Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Home Office offers asylum seekers choice between war zones they fled and Rwanda

Posted on by

High number of first 100 people to be sent to Rwanda are from Sudan, despite being small number of those crossing the Channel

The Home Office is offering to fly asylum seekers back to the conflict zones they escaped from if they do not wish to be sent to Rwanda, the Guardian has learned.

Documents issued to the first group of asylum seekers facing removal to the east African country state that the Home Office voluntary returns service can help them go back to their home country.

Continue reading...

Number of people to reach UK in small boats in 2022 nears 10,000

Posted on by

People continuing to cross Channel to reach UK, figures show, with a vessel of 40 brought ashore on Friday

Nearly 10,000 people have arrived in the UK on small boats from across the Channel so far this year, according to new government figures.

A total of 9,988 have reached the UK after leaving the French coast in vessels such as dinghies since New Year’s Day.

Continue reading...

Afghans with western links among rising number trying to cross Channel

Posted on by

Fivefold increase in refugees from Afghanistan crossing in small boats this year as they flee Taliban

Refugees who worked alongside international organisations in Afghanistan are among a rising number of Afghan asylum seekers in camps in northern France planning to cross the Channel in small boats.

The number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan crossing the Channel in small boats has risen fivefold this year, according to immigration figures released last week, as more refugees flee in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

Continue reading...

UK agrees to launch full inquiry into drowning of 27 people in Channel

Posted on by

Lawyers for bereaved relatives say ‘serious failings’ in rescue operation may have contributed to deaths

The government has agreed to launch a full investigation into the drowning of at least 27 people trying to cross the Channel in a small boat last November.

The decision by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, to agree to what is known as an article 2 inquiry – an independent investigation – is revealed in correspondence between his lawyers and eight relatives of 11 of the victims.

Continue reading...

First Rwanda deportation flight to leave UK on 14 June, says Priti Patel

Posted on by

Group of asylum seekers sent formal notices advising they will be relocated to east African country, say officials

The first deportation flight to Rwanda carrying people who arrived in the UK without authorisation is scheduled to leave on 14 June, Priti Patel has announced.

A group of asylum seekers has been sent formal notices by the Home Office advising they will be relocated to the east African country, officials have said.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Continue reading...

Home Office cancels flight to deport Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq

Posted on by

Campaigners against flight say Kurdish Iraqis had endured ‘unnecessary torture in pursuit of headlines’

The Home Office has cancelled a chartered deportation flight to Iraq that was due to depart from the UK on Tuesday evening.

Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers were facing deportation to northern Iraq in the first flight of its kind for a decade.

Continue reading...

UK about to deport up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq despite dangers

Posted on by

Foreign Office warns against all travel to the country where Islamic State is still a threat

Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers are facing deportation to Iraq in the first Home Office flight of its kind for a decade.

Iraq is deemed to be so dangerous that the Foreign Office warns against all travel there, warning of “a high threat of kidnapping throughout the country including from both Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist and militia groups”.

Continue reading...

Visa scheme for graduates from top 50 non-UK universities is launched

Posted on by

‘High potential individual’ route will allow eligible individuals to come to Britain without a prior job offer

Graduates from the world’s top 50 non-UK universities can apply to come to Britain through a new visa scheme.

Ministers hope the “high potential individual” route, which launches on Monday, will attract the “brightest and best” at the beginning of their careers to work in the UK.

Continue reading...

Longer work visa could tempt more foreign students to UK, survey finds

Posted on by

Chancellors urge review of two-year visas as overseas graduates say three-year offer would be more attractive

International students would be more likely to consider studying in the UK if they were allowed to stay and work for three years instead of two, a survey suggests.

Foreign students have been able to stay on and work in the UK for two years after completing their course since 2019, when the government reinstated the two-year post-study work visa after years of pressure from universities.

Continue reading...

Over 500 Ukrainian children stuck waiting for UK visa decision

Posted on by

Exclusive: sources say most have hosts ready under Homes for Ukraine scheme but have heard nothing

More than 500 Ukrainian children who fled the war without their parents are stuck waiting in limbo across Europe after applying to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, sources working closely with the Home Office say.

Most are teenagers who thought they would be eligible and have British families waiting to host them, but have heard nothing from the Home Office.

Continue reading...

‘No humanity whatsoever’: pleas for UK to grant visa to autistic Ukrainian boy

Posted on by

Timothy Tymoshenko was sent to Poland because of his distress but does not qualify for Homes for Ukraine scheme

A British man who has turned his Polish castle into a makeshift hotel for Ukrainian refugees has accused the UK government of showing “no humanity whatsoever” for not allowing a severely autistic teenager to come to live with an approved foster carer in Lancashire.

Pleas are mounting for compassion to be shown to Timothy Tymoshenko, 16, who fled the war in Ukraine without his parents. He is living with his 17-year-old brother, Yurii, in what was once a private palace for the prince-bishop of Wrocław in Piotrowice Nyskie, a tiny Polish village near the Czech border.

Continue reading...

‘The fear still lives with me’: three years at mercy of the hostile environment

Posted on by

After an error on a visa application form, Sarah slipped into immigration limbo

Six years ago, when she was 24, Sarah received an unexpected letter from the Home Office telling her she faced arrest and removal from the UK within seven days. She was so terrified that she climbed out of the back window of the house where she was living, taking her seven-year-old son with her, and they became homeless.

