Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Wolverhampton marks life of Windrush campaigner Paulette Wilson

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Hundreds gather for funeral of high-profile, outspoken victim of government’s hostile environment

Hundreds of people gathered in a Wolverhampton carpark for the funeral of the Windrush campaigner Paulette Wilson, one of the most high-profile and outspoken victims of the government’s hostile environment who died unexpectedly in July, aged 64.

A horsedrawn carriage brought her body to the New Testament Church of God, where Wilson had volunteered for years as a chef cooking food for the local homeless community. The two grey horses pulling the coffin wore red, green, black and yellow headdresses, marking her Jamaican and Rastafarian roots.

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Brexit: EU rejects UK proposal for reuniting child asylum seekers

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Warning that lack of agreement means more young people will risk lives crossing Channel

The EU has rejected a British proposal for a system to reunite children seeking asylum with their families in the UK or Europe, prompting warnings that more young people will risk their lives in dangerous Channel crossings.

The government had proposed a post-Brexit agreement to continue transfers of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to families living in either the UK or EU, although with no obligation on either side.

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Hostile environment has fostered racism and caused poverty, report finds

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Policy has failed in its main objective of encouraging more migrants to leave UK voluntarily, says IPPR

The “hostile environment” policy has fostered racism, pushed people into destitution and wrongly targeted people who are living in the UK legally, a study has concluded.

The measures formally introduced by Theresa May while she was home secretary have also failed to achieve their key objective of increasing the numbers of people choosing voluntarily to leave the UK, according to the report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

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‘I had to stand up’: young refugees learn to take on MPs and the UK media

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The voices of young asylum seekers have been absent from the debate over their futures – until a charity decided to teach them public speaking

Naqeeb, a 20-year old refugee from Afghanistan, has watched with increasing dismay the reaction of politicians and journalists to the people who are risking their lives attempting to reach the UK across the Channel.

Among those packed aboard flimsy dinghies are teenagers and children travelling alone: more than 400 unaccompanied minors have attempted to cross from France to England by sea this year.

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Sons must leave UK after boat crossing but father stays after flight arrival

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Asylum claims all based on risk to life in Yemen but three sons to be sent to Spain leaving father in UK

Three members of the same family who arrived in the UK in a small boat have been locked up in an immigration detention centre while a fourth member has escaped incarceration because he arrived in the UK by plane.

The family, who have asked to be referred to by their first names only, are from war-torn Yemen. They had been living in a Gulf state but when that country revoked their residency permits they were forced to flee.

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Are asylum seekers really living in luxury hotels? – Q&A

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Far-right activists have claimed falsely that refugees are given £40 a week and are displacing homeless veterans

Are asylum seekers living in luxury hotels, as the far right claims?

The quality of hotel accommodation varies. Most rooms are in budget hotels, which are being used during the pandemic because social distancing is not possible in accommodation the Home Office usually uses, especially those that have several beds or bunkbeds in one room.

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Far-right activists filmed hassling asylum seekers in hotels

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One video shows members of Britain First entering hotel and banging on bedroom doors

Anger is mounting over a series of videos posted by far-right organisations in which activists enter hotels where asylum seekers are being held, knock on their doors to interrogate them and accuse them of wasting taxpayers’ money.

A video by Britain First, circulated widely on social media, shows a group of far-right activists entering a hotel in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, and banging on bedroom doors, demanding to know what country the asylum seekers are from.

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Asylum applications to UK nearly halved between April and June

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Official figures show decline despite rise in number of migrants crossing Channel

The number of asylum applications received by the UK government between April and June nearly halved compared with the first three months of the year, fresh figures show, as the Covid-19 pandemic limited migration flows across the world.

There were 4,850 asylum applications made in the second quarter of the year, significantly down on the 8,455 received from January to March, Home Office statistics reveal.

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Drowned Sudanese refugee Abdulfatah Hamdallah is buried in Calais

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Coronavirus restrictions mean repatriation of remains would have taken three months

A Sudanese migrant who drowned while attempting to cross the Channel from France to England has been buried in Calais after coronavirus restrictions meant it would have taken three months for his body to be repatriated to Sudan.

More than 150 fellow Sudanese attended Abdulfatah Hamdallah’s funeral in Calais on Monday morning, according to his cousin.

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‘We were terrorised’: brother of drowned Sudanese refugee on war-torn homeland

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Al-Fatih Hamdallah relives Darfur conflict and neglect that blighted many lives and exodus that led to the death of Abdulfatah

The Sudanese village that Abdulfatah Hamdallah came from is so small that it is not actually on the map.

Himdey is in Kordofan State, which borders the war-torn areas of Darfur and the Nuba mountains. It has a population of about 2,000 and two wells for drinking water, according to Hamdallah’s older brother Al-Fatih.

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Number of migrants crossing Channel in boats passes 5,000

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UK pursues ‘militarised’ response despite calls for safe routes for asylum seekers

The number of migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats this year has passed 5,000, analysis shows, as the UK government continues to pursue a “militarised” response to the growing numbers.

