egypt expresses safety fears, doubts about staying in UK and sense of being unappreciated
As far-right riots broke out across parts of the UK this week, the chief executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard, warned in an email to NHS leaders that “for many NHS workers, seeing this flare-up of racism will leave them feeling afraid and unwelcome”.
The Guardian spoke to Samir, 32, an NHS hospital doctor in south-west England, who shared his views.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
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