Twenty-five people reportedly found on ship travelling from the Netherlands to the UK
Dutch authorities have discovered 25 migrants stowed away inside a refrigerated container on a ferry bound for England.
According to a statement published on a local government website, all those found onboard were alive, with one of them thought to be a child.
Continue reading...Over 20 years, the debate about freedom of movement has become skewed by a hostile narrative. By Rachel Shabi
Few chance encounters have had a greater political impact than Gordon Brown’s fateful meeting with Gillian Duffy on an April morning in Rochdale in 2010. When the then prime minister was caught on a hot mic calling the Labour-voting pensioner a “bigoted woman” – after she cornered him with complaints about immigrants “flocking” into Britain – it did not just sink his floundering campaign. It set the tone for the way immigration would become the most toxic issue in British politics for the decade to come.
When New Labour came to power in 1997, just 3% of the public cited immigration as a key issue. By the time of the EU referendum in 2016, that figure was 48%. During those intervening years, the issue came to dominate and distort British politics – exactly according to the script established by Bigotgate. Brown’s gaffe both consolidated and gave credence to a political coding that would shape everything that came after: the “hostile environment”, the Windrush scandal, the EU referendum and the revival of Britain’s far right – deploying a narrative in which sneering, out-of-touch, big-city politicians who favour foreigners and open borders are hopelessly oblivious to the struggles and the so-called “legitimate concerns” of ordinary working people (who, in this scenario, are always white).
Continue reading...Uncertainty over UK citizens’ future status is prompting some European employers to steer clear
Past 40, and nearly five years after he arrived in Madrid, John Halliday is moving back to the UK and in with his parents. He had “nowhere else to go”, he says: Brexit had cost him his job and made other Spanish employers reluctant to hire Britons.
Related: Britons in Europe face citizens' rights 'lottery' in event of no deal
Continue reading...More people given temporary status as backlog of unresolved cases reaches half a million
The proportion of EU citizens being granted a temporary, more precarious “pre-settled status” in the UK has continued to rise, the latest Home Office statistics show, and the backlog of unresolved cases has grown to more than half a million, causing unease among campaign groups that support EU nationals living in Britain.
All of the estimated 3.4 million EU citizens resident in the UK must apply for settled status if they want to continue living here legally after Brexit. The latest EU settlement scheme statistics show that 590,300 people applied for settled status in October, bringing the total number of applications to 2,450,000.
Continue reading...Party leader has stressed benefits of immigration, but some fear policy could hurt Labour in Tory seats
Labour activists are urging Jeremy Corbyn to incorporate the radical pro-migration policy passed at the party’s conference into its manifesto this week as the Tories prepare to weaponise the issue in the election battle.
Senior Labour figures are expected to meet on Monday to thrash out the details of the party’s policy, but a final decision will not be made until next weekend.
Continue reading...Essex police refuse to confirm statuses of those who respond will not be given to Home Office
Essex police have refused to confirm they will not share data with the Home Office on the immigration status of anyone responding to recent public appeals for information on the deaths of 39 people in a lorry.
The force last week urged those who may have information to come forward “without fear”.
Continue reading...O’Neil Wallfall refused leave to remain for failing to show his life would be at risk in country he has never visited
A man caring for his terminally ill partner has been told he faces deportation from the UK to Jamaica because the Home Office concluded that he “failed to demonstrate that his life would be at risk in Iraq”.
O’Neil Wallfall, 49 – who has never been to Iraq – received a refusal letter that appeared to indicate his case had been confused with someone else’s. The government also said it would not be “unreasonable” or “unduly harsh” to expect his British partner, 56-year-old Karen McQueen, to relocate to Jamaica with him.
Continue reading...The shocking discovery of the bodies of 39 people in a lorry has reopened the debate about the EU’s harsh ‘Fortress Europe’ immigration policies
Continue reading...Offering safe and legal routes into Britain must be at heart of efforts to tackle trafficking
The plight of people who arrive in the UK in refrigerated lorries, or rubber dinghies, or between wheel caps, rarely makes the news. But last week, the discovery of 39 dead people in a container lorry in Essex was a story that made headlines across the world. While their individual stories remain unknown, we can be certain that they have left behind families and friends, who even now may not know the fate of their loved ones.
The deaths of these 39 victims lay bare the perilous dangers facing those who travel to the UK via dangerous routes. I do not know why these 39 people were in that lorry. I do not know if they had climbed inside hoping to reach a place of safety, in this country or elsewhere, or whether they were forced into that journey against their will.