A further five people arrived in England on Friday, risking their lives in force 8 gales, rain showers and rough seas. It is understood the five men presented themselves as Sudanese and Chadian nationals, and were brought into Dover to be questioned by immigration officials.

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Behind the Channel crossings: migrant stories of life or death in tiny inflatables

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Two refugees’ efforts to reach Dover reflect persecution in Sudan and rising tensions over migrants in Europe

On the night he attempted to cross the Channel, Abdulfatah Hamdallah left his blanket and bicycle behind at the camp in Calais.

They were the only possessions he would leave behind: his backpack was lost at sea when he drowned attempting to make the perilous crossing over the Dover Strait to England in a dinghy, with shovels for oars.

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People are dying in the Channel because of politicians, not smugglers | Maya Goodfellow

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Priti Patel’s recognition of a child’s humanity in death is hollow when he was stripped of it in life by cruel border policies

The human cost of the government’s border policies has been made appallingly and painfully real: a 16-year-old boy from Sudan was found dead on a beach near Calais on Wednesday after trying to make it across the Channel. When people die trying to cross borders, the response from politicians is almost always the same: they say they are shocked and saddened and then carry on as usual. Yesterday was no different.

Related: Calais-based volunteers condemn UK for death of Sudanese teenager

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Teenager found dead tried to cross Channel in dinghy with shovels for oars

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Sudanese teenager, found near Calais, attempted crossing with another boy in inflatable dinghy

A Sudanese teenager who disappeared at sea has been found dead on a beach near Calais on Wednesday morning, after trying to cross the Channel with another boy in an inflatable dinghy using shovels for oars.

The French citizenship minister, Marlène Schiappa, said the body was found on the beach of Sangatte, near to the former site of the notorious “jungle” refugee camp, and was believed to be that of a 16-year-old boy, although some uncertainty remains over his age while authorities are continuing to investigate the matter.

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Commonwealth veterans launch legal action in immigration row

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Eight Fijian-born soldiers went public five months ago and have yet to receive positive response

Eight Fijian-born soldiers who served with the British army in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking a judicial review against the Ministry of Defence and Home Office, saying bureaucratic errors have made them illegal immigrants in the country for which they once served.

The group of Commonwealth veterans have been forced to go to court five months after first going public because neither Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, nor Priti Patel, the home secretary, have yet responded positively to their initial complaint or properly reviewed their cases.

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Refugees crossing Channel tell of beatings by French police

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Asylum seekers give accounts of injuries, as Priti Patel says many refugees feel France is racist

Asylum seekers in the UK and France have described injuries they have received at the hands of French police, as Priti Patel said many were making the perilous journey across the Channel because they believe France is racist.

The home secretary made her comments in a conference call with Conservative MPs concerned about the recent surge in numbers attempting the voyage in small boats.

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Give refugees crossing Channel a chance, say Windrush survivors

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Priti Patel risks replicating Home Office failings that led to scandal, victims and human rights campaigners warn

Survivors of the Windrush scandal have attacked the home secretary, saying her approach to the Channel migrant crossings is creating “the same set of conditions” that led to the government victimising the children of Commonwealth immigrants.

A letter to Priti Patel from 100 prominent refugee and human rights campaigners, including members of the Windrush generation, warns that the “pattern of ignoring expert advice, failing to engage with civil society and branding migrants as criminal” replicates Home Office failings that caused the 2018 Windrush scandal.

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Officers ‘tried to force asylum seeker to airport’ despite court ruling

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Man who was granted injunction due to risk of suicide says he sustained an injury during attempted removal

An asylum seeker who crossed the Channel to the UK on a small boat claims he was forced out of his cell in a detention centre by officers who wanted to put him on a flight even though a judge had halted his removal hours earlier, the Guardian has learned.

He was restrained and sustained an injury during the attempted removal in the early hours of Wednesday morning by officers unaware of the high court decision.

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‘I have destroyed my life for my children’: the families trying to cross the Channel

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More families arrive in Dunkirk each day and they would rather sleep in woods than seek asylum in France

“They are kids, so they are always playing. Like children in the UK play mums and dads or doctors and nurses, our children will re-enact boat crossings, getting patted down by the police, going to food distributions, meeting smugglers. Because one of the way parents safeguard their children is to present attempted border crossings as an adventure.”

In a nature reserve near Dunkirk, Caia Fallowfield runs a play project for migrant children who live among the trees with no running water or toilets. These are the children who vanish overnight off the French coast and reappear on the front pages of British newspapers, being pulled out of dinghies in Dover, often cold, wet and frightened.

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Calais mayor tells Boris Johnson to ‘calm down’ over migrant crossings

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Natacha Bouchart tells PM sending Navy ships into French waters is ‘a declaration of maritime war’

The mayor of the French port city of Calais has told Boris Johnson to “calm down” and change strategy in dealing with migrants crossing from France.

“I consider Boris Johnson’s pronouncements to be a provocation,” said Natacha Bouchart, mayor of the town that is a main embarkation point for the small, overcrowded migrant boats seeking to cross the Channel this summer.

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