Revealed: UK has failed to resettle Afghans facing torture and death despite promise

Those who risked their lives helping British government face a ‘toxic combination of incompetence and indifference’

Afghan nationals who were promised resettlement to the UK nearly a year ago are facing torture and death while they wait for a response from the British government, the Observer can reveal.

Not one person has been accepted and evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS), launched in January, prompting claims that ministers are showing a “toxic combination of incompetence and indifference”. The scheme was intended to help Afghans who worked for, or were affiliated with, the British government – including its embassy staff and British Council teachers – and all of whom face severe harm at the hands of the Taliban.

Continue reading...

Hundreds of Indonesian fruit pickers in UK seek diplomatic help

Exclusive: More than 200 people have approached Indonesian embassy since July to report difficulties faced

More than 200 Indonesian fruit pickers have sought diplomatic help since July after facing difficulties working in Britain this season, the nation’s embassy has revealed.

The Guardian has spoken to a pair of workers sent to a farm in Scotland that supplies berries to M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and Lidl. They claim pickers were sent back to the caravan if they could not work fast enough and left with large debts to repay.

Continue reading...

Conditions at Manston asylum centre prompt torture monitor visit

Council of Europe’s ‘rapid reaction visit’ followed reports of diphtheria outbreak and squalid conditions

Conditions for small boat arrivals at the Manston reception centre in Kent have sparked international concern and triggered a “rapid reaction” visit from European torture monitors in the last few days.

A seven-strong delegation from the Council of Europe’s Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Committee carried out a the visit to Manston from 25-28 November due to concerns over conditions there.

Continue reading...

Charities call for Windrush-style inquiry into Manston asylum failings

Letter from 44 charities urges independent investigation into ‘appalling’ treatment of people at Kent processing centre

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is being urged by 44 leading charities to launch a Windrush-style inquiry into the crisis that engulfed Manston processing centre.

Organisations including the Refugee Council, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee have written a letter to the Guardian seeking an independent investigation into how people seeking refuge in the UK were forced to live in cramped and insanitary conditions.

Continue reading...

Brexit has worsened shortage of NHS doctors, analysis shows

Exclusive: More than 4,000 European medics have chosen not to work in NHS since Britain left EU, data reveals

Brexit has worsened the UK’s acute shortage of doctors in key areas of care and led to more than 4,000 European doctors choosing not to work in the NHS, research reveals.

The disclosure comes as growing numbers of medics quit in disillusionment at their relentlessly busy working lives in the increasingly overstretched health service. Official figures show the NHS in England alone has vacancies for 10,582 physicians.

Continue reading...

Cap on foreign student numbers could send UK universities ‘over the edge’

Chair of Migration Advisory Committee warns that some institutions would struggle to survive financially

Universities could go bankrupt if the government limits the number of foreign students in a bid to bring down net migration, an adviser on immigration policy has warned.

Rishi Sunak’s potential plan to clamp down on international students taking “low-quality” degrees could “send many universities over the edge”, particularly in poorer regions, the chair of the government’s Migration Advisory Committee said.

Continue reading...

Channel dinghy tragedy: investigation confirms boat was in UK waters

Marine Accident Investigation Branch condemned for slow progress in determining how last November’s tragedy occurred

Bereaved families who lost relatives in a mass drowning in the Channel a year ago have criticised the UK body investigating the tragedy for a lack of progress in determining how and why dozens of lives were lost.

An interim report from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) published on Thursday confirmed that the boat had reached UK waters.

Continue reading...

Suella Braverman says people coming to UK illegally ‘at fault’ for processing chaos

Home secretary faces five legal challenges over crisis at Manston processing centre for asylum seekers

Suella Braverman is facing five legal challenges over a crisis at Manston processing centre but insisted that people seeking asylum in small boats and their smugglers were to blame for the chaos.

The home secretary told MPs that legislation planned to tighten the asylum system would not come before parliament this year. Her most senior civil servant has not yet signed off a £140m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “value for money”, it emerged.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer walks fine line in shifting Labour’s stance on immigration

Party leader is reluctant to hint he will allow thousands into UK but wants to avoid upsetting his pro-migration MPs

In his speech to a hall packed with business leaders, Keir Starmer came with the message that Labour had changed, hoping to sweep away the years of antipathy between his party under its previous leadership and growth-hungry executives.

But another change in position was clear to see: on immigration, Starmer held up the recruitment of overseas workers as a sticking plaster solution to the problem of significant worker shortages in the UK.

Continue reading...

Starmer rules out taking UK back into single market or customs union if Labour win election – UK politics live

Latest updates: Labour’s Keir Starmer is speaking to the CBI

Starmer says Britain is trapped in a “vicious cycle of stagnation”.

The UK has had the worst record for growth in centuries, he says. He says a new model is needed. And this should be a turning point.

They put our public finances in a perilous position, wasted the chance to transform our potential in an era of low interest rates, and created an economy with weak foundations.

But the war didn’t ban onshore wind. The war didn’t scrap home insulation. And the war didn’t stall British nuclear energy.

Continue reading...

Manston asylum centre now empty after weeks of controversy

Apparent vacating of Home Office site follows series of concerns including over outbreak of diphtheria

Manston asylum centre, the troubled Home Office site in Kent where people arriving in the UK in small boats are taken for initial checks, is understood to be completely empty, the Guardian has learned.

Just a few weeks ago about 4,000 arrivals were placed there by the Home Office, almost three times the maximum 1,600 capacity of the tented site in Ramsgate.

