Exclusive: Home Office receives fivefold daily rise in applications as people tell of fear and anger
There was a fivefold surge in applications by EU citizens for UK settled status on Wednesday, with more than 50,000 scrambling to beat the midnight deadline, it has emerged.
Such was the last-minute rush that the Home Office extended the time applications would be accepted to 9am on Thursday.
Continue reading...Citizens told to complain if rights have been breached, as number of applicants surges before deadline
Businesses and public bodies have been warned by the Brexit rights regulator not to discriminate against EU citizens as the new post-Brexit immigration regime enters into force at midnight.
The warnings come as Home Office helplines for EU citizens living in the UK were reported to be “jammed” by a last-minute surge in EU citizens applying to remain in the UK by the midnight deadline. Charity workers helping applicants said they were also struggling to get through to the specialist hotline reserved for advisers.
Continue reading...Pressure grows for UK to extend Wednesday’s settlement-scheme cut-off date as backlog of applications grows and helplines crash
EU citizens are struggling to apply for post-Brexit settled status as the Home Office reaches “breaking point” coping with a last-minute surge in applications.
With three days before the deadline of the EU settlement scheme this Wednesday, campaigners say late applicants are being stuck in online queues as others find it impossible to access advice on the government helpline.
Continue reading...Many married women cannot prove settled status to employers and councils because of a mix-up
Women who applied for EU settled status in the UK under their married names may struggle to access jobs and housing because of a government computer anomaly, it has emerged.
Many have been left unable to prove their status to councils and employers because they have been wrongly registered to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) in their birth names.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands to be issued with warnings to submit applications for post-Brexit scheme or risk losing rights
Tens of thousands of EU citizens living in the UK will be issued with a formal 28-day notice if they have failed to apply for post-Brexit settled status within a week, the government has warned.
The notices will tell them to submit an application or risk consequences which include losing their rights to healthcare and employment.
Continue reading...Family celebrate success of campaign to halt deportation of 22-year-old, who has autism
A 22-year-old man who has autism and his family are celebrating after the Home Office abandoned plans to deport him to Jamaica.
Osime Brown, who left Jamaica aged four to settle in the UK with his mother, Joan Martin, was facing deportation after being released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for stealing a friend’s mobile phone, though he and others said he did not do it.
Continue reading...Round-the-clock tracking condemned as ‘Trojan horse’ giving government vast surveillance powers that violate human rights
More than 40 human rights organisations have condemned the Home Office’s introduction of 24-hour GPS monitoring of people on immigration bail in an expansion of surveillance powers that has involved no consultation process.
The new policy marks a shift from using radio frequency monitors (which alert authorities if the wearer leaves an assigned area) to round-the-clock GPS trackers (which can track a person’s every move), while also giving the Home Office new powers to collect, store and access this data indefinitely via a private contractor.
Continue reading...More than 40 government-funded charities write to PM to call for lifting of ‘arbitrary’ 30 June cut-off date
More than 40 government-funded charities have written to Boris Johnson urging him to lift the 30 June deadline for EU citizens to apply to retain their rights to remain in the UK following Brexit.
The charities are all funded by the Home Office to provide support to vulnerable EU citizens including children and elderly people in care, victims of domestic abuse and trafficking, Roma communities and homeless people.
Continue reading...Artin, previously listed as missing, died alongside his Iranian-Kurdish relatives when boat sank last October
A body that was found on a Norwegian shore several months ago has been identified as that of a 15-month-old child named Artin, who died alongside his relatives as they tried to cross the Channel to start a new life in the UK last October, local police have said.
The body was found near Karmøy in south-west Norway on New Year’s Day – more than two months after the vessel carrying the Iranian Kurds Rasul Iran Nezhad, Shiva Mohammad Panahi and their three children sank.
Continue reading...In 2016, the US state department said it had uncovered a fake embassy in Accra that had been issuing a stream of forged visas. The story went viral – but all was not as it seemed. By Yepoka Yeebo
Moves to relocate hundreds of Afghans who worked for the British military and government will be accelerated owing to fears for their safety as foreign forces prepare to leave the country. More than 3,000 Afghans, including their relatives, are expected to settle in the UK. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said it was ‘the right thing to do’, adding that ‘they sacrificed a lot to look after us and now we’re going to do the same’
Government will step up scheme saving interpreters and others from reprisals as international troops leave
Moves to relocate to the UK hundreds of Afghans who worked for the British military and government will reportedly be accelerated as foreign forces leave the country.
