Migrant children face hunger over free school meal restrictions

Children’s groups call for meal provision to extend to families barred from UK state support

Thousands of children from migrant families are at risk of hunger when schools reopen in the UK unless the free meal provision is extended, according to a group of 60 organisations.

The Children’s Society, Action for Children, Project 17 and Unison are among the organisations that have written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling on him to extend free school meals to pupils from low-income migrant families classed as having “no recourse to public funds”.

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Asylum seeker removal flight takes off despite last-minute court actions

Home Office says 14 people were flown out, while 19 of those due to be removed had their tickets deferred

A charter flight to remove asylum seekers who recently arrived in the UK on small boats took off on Wednesday morning carrying 14 people, the Home Office said, despite last-minute high court actions and other interventions just hours before takeoff.

Nineteen people due to fly did not board the plane. The Home Office said 14 people were placed on the charter flight destined for France and Germany.

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BBC and Sky accused of ‘voyeurism’ in coverage of migrant boats

Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP

Britain’s television news broadcasters have been criticised by opposition MPs and campaigners over their coverage of migrants crossing the Channel, with claims that some of their reports dehumanise those taking the risk to make the journey.

Footage of Sky News and BBC Breakfast teams approaching and filming small boats trying to navigate the busy waters of the Dover strait was widely condemned on social media. The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “We should ensure people don’t drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show.”

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UK and France working ‘at pace’ on plan to halt migrant Channel crossings

Home Office minister says measures being considered to make route ‘unviable’

The UK and France are working “at pace” on a new plan to put an end to people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats, a Home Office minister has said, as tensions rise over the British government’s approach to the unfolding crisis.

Following talks with officials in Paris, Chris Philp, minister for immigration compliance, conceded the French were doing a “great deal of work” and had intercepted more than 1,000 people attempting to reach England this year after days of loaded statements from the two nations.

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Boris Johnson says crossing Channel in small boats ‘dangerous and criminal’

PM hints at law change to make it easier to deport people who make dangerous voyage

Boris Johnson has branded attempts by people to cross the Channel in small boats as a “very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do” and hinted at changing the law to make it easier to deport such arrivals.

Meanwhile, a French politician has warned that the UK’s decision to send in the Royal Navy “won’t change anything”, and a former Home Office official has said he was sceptical of the plans.

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More than 4,000 have crossed Channel to UK in small boats this year

French and British ministers prepare to meet after 151 more people came ashore on Saturday

Tensions are mounting between the UK and France over migrant crossings in the Channel after the number of people who have reached UK shores in small boats this year surpassed 4,000.

Families with young children were among hundreds of people who came ashore near Dover this weekend, including 151 on Saturday, the Home Office confirmed.

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MoD considering request to deploy navy to stop Channel migrants

Home Office asked for patrols after saying migrants should face ‘real consequences’

Alarm is growing over UK proposals to introduce hardline measures to discourage refugees and illegal migrants from seeking sanctuary after the Ministry of Defence confirmed it was considering a Home Office request to deploy navy vessels in the Dover Straits.

It comes after the immigration minister, Chris Philp, called for migrants caught crossing the Channel to be fingerprinted and face “real consequences”, before a meeting next week with his French counterparts.

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‘I have to work’: arrivals from Spain vent anger at quarantine decision

People arriving in Stansted tell of their surprise at having to now self-isolate for two weeks

People flying into Britain from Spain have attacked the government’s decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on people returning from the country, saying they were given no warning and that they felt safer in Spain.

As flights from Jerez, Alicante, Valencia and Palma landed in quick succession on Sunday afternoon at Stansted airport, passengers found themselves faced with the realisation that they were about to enter into an unexpected period of self-isolation.

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Women seeking asylum left ‘without basic support’ during UK lockdown

Charity report finds many vulnerable women struggled to access food, water and soap

Women seeking asylum in the UK have described a significant increase in unsafe and unsanitary living conditions during the Covid-19 crisis, according to a report from a coalition of charities.

The report, published by Sisters Not Strangers, which collated evidence from nine charities supporting refugee and asylum-seeking women, paints a picture in which those living in the most precarious of circumstances have been made even more vulnerable during lockdown.

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Shamima Begum wins right to return to UK to challenge citizenship decision

Appeal court partially overturns earlier ruling that backed Home Office

Shamima Begum, the 20-year-old woman who left east London as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State, should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the Home Office’s decision to revoke her British citizenship in person.

The court of appeal partially overturned an earlier ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) this year, which held that she had not been illegally rendered stateless while she was in Syria because she was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship.

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Brexit: UK’s new fast-track immigration system to exclude care workers

Minimum salary thresholds to also remain in place, presenting additional barrier

Care home staff have been excluded from a post-Brexit fast-track visa system for health workers, in a move that critics say could prove “an unmitigated disaster” and may increase the risk of spreading coronavirus.

