Category Archives: Refugees

Ministers urged to shelve illegal migration bill until supreme court ruling after 11 defeats in Lords – UK politics live

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Purpose of the bill is now ‘dead’, says crossbench peer Alex Carlile after yesterday’s vote in House of Lords

Rishi Sunak has posted a message on Twitter saying that he looks forward to continuing working with Jens Stoltenberg, who has had his term as Nato’s secretary general extended.

According to the Sun’s Harry Cole, at cabinet Sunak praised Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, as the only other credible candidate for the job who was not a former prime minister. Stoltenberg is a former Norwegian PM.

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Defeats for small boats bill in the Lords as Channel crossings set new record

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Peers voted against government-proposed measures on detention and deportation of asylum seekers

The government’s small boats bill has suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords, as Channel crossings in June by people seeking asylum set a new record.

Peers voted on Monday to limit the time that children and pregnant women who claim asylum after arriving by irregular means can be detained, and backed preventing LGBTQ+ people from being deported to a country where they would have a well-founded fear of persecution.

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Battle over Rwanda deportations to continue as No 10 gears up for appeal

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Sunak insists Rwanda is safe country to be sent to after court rules in favour of charities and 10 asylum seekers

The bitter legal battle over the government’s flagship immigration policy is set to reach new heights after Downing Street insisted it would fight to overturn a ruling that sending refugees to Rwanda was unlawful.

Charities and others were jubilant on Thursday after judges at the court of appeal ruled in favour of campaign groups and 10 affected asylum seekers, while the opposition claimed the policy at heart of Rishi Sunak’s “Stop the Boats” pledge was now unravelling.

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Asylum seekers at Manston may have been treated inhumanely, report finds

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Council of Europe team raised a wide range of concerns based on visit to Kent detention centre last year

Many asylum seekers may have been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment at Manston holding facility in Kent, according to a report.

A seven-strong delegation from the Council of Europe’s prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment committee carried out a “rapid reaction” visit to Manston over 25-28 November due to concerns about conditions there, a visit that officials described as “relatively rare” in these circumstances.

Some people absconded from Manston.

One-sixth of those who arrived in small boats were lone children.

Some people were detained at Manston for up to 15 days after being granted bail.

Three different Home Office databases did not communicate well with each other.

There were two documented cases of migrants trying to strangle themselves with seatbelts while segregated in a cell van on the site. The delegation invoked human rights legislation to ensure that the cell van was removed from the site, a stipulation that the Home Office has complied with.

There were cases of people being detained for up to 43 days at Manston.

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PMQs: Rishi Sunak faces questions from Keir Starmer over house building targets and mortgage support – UK politics live

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Labour leader presses prime minister to admit his party will not meet promised targets over house building

PMQs is coming up soon.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

We remain seriously concerned about the potential implications of the illegal migration bill on human rights and the safety of individuals.

Careful consideration should continue to be given to the impact of the bill on different groups with protected characteristics – including children, pregnant women, disabled people, torture survivors, and victims of trafficking.

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Home Office delays have devastating effect on child asylum seekers – report

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Children are being left in limbo so long that they are at risk of harm, social workers warn

Lone child asylum seekers are facing fivefold increases in delays in having their claims processed by the Home Office, with devastating consequences, according to a new report.

Social workers, legal professionals and the children themselves have warned that the impact of being left in limbo about their future for so long includes the risk of suicide, self-harm and persistent insomnia.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.

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UK urged to speed evacuation of hundreds of British children in Sudan

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Merseyside charity worker whose children are stuck in Khartoum says Foreign Office delays have trapped many in conflict zone

A British charity worker has called on the government to help evacuate his children from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, stressing that hundreds of people with the right to reside in the UK remain stuck in the conflict zone.

Alhussein Ahmed, 32, who works for the Merseyside Refugee Support Network in Liverpool, is concerned that the Foreign Office should be doing more to assist hundreds of people who have UK residency rights who remain stuck in Sudan.

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Guards at Heathrow immigration detention centre try to quell protest

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Dozens of people at Harmondsworth site in west London are complaining about overheated cells and lack of healthcare

Guards at an immigration detention centre close to Heathrow airport are trying to end a protest involving dozens of detainees at the facility.

Those held at Harmondsworth say they are protesting about conditions including poor access to healthcare services and soaring temperatures in cells.

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Disbelief and anger among Greek shipwreck victims’ relatives as millions spent on Titan rescue effort

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Disparity between rescue responses has sparked debate in Pakistan about double standards

Anees Majeed, who lost five relatives in the boat that sank off Greece on 14 June, watched in disbelief and growing anger as a frantic, multimillion-dollar rescue effort played out for five other men lost at sea last week.

Like thousands of others across Pakistan, Majeed, a law student from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, grieved at funeral prayers without a body to bury. At least 350 Pakistani citizens were on the overcrowded craft, the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah, confirmed on Friday.

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37 people missing after boat capsizes between Tunisia and Lampedusa

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Boat capsized in strong winds with most passengers feared dead, according to four survivors cited by migrants’ organisation

Thirty-seven people are missing after their boat capsized between Tunisia and the Italian island of Lampedusa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, citing an account by four survivors of the shipwreck.

The UN agency said the survivors, all from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived on Lampedusa late on Thursday, having been rescued from the shipwreck by another vessel.