Continue reading...Bumi Thomas, whose sister got citizenship, wins appeal against removal from UK
Two Windrush sisters who describe themselves as inseparable are celebrating after a judge ruled that one of them should not be sent back to Nigeria.
Bumi Thomas, 36, was at risk of removal from the UK and at one point was given 14 days to leave, while her sister Kemi, 38, was not because of their different dates of birth.
Continue reading...UNHCR says children arriving in UK whose age is disputed likely to be denied services
Age disputes are having a “devastating impact” on unaccompanied and separated refugee or asylum seeker children arriving in the UK, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned.
Evidence from an assessment conducted by the UNHCR found disputes over a refugee or asylum seeker’s age impeded and delayed access to services and environments that can assist integration.
Continue reading...Attendees at ‘immigration surgeries’ at churches and centres told it won’t involve enforcement
The Home Office is using information gathered in “immigration surgeries” at charities and places of worship to deport vulnerable homeless people who are told that attending will help them get financial support, the Guardian has learned.
Interviews and internal emails revealed the Salvation Army, Sikh gurdwaras and a Chinese community support centre are among the bodies allowing Home Office teams in London to run sessions in spaces that are intended to be safe havens for homeless people.
Continue reading...Heavier sentences for violent criminals among policies aimed at wooing Labour voters
Violent and sexual criminals as well as foreign national offenders who return to the UK will face drastically heavier penalties under measures that will form the centrepiece of a Queen’s speech aimed at wresting the agenda away from the delicate Brexit negotiations.
With just days to go before the deadline for Boris Johnson to clinch a last-ditch Brexit deal in Brussels, the Queen will on Monday set out his government’s priorities for a new session of parliament, including 22 new bills.
Continue reading...In 1962, the young photographer Howard Grey captured the last of the Windrush immigrants as they disembarked from the boat train at Waterloo station in London. The extraordinary pictures he took, however, were not processed for more than five decades until advances in scanning technology brought the underexposed negatives to life. Here the photographer talks us through some of his favourite images from the three films he exposed.
Continue reading...Top child psychiatrist appeals to Johnson over Home Office’s ‘almost callous’ decision
A leading children’s psychiatrist plans to quit the NHS and move to Australia because of the Home Office’s “almost callous” refusal to let his mother stay in Britain.
Dr Nishchint Warikoo, the lead psychiatrist for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Hampshire, said he and his family were being “forced to leave” the UK in order to stay together.
Continue reading...Oswald Dixon served in RAF in second world war and died at care home in Salford
A care home is inviting members of the public to attend the funeral of a second world war veteran from Jamaica with no family in the UK.
Oswald Dixon died on 25 September aged 100 after living his last four years at a home for retired service personnel in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...Charities say 30,000 people will lose support and vital services in event of no deal
Thousands of vulnerable refugees living in the UK are at risk of losing access to vital services including housing, healthcare and school places for children after it emerged millions of pounds of funding will come to a halt in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The asylum, migration and integration fund (AMIF), which the EU set up in 2014, is a pot of billions of pounds to be used by EU member states to support integration of non-EU nationals, including newly recognised refugees.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Whistleblower tells of links between Paola Cuneo, PM and US businesswoman
A Whitehall official who ran the scheme that granted Jennifer Arcuri a coveted entrepreneur visa had worked for Boris Johnson when he was mayor, the Guardian has learned.
The US businesswoman, who is at the centre of a conflict of interest row over her friendship with the prime minister, beat nearly 2,000 applicants to gain one of 200 sought-after tier 1 entrepreneur visas on the government’s Sirius programme after Johnson helped promote her firm, Innotech, by giving keynote speeches at her events.
Continue reading...Increase comes despite clampdown on scheme after Skripal novichok poisoning
The number of wealthy foreigners investing at least £2m in the UK in exchange for a “golden visa” has risen to a five-year high, despite a clampdown on the scheme in the aftermath of the Skripal novichok poisoning attack.
The Home Office granted 255 people tier-1 investor visas in the first half of 2019, allowing them to live and work in the UK for five years. This was the most in a six-month period since 2014, according to the department’s data.
Continue reading...Court rules deportees may have evidence about death of Oscar Okwurime in Harmondsworth
The deportation of three men from the UK to Nigeria on Tuesday night was halted by the high court because they may be able to provide evidence about the death of a man in a detention centre.
Oscar Okwurime died in Harmondsworth detention centre next to Heathrow airport last Thursday. In an order made in the high court on Tuesday preventing the three men flying, Mr Justice Butler said: “There is a serious issue that there should not be a removal of persons for whom there are grounds to believe that they may have material evidence to give in relation to the death of Oscar Okwurime.”
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