Category Archives: Refugees

Israel faces legal pressure at UN’s top court over Unrwa ban

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Hearings over bar on cooperation with Palestinian aid agency are test of Israel’s defiance of international law

Israel will come under sustained legal pressure this week at the UN’s top court when lawyers from more than 40 states will claim the country’s ban on all cooperation with the UN’s Palestinian rights agency Unrwa is a breach of the UN charter.

The five days of hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague have been given a fresh urgency by Israel’s decision on 2 March to block all aid into Gaza, but the hearing will focus on whether Israel – as a signatory to the UN charter – acted unlawfully in overriding the immunities afforded to a UN body. Israel ended all contact and cooperation with Unrwa operations in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in November, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that has been contested.

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Irregular migrant crossings into Europe fall 30% in first quarter of 2025

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Human rights groups say drop is partly due to EU policies that turn blind eye to rights abuses in countries such as Libya and Tunisia

Irregular crossings at Europe’s borders have fallen by 30% in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, in a decrease that rights groups partly attributed to EU policies that have emphasised deterrence while seemingly turning a blind eye to the risk of rights abuses.

The decline was seen across all the major migratory routes into Europe, the EU’s border agency Frontex said in a statement, amounting to nearly 33,600 fewer arrivals in the first three months of the year.

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Sudan in ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ after two years of civil war

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NGOs and UN say country is ‘worse off than ever before’ with wide-scale displacement, hunger and attacks on refugee camps

Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have said, as the country’s civil war enters its third year.

The UK is hosting ministers from 20 countries in London on Tuesday in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks. However, diplomatic efforts have often been sidelined by other crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

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Thousands on axed Rwanda scheme list to have asylum claims processed in UK

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Home Office issues guidance hours before legal challenge on behalf of asylum seekers who were left in limbo

Thousands of people left in limbo since plans to deport them to Rwanda were axed will now have their asylum claims processed in the UK, Labour has confirmed.

More than 5,000 asylum seekers were on an initial list drawn up by the previous government to be sent to Rwanda under a deal between the two countries.

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Asylum system risks ‘damaging social cohesion’, Glasgow city council warns

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Council says cost running into tens of millions, as homeless refugees granted asylum across UK come to city for support

The asylum system risks “damaging social cohesion” with homeless refugees putting “unprecedented pressure” on Glasgow services, the city council has warned.

Glasgow city council, the largest asylum dispersal area outside London, had welcomed asylum seekers for decades, said the city convener for homelessness, Allan Casey.

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Stereotyping a factor in loss of life in deadliest Channel crossing, inquiry told

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Migrant dinghy was also confused with vessel from which 35 people were rescued, so incident was marked ‘resolved’

Survivors and bereaved relatives have told an inquiry into the biggest ever loss of life in a migrant dinghy in the Channel that they believe stereotyping them as “foreigners” contributed to the failure to rescue them before the majority died.

The Cranston inquiry into how at least 27 people drowned on 24 November 2021 heard that survivors believed many on board could have been saved if rescue had been sent more quickly.

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Second person in two days dies trying to cross Channel in small boat

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Deaths occur after eight-day gap in crossings between, bringing death toll this year to at least 10

One person has died trying to cross the Channel in an overloaded boat, after another person died earlier attempting the same journey, according to the French authorities.

In the latest incident, 15 people were rescued after a boat containing 40 people picked up more migrants on the coast of Gravelines, in northern France, at around 3am on Thursday.

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Refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma camp clash with police after food supplies cut

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Teargas fired during protest at reduced rations after US aid freeze wipes out half of World Food Programme budget

Thousands of refugees clashed with police in a Kenyan refugee camp this week after receiving news that their food allocations would be cut because of funding problems.

The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, confirmed that four refugees and a local government official had been injured when police intervened to stop the protesters at the Kakuma refugee camp on Monday.

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Thailand condemned for ‘shameful’ mass deportation of Uyghur refugees to China

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Amid claims that deportees may face torture, family of one man say he was forcibly repatriated and will never see his children again

The family of one of dozens of Uyghurs feared to have been forcibly deported from Thailand to China have condemned the decision as “shameful”. The deportations came despite a UN statement saying those being sent to China faced a “real risk of torture” on their return.

Thailand ignored protests by the UN refugee agency, EU and US in deporting 40 Uyghurs who had been detained in the country for a decade, claiming they had returned voluntarily “to their normal lives” with their families.

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US judge blocks Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement program

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US district judge in Seattle says Trump’s executive order exceeded his powers by shutting down program

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to suspend the US’s refugee admission system after ruling that the move exceeded his powers.

The ruling, from US district judge Jamal Whitehead, stated that Trump’s executive order affecting refugee admissions, issued on the day of his inauguration, amounted to an illegal usurpation of the powers of Congress.

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‘People are so polite’: the Ukrainian refugee bonding with the British over borscht and chips

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First Ukrainian refugee to arrive in UK after Russia invasion says even the British dogs are better behaved, but that ‘the weather is sad’

Sharing a bowl of homemade Ukrainian borscht with your neighbours is one way to make friends in a new country, according to the first refugee to arrive in the UK after Russia invaded her country three years ago.

