Hostile policies encourage asylum seekers to try dangerous routes to England, say French support groups
Organisations supporting refugees in northern France have blamed the French government for the high number of people risking their lives to cross the Channel in small boats.
So far this year more than 20,000 people have crossed with UK Border Force union officials predicting that the number could reach 60,000 by the end of the year.
Continue reading...Five-year-old child reportedly died of scorpion sting after nearly 40 Syrians spent a month marooned between Greece and Turkey
A group of adults and children who spent a month stuck on a scorpion- and snake-infested spit of land between Greece and Turkey – and denied help by both nations – were finally taken to temporary accommodation by Greek police this week.
Among the group of nearly 40 Syrian refugees forced to seek refuge on the islet in the Evros river was a five-year-old girl, Maria, reported to have died from a scorpion sting. Her nine-year-old sister remains gravely ill.
Continue reading...MoD sources accuse other parts of Whitehall of failing to do enough to help Afghans who worked with British forces
Two RAF flights carrying as many as 500 Afghans who worked with British forces and their relatives are landing in the UK each month from Pakistan but there is deep frustration within the Ministry of Defence about how the rest of government is struggling to accommodate arrivals.
It comes as the Taliban and western allies mark the first anniversary of Nato’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Continue reading...Petition accuses Frontex of violating European standards by using contractor that offers low wages
The EU border agency Frontex has been accused of exploiting staff by using a contractor who it is claimed offers interpreters an effective wage of less than €2.50 (£2.11) an hour.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, the EU’s best-funded agency with a budget of €754m, is being petitioned by interpreters who work with vulnerable asylum seekers in places such as Greece, Italy and the Canary Islands.
Continue reading...A year after the fall of Kabul, Abdullah Sayyid is in hiding, his wife has been murdered and the Home Office seems to have lost his case file
Abdullah Sayyid often thinks about the moment the Taliban broke down his door, burst inside and shot his wife. The gunmen left, but would soon redouble their efforts to kill him because of his work for the British government.
Sayyid’s wife was murdered during the chaotic aftermath of Operation Pitting, the UK’s emergency mass airlift from Kabul that began on 13 August last year.
Continue reading...Crucifixion mosaic and fresco saved from destruction after two-year campaign
A stunning mural created in a Catholic church by a Jewish refugee from the Nazis has been saved from destruction, decay and vandalism after being granted Grade II-listed status by the UK government.
The Crucifixion, by the leading 20th-century artist George Mayer-Marton, is a rare combination of mosaic and fresco standing almost 8 metres (26ft) high, taking up an entire wall inside the Holy Rosary church in Oldham.
Continue reading...Officials say navy and air force efforts to rescue up to 50 people has shown no signs of progress
Dozens of people are feared to have died off the coast of Greece after their boat sank while attempting to make the perilous crossing from Turkey.
Efforts by Greece’s navy and air force to rescue up to 50 people who went down with the vessel in stormy waters off Rhodes had shown no signs of progress by late Wednesday, coast guard officials said.
Continue reading...Home Office accused of failing to ensure safety of thousands including teachers and translators
Thousands of Afghans who worked for the UK have been abandoned and remain at risk from the Taliban a year after the evacuation from Kabul, a coalition of human rights groups has said.
In a parliamentary briefing, nine expert groups on Afghanistan criticised the British government’s resettlement schemes as “unjustifiably restrictive”. They said it was deeply concerning that the government is currently not offering a safe route for many Afghan women and girls or to oppressed minority groups.
Continue reading...Exclusive: asylum seekers in the offshore detention centre who had contact with Australian journalists, lawyers and advocates were closely watched, documents reveal
The Australian government used private security contractors to collect intelligence on asylum seekers on Nauru, singling out those who were speaking to journalists, lawyers and refugee advocates, internal documents from 2016 reveal.
Intelligence officers working for Wilson Security compiled fortnightly reports about asylum seekers “of interest”, including individuals flagged as having “links with [Australian] media”, “contact with lawyers in Australia” or “contacts with Australian advocates”.
Continue reading...Falsehoods and disinformation could cause breakdown in relations with local communities, says World Vision
Ukrainian refugees are likely to become victims of rising tensions and disinformation campaigns in their host countries, a report has warned.
False reports exaggerating how much aid refugees receive compared with local people, as well as linking refugees with violent crime and political extremism, could cause a breakdown in relations with local communities, the charity World Vision said.
Continue reading...MS Victoria is temporary solution to host refugees but there are concerns about small rooms and seasickness
Ukrainian refugees staying on a cruise ship docked in Edinburgh must be moved to more suitable accommodation within days, welfare groups have said, as those onboard already report concerns about small rooms and feeling seasick.
The first arrivals of mainly women and children displaced by the war in Ukraine boarded the MS Victoria passenger ship earlier this week. Chartered by the Scottish government, it is expected to host up to 1,700 people and is a temporary solution to a growing accommodation crisis, which earlier this month prompted the government to pause its Ukrainian refugee sponsorship scheme for three months.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tigrinya speakers say they face beatings, detention and privation, and blame UN for ‘abandoning’ them, despite right to be in Ethiopia
Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia say they are being targeted for arbitrary arrest and forcible relocation to war-torn parts of the country, despite having UN permission to remain in Ethiopia.
