Category Archives: Immigration and asylum

MoD considering request to deploy navy to stop Channel migrants

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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‘Office for talent’ to be set up for scientists who want to work in UK

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Unit based in No 10 will help researchers navigate post-Brexit immigration system

Downing Street is to set up a cross-departmental unit called the “office for talent” as a way to help leading scientists, researchers and others live and work in the UK in the post-Brexit immigration system.

The plan, which the Liberal Democrats said was simply trying to make up the damage caused by Brexit, is intended to “ensure excellent customer service across the immigration system”, a government announcement said.

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Former England boxer Kelvin Bilal Fawaz wins 16-year battle to stay in UK

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Exclusive: Fawaz, who was trafficked to the UK from Nigeria as a child, won his Home Office appeal last week

The former England boxer Kelvin Bilal Fawaz has won his 16-year legal battle to live and work in the UK after the Home Office granted him leave to remain for 30 months.

Fawaz, who has represented England six times and was once an amateur champion, has been struggling to establish his adult nationality and immigration status after being trafficked from Nigeria to the UK as a child and kept in domestic servitude.

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Thousands of potential trafficking victims ‘not given vital support’

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Less than fifth of those identified by Home Office as likely modern slavery victims are referred for legal and housing advice – study

Thousands of people identified as potential victims of trafficking in the UK have not been referred for support despite government pledges to help them, according to a new study.

Many victims of trafficking are hidden and unable to access support because they are under the control of those who are exploiting them. But victims who do come into contact with the authorities such as the police, Home Office or Gangmaster and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) which investigates reports of worker exploitation and human trafficking, should be referred for safe housing and legal advice.

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Windrush lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie: ‘The Home Office is treating people with contempt’

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The lawyer representing 200 victims of the Windrush scandal says systemic racism is at the root of the problem

For the past three months, Jacqueline McKenzie says her front room has been covered with Windrush compensation files. Since lockdown, she has stopped going to the offices of the law firm she co-founded in 2010 and has been working from home. But her study is too small to accommodate the huge amount of paperwork that goes with the 200 separate claims she is filing on behalf of people affected by the Home Office citizenship scandal, during which thousands of people were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants because they could not prove they were British citizens.

“I think they are treating people with contempt,” she says. She is frustrated at the slow progress towards paying compensation to people who lost their jobs or their homes, were denied healthcare or the right to travel, or who were, in extreme cases, detained and deported. Part of the problem, she says, lies with the structure of the scheme, which requires claimants to gather large amounts of documentary proof of the losses they have incurred as a result of being miscategorised as unlawful residents (a problem that often arose because those affected were unable to gather the large amounts of documentary proof required to show that they had been living legally in the UK since the 1960s).

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Windrush scandal: cross-government group aims to tackle ‘terrible’ treatment

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Home Office says it will launch ad campaign to ensure people are aware of support available

A cross-government working group has been launched in an attempt to address the challenges faced by the Windrush generation, two years after the then prime minister, Theresa May, promised to right the wrongs faced by those mistakenly classified as illegal immigrants by the Home Office.

Duwayne Brooks, a campaigner and friend of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, has agreed to join the group, in recognition of the “terrible” treatment faced by the Windrush generation. He said he was “looking forward to working with the home secretary to ensure all those affected come forward to claim the compensation they deserve and get the support they need to move on”.

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Home Office ‘uses racial bias’ when detaining immigrants

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Pressure group claims disproportionate number of black people held for longer periods to ‘reduce black and brown migration to UK’

Black people are detained significantly longer than white people inside the UK’s immigration detention system, prompting fresh claims of “institutional racism”.

Although the Home Office does not record ethnicity data for detainees, analysis of nationalities of those recently held within the immigration detention estate found that citizens from countries with predominantly black and brown populations are held for substantially longer periods than those from predominantly white countries.

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