Hunt is on for survivors after at least six people die, while activists call for more safe and legal routes
The government’s controversial asylum policy faced renewed criticism on Saturday when at least six people died after a small boat crossing the Channel capsized and sank.
Another two people are still believed to be missing after the sinking, prompting fresh calls for the government to urgently introduce safe routes for asylum seekers to prevent further tragedies.
Continue reading...Lack of safe passage described as ‘moral disgrace’ as helpers say legal routes would end dangerous crossings
Calls are mounting in the UK and France for the introduction of safe routes for refugees crossing the Channel after a French organisation said it had received multiple distress calls from people making the crossing in recent days.
At least six people lost their lives early on Saturday trying to cross the Channel in a small boat and the organisation issued warnings that more lives would be lost in future unless there were significant government policy changes.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers removed from Bibby Stockholm after bacteria which can cause serious lung infection found in water
Suella Braverman is under pressure to abandon plans to house asylum seekers on a barge after 39 people had to be removed from the vessel after the discovery of potentially deadly bacteria in the water system.
Ministers said they were concerned contractors knew there were traces of legionella bacteria on the Bibby Stockholm on Monday, when the first asylum seekers boarded the vessel in Portland, Dorset. Officials have insisted the Home Office was not told about the detection until Wednesday when further tests were ordered.
Continue reading...Dominic Grieve and Edward Garnier denounce ‘lefty lawyer’ rhetoric as dossier target fears abuse will turn physical
Two former Conservative law officers have criticised the political rhetoric against “lefty lawyers” as damaging and wrong as the head of the Law Society warned it could lead to physical attacks on immigration solicitors.
Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, and Edward Garnier, a Conservative peer and former solicitor general, said lawyers should not be attacked for doing their jobs, regardless of who they represent or their personal views.
Continue reading...Asylum seekers removed from Bibby Stockholm after legionella bacteria found in water system onboard
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have announced their candidate in the forthcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection.
Gloria Adebo, who works as a data analyst, will run for the party in the vote triggered by the successful recall petition for Margaret Ferrier.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection is a real chance for local people to deliver a judgment on the difficulties and disasters we have been landed in by incompetent, populist governments in London and Edinburgh.
It needn’t be like this. And it is the Liberal Democrats who, increasingly, are a growing and dynamic part of an alternative way forward - offering hope in place of despair, founded on a belief in individuals, in the rule of law, in equality of opportunity and the importance of human rights here and across the world.
Continue reading...Robert Jenrick had said government would do ‘whatever is necessary’ to stop small boat crossings
The UK would be an international outlier along with Russia and Belarus if it left the European convention on human rights, a leading law body has warned, after a senior minister signalled that the move could be an option to stop small boat crossings.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said the government would do “whatever is necessary”, even if that meant pulling out of the ECHR, the 70-year-old pan-European treaty that protects human rights and political freedoms in the continent.
Continue reading...Move designed to demonstrate PM’s commitment to ‘stop the boats’ policy criticised by legal experts
Lawyers who “coach” people to lie in their asylum applications will be targeted as part of a new government-led panel tasked with pursuing more prosecutions.
The move is designed to demonstrate Rishi Sunak’s commitment to “stop the boats”, but it was criticised by legal experts who said the record asylum backlog was the fault of the Home Office.
Continue reading...No 10 backtracks on minister’s claim 500 asylum seekers could be on barge by end of week
According to a report in the Times, Liz Truss named 16 people on her original honours list – four for peerages, and 12 people getting other honours. Two people have declined, but there are still 14 names on the list, the Times says, one person for every four days she was in office.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant says resignation honours lists should be abolished.
Continue reading...Deputy PM suggested FBU’s Labour affiliation influenced its decision to raise concerns about the Bibby Stockholm
The deputy prime minister has been accused of making “disgraceful” comments after claiming that the firefighters’ union had raised safety concerns over a barge due to house asylum seekers because of close links to Labour.
Oliver Dowden suggested that the Fire Brigades Union’s affiliation and donations to the opposition were a motivating factor behind fire and overcrowding concerns raised about the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset.
Continue reading...Deputy PM ‘confident’ asylum barge will soon be used and that fire safety concerns will be taken into account
Checks are still taking place on a barge designed to house asylum seekers, with the first group due to be housed there within “weeks”, the UK’s deputy prime minister has suggested.
Oliver Dowden said he was confident the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, would become operational soon and that the government would “take into account those concerns” when pressed over fears raised about fire safety.
Continue reading...Fire Brigades Union questions large numbers kept on Bibby Stockholm and lack of exit points
Suella Braverman is facing demands from firefighters for an urgent meeting over the safety of a giant barge meant for asylum seekers amid a deepening row over whether it is a “deathtrap”.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has questioned a lack of exit points, the narrowness of corridors and increased occupancy on the Bibby Stockholm in a letter sent to the home secretary on Wednesday. Originally built with 222 cabins, the barge is now expected to contain more than 500 people in Portland, Devon.