Ukrainian refugee Valentyna Klymova, 72, now settled in Erith in Kent, has done just that, lovingly preparing the traditional soup containing beetroot, other vegetables and meat stock, served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread. She offers it to English people she knows and says it has had a positive reception. In turn, she has embraced quintessentially British fish and chips, although she has not yet tried to cook it at home.

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Planned change in British citizenship rules faces first legal challenge

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Young Afghan refugee brings case after move to prevent those who arrived on ‘dangerous journey’ from citizenship

Plans to prevent refugees who arrive in the UK on a small boat, lorry or via other “irregular” means from becoming a British citizen are facing their first legal challenge.

The challenge is being brought by a 21-year-old Afghan refugee who arrived in the UK aged 14, after fleeing the Taliban and being smuggled to Britain in the back of a lorry. He was granted refugee status and after five years was granted indefinite leave to remain. He was due to apply for British citizenship on 1 March.

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The Ugandan arts centre bringing harmony to Africa’s biggest refugee camp

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The Bidi Bidi performing arts venue offers more than 250,000 refugees the chance to sing, play, dance – and dream of a peaceful future

The sound of a flute floats towards five young men in the 1,000-seat Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre theatre in Uganda – the country that hosts the highest number of refugees in Africa. The music carries past them to the shrubs that surround the circular majestic building and the neighbours going about their lives, the more than 250,000 refugees who live in the 250 sq km Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, the largest refugee camp in Africa.

The young men – gathered for a chance to play a musical instrument or record music – welcome visitors with the awkward smile of youth. They are seated under the oldest fig tree, where the dream of building a place for the creative young people of Bidi Bidi to commune and nurture their talents was born.

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Starmer union ally joins opposition to rules barring citizenship for small boat refugees

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Head of Unison Christina McAnea is one of 148 signatories of letter warning rules will ‘breed division and mistrust’

Keir Starmer’s most generous union backer has joined faith leaders to warn Yvette Cooper that new rules refusing citizenship to refugees who arrive in small boats will “breed division and distrust” and could fuel attacks on migrant hotels.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, and nine Church of England bishops are among 148 signatories of a letter saying the home secretary’s plan to bar naturalisation for anyone who has made a dangerous journey will label tens of thousands of people “second-class citizens”.

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Starmer ‘not telling truth’ over Gaza family asylum decision, claims Badenoch, after PMQs clash – as it happened

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Opposition leader says PM was wrong when he said that the decision was taken under the last government

After PMQs there will be an urgent question in the Commons, tabled by the Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine, on “the potential security implications of the involvement of Chinese companies including Mingyang in energy infrastructure projects”. After that Dan Jarvis, the security minister, will make a statement to mark the publication of the report into Prevent’s dealings with Ali Harbi Ali, the man who killed the Conservative MP David Amess.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has blamed Home Office foot-dragging for a failure to change the rules to allow forces to sack officers who fail vetting procedures, Matthew Weaver reports.

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Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live

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Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group

Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.

Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.

Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.

Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.

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‘This time, we stay’: the Palestinian families vowing not to leave Gaza

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Defiant Gazans reject Trump’s resettlement plan after enduring 15 months of conflict

Saaed Salem’s eyes filled with tears as he surveyed the remains of his north Gaza neighbourhood on a freezing February morning. He was resting in a chair that had somehow survived the war, surrounded by grandchildren and rubble, his hope for the future and the ruins of his past.

His family had lost one home in 1948, when they fled Hirbiya village, now the site of Zikim kibbutz inside Israel, to escape shelling and reports of atrocities by Israeli forces.

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Thousands of Syrians in limbo as UK Home Office freezes asylum claims

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Two months after the fall of Assad’s regime, Whitehall’s decision to pause asylum applications from Syrians has left more than 6,600 cases stuck on hold in the UK

More than 6,000 Syrians in Britain are stuck in limbo because of an ongoing freeze on their asylum claims, two months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Home Office announced a “pause” on Syrian asylum seekers’ claims on 9 December, the day after rebels swept into Damascus, saying that it needed to “assess the current situation”.

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Refugee shot in eye during deadly 2014 crossing into Spain files complaint to UN

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Survivor of Ceuta incident that ended with 14 deaths asks why use of anti-riot equipment was never investigated

A refugee who was almost blinded in one eye during a police operation that ended with the deaths of at least 14 people off the coast of Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta 11 years ago has filed a complaint to the UN Committee Against Torture.

Shortly before dawn on 6 February 2014, about 200 people tried to enter Ceuta by climbing the border fence or by swimming around the breakwater that separates the city from Moroccan territory.

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Planned UK people-smuggling laws risk ‘criminalising’ asylum seekers, charities say

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Bill could mean asylum seekers crossing the Channel who refuse rescue may face five years in prison

Keir Starmer’s planned people-smuggling laws risk “criminalising” hundreds of asylum seekers, refugee charities have said, after it emerged that people who refuse to be rescued by the French authorities could be jailed for five years.

Some parents who bring their children to the UK in small boats could also face prosecution, which could ultimately split their families, a human rights assessment of the border security, asylum and immigration bill has concluded.

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