Sarah, who asked for her real name not to be published, had been in the UK since she arrived in 1994 as a two-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She had attended primary and secondary school in the UK and was working and paying taxes in London, but her uncertain immigration status had not been resolved when she was a child. As an adult she was required every three years to pay fees of about £1,000 to apply for visas that would allow her to remain. An error on her 2016 application form meant the visa was refused, but the fees were not refunded and she could not afford to reapply, and she slipped into immigration limbo. Even now, 28 years after arriving in the UK, she is still battling to get British citizenship.

Continue reading...

Afghan female judge awarded prestigious human rights prize

Posted on by

Fawzia Amini advocates for rights of Afghan women and girls from London hotel room she’s been stuck in for nine months

One of Afghanistan’s top female judges has been honoured with an international human rights award while she continues her work to advocate for her country’s women and girls from a London hotel.

Fawzia Amini, 48, fled Afghanistan last summer after the Taliban takeover of the country. She had been one of Afghanistan’s leading female judges, former head of the legal department at the Ministry of Women, senior judge in the supreme court, and head of the violence against women court.

Continue reading...

Rwanda plan challenged over alleged failure to identify risks for LGBTQ+ refugees

Posted on by

Pre-action letter questions Home Office claims that east African country is ‘generally safe’

Priti Patel’s plan to send refugees on a one-way ticket to Rwanda is being legally challenged over the government’s alleged failure to identify risks facing vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ+ people.

A pre-action letter sent to the Home Office on behalf of the pressure group Freedom from Torture questions government claims that the east African state is “generally a safe country” for refugees.

The government’s claim that Rwanda is “generally” a “safe third country” is irrational.

It relies upon apparent pre-determination or bias.

The home secretary has breached her duty not to induce breaches of the European convention on human rights by her agents.

Removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is beyond Patel’s legal authority because it is contrary to the refugee convention.

Continue reading...

‘It’s a never-ending nightmare’: crew of refugee rescue ship facing jail

Posted on by

Thousands of lives were saved by activists who have now been
put on trial in Sicily on trafficking charges

The crew of the Iuventa rescue ship has been credited with saving 14,000 lives in the Mediterranean Sea. Yet far from being feted for their life-saving work, four of the rescuers appeared in court in Italy this weekend on charges carrying a possible 20-year jail sentence.

“It feels like a never-ending nightmare,” campaigner Kathrin Schmidt told the Observer ahead of a preliminary hearing on Saturday in a court in the Sicilian coastal town of Trapani. “Everybody knows the pictures and videos of these already unseaworthy, but then overcrowded rubber boats… Stating that there is no necessity to rescue these people is a crime in itself.”

Continue reading...

‘I thought the UK was a good country’: Sudan massacre refugee faces removal to Rwanda

Posted on by

Mohammed is among first asylum seekers to face removal under Home Office’s controversial scheme

It took Mohammed more than three years and a journey of more than 5,000 miles to reach the UK after fleeing a massacre in his village in Sudan.

Now, just over a week after arriving by kayak across the Channel, he is among the first tranche of asylum seekers facing forced removal to Rwanda, on the continent where his journey began.

Continue reading...

UK deportation flight to Jamaica takes off with seven onboard

Posted on by

Home Office initially had 100 people on list of Jamaican nationals to be removed, say reports

A Home Office deportation flight to Jamaica took off in the early hours of Wednesday morning with seven people onboard.

Some media reports said the Home Office initially had 100 people on the list of Jamaican nationals that officials hoped to remove.

Continue reading...

Afghan judges hoping for UK asylum not treated consistently, say lawyers

Posted on by

High court to hear claims that judges ‘in a very precarious position’ hiding from Taliban have faced long delays

Alleged inconsistencies in the way the UK Home Office and Foreign Office process asylum applications from vulnerable judges in hiding in Afghanistan are being challenged at the high court on Tuesday.

If successful, the three separate judicial reviews will require the Home Office to undertake a wholesale rethink of how it is handling cases. The reviews – anonymised to protect the claimants from persecution by the Taliban – cover a male judge and a female judge who have had their applications for asylum rejected, and a prominent female women’s rights activist.

Continue reading...

Homes for Ukraine: refugees being left homeless, UK community groups warn

Posted on by

Fears system could crash entirely amid growing reports of people being made to leave by sponsors

Growing numbers of refugees are being made homeless, and in many cases destitute, after relationship breakdowns with their Homes for Ukraine hosts in the UK, community organisations have said.

Some predict the system could crash entirely after reports of Ukrainian refugees being asked to leave the homes of their sponsors with only one day’s notice, leaving them with no option but to be referred to local authorities as homeless or, if they can afford to, attempt to seek last-minute rented accommodation.

Continue reading...

Rwanda president suggests UK extradite genocide suspects after asylum deal

Posted on by

Exclusive: Comments raise concerns UK will find it difficult to refuse requests from Kigali on sensitive issues

Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, has suggested the UK extradite suspects wanted in the east African country for alleged roles in the 1994 genocide, after a controversial deal with the Home Office to process asylum seekers there.

Speaking less than two weeks after the deal was announced, Kagame told an audience of diplomats in Kigali that included the British high commissioner he hoped “that when the UK is sending us these migrants, they should send us some people they have accommodated for over 15 years who committed crimes [in Rwanda]”.

Continue reading...