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Spanish investigation launched into fatal boat rescue delay

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Spanish and Moroccan authorities blamed for 12-hour delay after up to 60 people seen stranded en route to Canary Islands

Spain’s public ombudsman has begun an investigation into why as many as 60 people stranded on an inflatable boat bound for the Canary Islands had to wait more than 12 hours to be rescued, leading to the loss of at least 35 lives, among them a child.

Passengers on the boat – which got into difficulties off the coast of Western Sahara on Tuesday afternoon – appealed for help, but a Moroccan rescue boat did not appear until the following day, when it picked up 24 people.

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Asylum seekers with disabilities ‘abandoned’ in former Essex care home

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The site, set up as a standard asylum seeker hotel, has no care workers or nurses there as part of the contract

The Home Office has been accused of abandoning 55 asylum seekers with a range of severe disabilities and life-limiting conditions at a former care home in an Essex seaside town.

The asylum seekers, who fled various conflict zones including Sudan and Afghanistan, are struggling with a range of health conditions they have suffered from since childhood or life-changing injuries suffered in war zones.

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More than 160 people rescued from boats near Canary Islands

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Rescues come as refugee charities say more than 30 people may have died after dinghy sank on same route this week

Emergency services say 168 people have been rescued near Spain’s Canary Islands, one day after refugee charities said they feared more than 30 people had died after their inflatable dinghy sank on the same route.

The Canary Islands, off the coast of west Africa, have become the main destination for refugees and migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller number also seeking to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish mainland. Summer is the busiest period for all attempted crossings.

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At least 35 people feared dead after dinghy sinks en route to Canary Islands

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Child among the dead and 24 people rescued in Moroccan-led operation, say Spanish maritime sources

At least 35 people are feared to have drowned after an inflatable boat carrying up to 60 migrants and refugees sank while en route to the Canary Islands early on Wednesday morning.

The Spanish migration NGO Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said 60 people were on the boat, of whom 39 were missing. Another migration NGO, Alarm Phone, put the number of people onboard at 59 and said 35 were missing.

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‘He suffered’: Pakistani relatives mourn sons on Greek shipwreck

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Poverty drove young men from small Kashmir town to board ill-fated fishing trawler, say families

The last time Mohammed Yousaf talked to his son, Sajid Yousaf, on 8 June, the son was waiting anxiously in Libya for smugglers to pack him and hundreds of others on to a boat bound for the other side of the Mediterranean.

Six days later, the overcrowded fishing trawler sank off the coast of Greece. Sajid, 28, a shopkeeper and father of two from the small town of Khuiratta in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is among the hundreds missing, presumed dead.

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Nine due in Greek court over shipwreck as Pakistan holds day of mourning

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Suspected people smugglers to appear in court in Kalamata, as police in Kashmir announce 10 arrests

Nine suspected people smugglers are to appear before a Greek court accused of piloting the fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece last week leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead in one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters.

Greek authorities have said 78 dead and 104 survivors – mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Pakistan – were brought ashore after the overcrowded boat sank about 50 miles (80km) off the southern Greek town of Pylos early on Wednesday, days after it set sail from Tobruk in Libya heading towards Italy.

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Greek coastguard denies claims refugee boat capsized after tow rope attached

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UN calls for urgent action to prevent further tragedies as police believe up to 500 people remain missing

Greek authorities have rejected claims that a fishing boat that sank in the Mediterranean this week with the loss of potentially hundreds of lives capsized after the coastguard attempted to tow it, as the UN called for urgent action to prevent further tragedies.

Authorities have confirmed 78 deaths and said 104 survivors – mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan – had been brought ashore, but police believe as many as 500 are missing. Witnesses have reported that up to 100 children were in the ship’s hold.

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Greece shipwreck: hopes of finding survivors fade on final day of search

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Nine suspects expected to face court as search enters third day and initial response to disaster is criticised

Rescuers have launched the third and final day of their search for survivors of one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters, as authorities detained nine suspected people-smugglers and criticism of Greece’s initial response mounted.

The Greek coastguard said on Friday a helicopter, a frigate and three smaller vessels were searching waters 50 miles (80 km) from the southern town of Pylos where the fishing boat, reportedly carrying between 400 and 750 people, sank on Wednesday.

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‘Where are they?’ Hope fades among relatives of missing after Greek shipwreck

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As anguished family members arrive in Kalamata, search operation continues with negligible progress

Hope dies last and for Kassem Abo Zeed it was running out fast. Hope was the force that had led him to board a plane from Hamburg and fly to Greece after he heard that a boat carrying his wife had capsized off the country’s southern coast.

But by 2pm on Thursday, 36 hours after the blue fishing trawler packed with migrants and refugees had sunk in one of the worst maritime disasters in recent Greek history, hope was fading in a way he had prayed would never happen.

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Greek shipwreck highlights divided Libya’s inability to stem flow of refugees

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Absence of unified Libyan national government leaves Europe lacking effective allies to tackle people-smuggling trade

The mass drowning of refugees heading from Libya for Italy as their large boat capsized off the coast of Greece underlines Libya’s continuing power vacuum and the inability of its divided leaders to deliver on their promises to stem the profitable people-smuggling trade. It is striking that the ship sailed from the eastern port of Tobruk, a city where local leaders have mounted a campaign against illegal migration.

On 4 May, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, granted Libya’s strongman in the east, Khalifa Haftar, a meeting in Rome at which she offered to invest in Libya’s east – the country has been divided into a rival east and west since 2015 – in return for action on the smugglers.

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