The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy was launched this year, allowing the Afghans, who mostly worked as interpreters, to settle in Britain. More than 1,400 Afghans and their families have already relocated to the UK, and hundreds more received funding for education and training.
Continue reading...On 12 August 2020 at 7.48am the first of a series of Home Office flights carrying asylum seekers left Stansted. This is the harrowing story of the hours before it took off and the anguish of those on board
At 7.15am, half an hour before charter flight Esparto 11 took off from Stansted airport, a detainee with a documented history of self-harm asked to use the plane’s bathroom. He was taken to the toilet by an escort working for the Home Office who held the door ajar with his foot and, after several minutes, peered inside to discover the detainee had slashed his wrist with a blade.
Pinning the man with his body weight to gain “control”, another officer squeezed into the bathroom and placed a handcuff on the wrist. According to an account written by officers, the handcuff was used to “[give] him pain”, a reference to a restraint technique which involves deliberately inflicting suffering to gain submission. In this case, most likely by twisting the cuff or pushing it into the wrist.
Continue reading...Post-Brexit rules allow travel without visas, but border officials have wide powers to exclude visitors
The number of EU citizens being prevented from entering the UK has soared over the past three months despite a massive reduction in travel because of Covid, according to Home Office figures.
A total of 3,294 EU citizens were prevented from entering the UK, even though post-Brexit rules mean they are allowed to visit the country without visas. That compares with 493 EU citizens in the first quarter of last year, when air traffic was 20 times higher.
Continue reading...EU citizens stopped by Border Force officers tell of being fingerprinted, detained and treated ‘like criminals’
EU tourists coming to the UK have told of being fingerprinted, detained and treated like liars by border officials before trying to travel through the Channel tunnel or by ferry at Calais.
Sergio D’Alberti, a 51-year-old Italian hotel manager currently out of work due to the Covid pandemic, told the Guardian he was held for seven hours at the French port after UK Border Force officials concluded he would be a potential drain on the benefits system.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru
Continue reading...More than 500 people have been waiting more than a year for claim to be handled, Home Office data shows
The Home Office has revealed that 21 people have died while waiting for Windrush compensation claims to be paid, amid continuing concern that the scheme is taking too long to make payments to elderly people affected by the scandal.
The number has more than doubled since November, when figures showed that nine people had died without receiving the redress they had applied for.
Continue reading...Long-term citizens alarmed at letter saying they risk losing rights to work and healthcare unless they apply for post-Brexit status
A number of long-term British citizens have expressed alarm at receiving letters from the Home Office telling them they risk losing the right to work, benefits and free healthcare unless they apply for UK immigration status in the next six weeks.
Campaigners said they were concerned that the “scattergun” mailshot, which was sent out to thousands of people instructing them to apply for EU settled status before the end of June, revealed weaknesses in the Home Office’s databases, and a lack of bureaucratic clarity about who has the right to live in the UK.
Continue reading...Imad Alarnab lost everything to the war. He never dreamed he could rebuild his restaurants in the UK
When Imad Alarnab, a Syrian chef, arrived in the UK as a refugee five years ago, he could barely afford to eat. Meals were regularly skipped and a Snickers bar could be eked out over a whole day to help him survive. On Monday, the 43-year-old father of three will be celebrating lockdown rules easing with a fairytale twist: Alarnab will be opening the doors to his very own central London restaurant.
“This is not because I am strong or brave,” says Alarnab, who begins to well up as staff scurry through the restaurant, prepping for their first service. “I am proof that if you try to do something good for people, something good will happen to you. This is a fact.”
Continue reading...Man who took turn steering boat ‘because he didn’t want to die’ freed, with case opening way for others to appeal their sentences
An asylum seeker jailed on smuggling charges for helping to steer a boat filled with migrants from France to England has had his conviction overturned at a retrial after spending 17 months in jail.
Lawyers and campaigners say the verdict could lead to other migrants currently in jail on smuggling charges being freed, allowing the Home Office policy of prosecuting asylum seekers who play a role in piloting boats across the Channel to be challenged more widely.
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