Government security officers are accused of rounding up, abusing and unlawfully detaining refugees who have legal status, as well as Eritreans who have foreign citizenship.
Continue reading...Tory leadership candidate’s pledge follows favourite Liz Truss’s claim she would extend Rwanda scheme
Rishi Sunak, who is battling with Liz Truss to win the backing of the Conservative grassroots in his attempt to replace Boris Johnson, has announced plans for an annual cap on the number of refugees the UK accepts.
The former chancellor, who trails Truss by 24%, according to a YouGov poll of Conservative members earlier this week, will on Sunday promise to tackle illegal migration and regain control of the UK’s borders if he becomes the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
Continue reading...Solution to overcrowded asylum centres angers NGOs, though three ships have already been commissioned
Plans to house refugees arriving in the Netherlands on cruise ships have been described as “absurd” and illegal, as the Dutch government laid out its solution to overcrowded asylum centres.
Three large ships have already been commissioned and one is due to be anchored in Velsen, near IJmuiden in North Holland, although ministers are struggling to find further willing ports.
Continue reading...Victorian students aged eight and over are being urged to wear masks when indoors to help counter the Covid-19 surge.
The request comes in a joint letter from the state education department and independent and Catholic schools.
I respect the fact that people on the crossbench were elected to deliver action on climate change and our government wants to work with them to do just that.
That’s why one of the very first acts of the new government will be to legislate that higher ambition. They want more than the 43% that Labor is offering though.
Advocacy groups and BNO passport holders say not enough is being done to help them after arriving in Britain
The UK is not doing enough to provide mental health support to thousands of Hongkongers who have fled China’s increasingly authoritarian grip, according to advocacy groups and those politically displaced.
Following China’s introduction of a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong and swift clampdown on dissent, tens of thousands of residents with British national (overseas) (BNO) passports and their dependants were granted the right to live and work in the UK in 2021.
Continue reading...Human rights groups say there have been no autopsies or identification of the 23 people killed trying to cross into Spain
Seconds after Mohamed stepped on to Spanish soil, he turned around to see how his friends had fared along the metres-high chain link fence that slices off the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco.
“It was horrible,” said the 20-year-old from Sudan. “It was a bloodbath; many of them appeared dead and many were injured.”
Continue reading...Incident marks one of the deadliest tragedies involving people attempting to cross US border from Mexico in recent decades
Forty-six people were found dead in a sweltering tractor-trailer that was abandoned on a remote back road in San Antonio, Texas shortly before 6pm local time (12am GMT) on Monday.
Sixteen people were taken to hospital, including four children, and treated for heat stroke and exhaustion.
A San Antonio fire department official said they found “stacks of bodies” and no signs of water in the truck. “The patients that we saw were hot to the touch, they were suffering from heat stroke, exhaustion,” the San Antonio fire chief, Charles Hood, told a news conference. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer but there was no visible working A/C unit on that rig.”
A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck and discovered the gruesome scene, the police chief, William McManus, said.
A spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said that its Homeland Security Investigations division was investigating “an alleged human smuggling event” in coordination with local police.
San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 46 who died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life … This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy.'”
Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection, said in a tweet: “These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies.”
Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, called the suffocation of the people in the truck the “tragedy in Texas” on Twitter and said consular officials would go to the hospitals where victims had been taken to help “however possible”.
A spokesman for the Honduran foreign ministry told Reuters the country’s consulates in Houston and Dallas would be investigating the incident. Ebrard said two Guatemalans were sent to hospital and Guatemala’s foreign ministry said on Twitter that consular officials were going to the hospital “to verify if there are two Guatemalan minors there and what condition they are in”.
The incident is among the deadliest tragedies to have claimed thousands of lives of people attempting to cross the US border from Mexico in recent decades. Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio.
South Texas has long been the busiest area for border crossings. People ride in vehicles though border patrol checkpoints to San Antonio, the closest major city, from which point they disperse across the United States.
NGOs say toll could be as high as 37 after hundreds of people break into border control area in attempt to reach Melilla enclave
Human rights campaigners in Spain and Morocco have called for investigations to be launched in both countries after a mass attempt to scale the border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla left at least 23 people dead.
Spanish officials said about 2,000 Africans made their way to the iron fence at dawn on Friday, with more than 500 managing to slip into a border control area after cutting an opening with shears.
Continue reading...Celebrities including Sophie Okonedo and David Harewood say scheme shows ‘colonial view’ of Africa as ‘dumping ground’
British celebrities have urged Commonwealth leaders in Rwanda to oppose the UK’s plan to deport refugees to the country, saying it shows a “colonial view” of Africa as a “dumping ground”.
It comes as a summit of Commonwealth prime ministers and presidents is under way in Kigali, the first time the gathering has been held since 2018.
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