Continue reading...

Immigration is still the nettle preventing Tory detente with business

Rishi Sunak’s visit to CBI conference found old allies keen to mend fences, but impeded by hard politics of immigration

Amid the steady grey Birmingham drizzle, Britain’s leading business lobby group tried to walk a careful path on immigration.

Members of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), present in greater numbers than in recent years at its annual conference, have been clamouring for more flexibility on hiring foreign workers, as a tight labour market wreaks havoc on their businesses and drives up wages.

Continue reading...

Inquiry into worst Channel disaster for 30 years fails to contact victims’ families

At least 27 people died when their dinghy capsized in November 2021, but the UK investigation has yet to talk to their relatives

A UK investigation into the drowning of at least 27 people trying to cross the Channel in a small boat has yet to contact most of the victims’ families 12 months after the tragedy, the Observer can reveal.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has not yet been in touch with the majority of the families despite legal sources claiming it has all their contact details, prompting accusations that the inquiry’s progress is “dehumanising” the dead.

Continue reading...

Rural areas will be asked to house more asylum seekers, minister suggests

Robert Jenrick says accommodation being sought in ‘much broader range of local authorities’

Rural areas will be asked to accept more people seeking asylum, a minister has suggested, as the government faced criticism from Conservative MPs for placing migrants in their constituencies.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said small towns and the countryside may be asked to house more people crossing the Channel in small boats “as long as numbers are so high”.

Continue reading...

MPs, unions and refugee groups condemn Braverman’s small boats deal with France

Critics claim latest effort to reduce Channel crossings is ‘throwing good money after bad’

Conservative MPs have joined unions and refugee groups in condemning a £63m deal signed by Suella Braverman with her French counterpart to reduce the number of people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats.

Natalie Elphicke, the member for Dover, and Tim Loughton, a senior home affairs select committee member, questioned whether the bilateral agreement will do enough to address a surge of new arrivals after it failed to establish joint patrols or guarantee that people smugglers are detained.

Continue reading...

UK gave away ‘too much for too little’ in free trade deal with Australia, says former minister, blaming Truss – as it happened

George Eustice says the free trade deal with Australia – hailed by Boris Johnson as one of the big gains from Brexit – was poor. This live blog is now closed

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, was criticised last month for saying that gay football fans visiting Qatar for the Word Cup should “be respectful”, and make allowance for the country’s intolerance of homosexuality.

In an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Cleverly defended his comments, saying that the Foreign Office always advises people to obey local laws when they are travelling. He told the programme:

My focus is to make sure that British visitors, particularly LGBTQ+ visitors to Qatar going to enjoy the World Cup, are safe and that they enjoy their tournament. So my advice was purely about ensuring that they have a safe and secure time at the World Cup.

We always say that you have to respect the laws of your host nation. That is a universal element of British travel advice.

I’ve spoken at length with the Qatari authorities on this and it’s worth bearing in mind that men and women don’t typically hold hands in Qatar, and other conservative Muslim countries like Qatar, so my strong advice is to look at the UK government’s travel advice.

This deal is just the same as previous deals - spending money and resources on intercepting and obstructing people crossing the Channel, while doing nothing to address their need for safe access to an asylum system.

The inevitable result will be more dangerous journeys and more profits led by ruthless smuggling gangs and other serious criminals exploiting the refusal of the UK and French government to take and share responsibility.

Continue reading...

‘More of the same’: UK-French deal fails to address causes behind crossings

Enforcement-focus agreement ignores lack of safe and legal routes for people to apply for asylum in UK

Following a flurry of selective UK government briefings promising a “groundbreaking” new deal under Rishi Sunak which would curb the numbers of people arriving by small boats, a £63m UK-French deal has arrived.

And much like the last three bilateral agreements over the past four years, which promised to break the “evil” people-smugglers’ model, this one also concentrates on bolstering law enforcement along the French coastline, funded by UK taxpayers.

Continue reading...

CBI urges Jeremy Hunt to relax immigration rules to ease UK staff shortages

Lobby group says failure to tackle workforce shortages would be highly damaging for the economy

Britain’s foremost business lobby group has urged Jeremy Hunt to use this week’s autumn statement to shake up immigration rules to support companies struggling with chronic staff shortages and a looming recession.

The head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said urgent action was required from the chancellor on Thursday to bolster the economy, including “tough political choices” to allow more overseas workers in Britain as employers struggle with a desperate lack of staff.

Continue reading...

‘An amazing feeling’: asylum seeker stuck in hotel thanks Observer readers for sending books

Ali, a Kurd who fled Iran, may also be offered a university place after he told of the tedium of 500 days in limbo

An asylum seeker who has spent almost 500 days stranded in a Berkshire hotel has thanked Observer readers for their generosity after he was inundated with books.

Last week Ali featured in an article articulating life in limbo for the 37,000 asylum seekers living in hotels, with the Kurdish Iranian lamenting that the one thing he craved to relieve the tedium was a book to read.

Continue reading...

Seasonal fruit pickers left thousands in debt after being sent home early from UK farms

Nepali workers who quit jobs and borrowed cash to come to UK are out of work just weeks after arriving

Nepali workers hired to pick fruit on British farms say they have been left thousands of pounds in debt after being sent home only weeks after they arrived.

The fruit pickers were recruited under the government’s seasonal worker scheme and say they were offered work for six months. But less than two months after arriving, they were told they were no longer needed and instructed to book flights home.

Continue reading...