Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

Far-right activists filmed hassling asylum seekers in hotels

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Asylum applications to UK nearly halved between April and June

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Drowned Sudanese refugee Abdulfatah Hamdallah is buried in Calais

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Number of migrants crossing Channel in boats passes 5,000

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Commonwealth veterans launch legal action in immigration row

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Refugees crossing Channel tell of beatings by French police

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Give refugees crossing Channel a chance, say Windrush survivors

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Migrant children face hunger over free school meal restrictions

Posted on by

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”.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.”

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...