Confirming there would be no special treatment for carers coming from the EU or the rest of the world, the government said it hoped Britons would fill a shortfall of around 120,000 workers, equating to 10% of all posts. Currently 17% of care jobs are filled by foreign citizens.

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Priti Patel to unveil details of post-Brexit immigration plans

Home secretary will announce the biggest overhaul of the UK system in decades

The home secretary is to unveil further detail on the future of immigration in the UK on Monday in an attempt to prepare businesses and organisations for the biggest overhaul of the system in decades.

The Home Office has previously revealed the core principles behind the forthcoming points-based system, which is meant to be introduced when the transition period from leaving the European Union ends on 1 January. Under the system, UK borders will be closed to so-called non-skilled workers and applicants will be have to show a greater understanding of English.

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Migrants rescued after boat capsizes in Channel

Group with severe hypothermia among several taken back to France on Saturday

Migrants rescued after their boat capsized were among several groups to have tried to cross the Channel on Saturday.

The four individuals were spotted by a passing passenger ferry and picked up by the French navy. They were found to have severe hypothermia and taken to the French port of Calais.

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Pressure mounts on Priti Patel over case of 11-year-old at risk of FGM

Open letter by former judges, leading politicians and campaigners urges home secretary to grant asylum to Sudanese girl

Barristers, former judges, politicians and campaigners are among 300 people who have signed an open letter to the home secretary, Priti Patel, urging her to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl at high risk of female genital mutilation if taken abroad.

Helena Kennedy QC, former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, campaigner Leyla Hussein and more than 30 MPs have added their names to the letter published by the the Good Law Project alongside a petition launched today.

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Windrush: at least five who applied for compensation die before receiving it

Figure revealed by home secretary highlights concerns about slowness of compensation scheme

At least five people have died before receiving the Windrush compensation they had applied for, the government has revealed, reigniting concern about the slowness of the scheme.

No details were revealed about who these individuals were, but the figures appear to come in addition to a number of people interviewed by the Guardian, who died before they were even able to file a compensation claim.

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London-born twins face deportation to different countries

Exclusive: Darrell and Darren Roberts face deportation to countries they have never visited

Twins who were born in London and have never left the UK face deportation to different countries in the Caribbean where they have no close relatives, their families have told the Guardian.

Darrell Roberts, 24, has been issued with a deportation notice informing him that the Home Office plans to send him to the Dominican Republic following a prison sentence, even though he has no connection with the country. He believes officials named it in error; his father was born on Dominica, another Caribbean island.

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EU citizens in UK used as guinea pigs for digital immigration system, MPs told

Many will face problems after Brexit unless they have physical card to prove right to remain in UK, critics say

EU citizens settled in the UK are being used by the Home Office as guinea pigs for a future digital-only immigration system, MPs have heard.

They will also face “significant problems” after Brexit unless the government provides them with a physical card to prove their right to remain in the UK legally, parliament’s Brexit select committee was told.

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Priti Patel accused of ‘shameful’ bid to deport girl at risk of FGM

Barrister says Home Office’s unwillingness to protect 11-year-old makes a mockery of FGM protection orders

Human rights lawyers have launched a scathing attack on the Home Office for failing to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl found by judges to be at high risk of female genital mutilation if removed from Britain.

The girl, who is thriving at school and only speaks English, was brought to the UK in 2012 by her mother, herself a victim of what is known as type 3 FGM whose two sisters died after being cut in their native Sudan.

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After the Glasgow hotel attack, a week of shock, anger and compassion

Grassroots groups have rallied to help traumatised former residents of the Park Inn

When Gabriel Vest ran into Asda on Sunday evening with £300 to spend on underwear and socks, staff at Glasgow’s southside branch were initially bemused. He explained he was buying emergency supplies for around 90 asylum seekers evacuated from the Park Inn hotel last Friday after Badreddin Abedlla Adam, from Sudan, stabbed six people before being shot dead by police. “Then they just wanted to help. I didn’t even have to queue.”

Vest, who ordinarily works with Bikes for Refugees, was bulk-buying for Maslow’s, a nearby community shop that supplies second-hand clothing for newly arrived migrants, and that day was hurriedly putting together packages for residents who had had to leave their belongings behind the police cordon. “I got a message from another volunteer who was at the hotel, to say there was one man who was still in his underwear because that was how he’d left his room when the fire alarm had gone off. He was left like that for two days. It was grim.”

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Hong Kong: Dominic Raab announces citizenship pathway as China imposes security law – video

Up to 3 million people in Hong Kong could be eligible to live, work or study in the UK under a bespoke immigration system announced by Dominic Raab in response to the imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by China. The foreign secretary accused China of a 'clear and serious violation' of the joint declaration signed with the UK, and pledged the government would 'honour' its commitment to citizens of the former British colony 

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