Continue reading...FBU to write to Home Office with overcrowding concerns after first group’s arrival delayed due to safety issues on Dorset-based vessel
Firefighters have accused ministers of attempting to house asylum seekers on a “potential deathtrap” after health and safety officials prompted a further delay to the use of a giant barge until next week.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said it is planning to write to the Home Office about overcrowding and access to fire exits on the vessel. The health and safety officials’ intervention had already led to the postponement of the arrival of the first men who were due to stay on the 222-bedroom Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset.
Continue reading...Transport minister says barge in Portland going through final checks amid row over safety concerns
A UK government minister has said he “cannot put a timeframe” on when the Home Office will open a controversial giant barge meant to house asylum seekers, which has been further delayed for checks.
The initial plan had been to move people on to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, from this week, with numbers due to rise over the coming months until the vessel held about 500 men.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Officials carry out last-minute inspections after reports Bibby Stockholm could become ‘floating Grenfell’
The Home Office has been forced to delay moving people seeking asylum on to a controversial giant barge in order to carry out last-minute fire safety checks amid concerns the vessel has not received approval from inspectors.
The Guardian understands the initial plan to move refugees on to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, has been moved from Tuesday to Wednesday for officials to give a final survey.
Continue reading...Committee concerned illegal migration legislation will jeopardise sharing of DNA, fingerprinting and criminal records
The UK’s post-Brexit policing pact with the EU on sharing DNA, fingerprinting and criminal records could be put at risk by Suella Braverman’s migration laws, a House of Lords committee has said.
Lady Hamwee, the chair of the Lords justice and home affairs committee, has written to the home secretary to say its members are “particularly concerned” that the new illegal migration legislation along with new data laws could lead to the “termination and/or suspension” of the security cooperation elements of the Brexit trade deal.
Continue reading...Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’
Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.
PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.
What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.
This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?
As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.
Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.
Continue reading...Announcement by body that regulates profession in England and Wales follows allegations law firms offered to submit false claims
The solicitors’ watchdog in England and Wales is investigating firms and individuals at the centre of allegations of wrongdoing in dealing with asylum applications, it has said.
The news came as the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, demanded the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) come down hard should it uncover any cases of wrongdoing. “I would strongly encourage you to use the full force of sanctions available to you against solicitors where there is a finding of a breach,” Chalk said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Court rules all potential victims must be assessed for support, after policy disqualified people with criminal convictions
A high court judge has ordered the home secretary to change a key part of a trafficking policy introduced just months ago.
In an urgent hearing on Wednesday, lawyers representing trafficking victims said they were at risk of human rights violations such as slavery, servitude and forced labour if the policy continued.
Continue reading...Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham and shadow environment secretary, criticises prime minister for tweet about Labour and immigration law firms
Michael Gove has been accused of showing how “disjointed” the government’s net zero strategy is by Greenpeace UK.
In a statement released after Gove’s media interview round this morning, in which the levelling up secretary appeared to firm up the government’s commitment to at least one green target, while signalling that others might be relaxed (see 10.04am), Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s director of policy, said:
Michael Gove has demonstrated how disjointed the government’s new strategy is. If ministers genuinely want to help lower costs for households, they should be doing everything in their power to switch our homes, energy and transport systems away from expensive, climate-wrecking fossil fuels and run them instead on clean technology and cheap renewables.
Mr Gove is right to reaffirm the government’s commitment to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 – and Sunak should now do the same, whilst making the transition as easy as possible for people with extensive charging infrastructure and the promised mandate on manufacturers. But allowing more oil and gas drilling, delaying the phase-out of gas boilers and giving landlords longer to insulate the homes of renters will only keep bills high and continue to fan the flames of climate change.
The leaders discussed recent developments on the battlefield and the continued progress by Ukrainian forces despite the challenging conditions. The prime minister added that he was appalled by the devastation caused by recent Russian attacks on Odesa.
Discussing the Black Sea grain initiative, the leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring grain was able to be exported from Ukraine to reach international markets. The prime minister said the UK was working closely with Turkey on restoring the grain deal, and we would continue to use our role as chair of the UN security council to further condemn Russia’s behaviour.
Continue reading...Family members of East Timorese in UK denied right to visit, as Home Office says too many hoping to work illegally
The Home Office has been accused of implementing discriminatory policies towards visitors from Timor-Leste, many of whom have the right to travel to the UK but who have been blocked from entering the country in large numbers.
Regulations were changed last week to require East Timorese visitors to apply for visas before travelling to the UK, after decades of visa-free travel. The Foreign Office said this was in response to a “sustained and significant” rise in the number of people travelling from the tiny south-east Asian island with the intention of working here illegally.
Continue reading...