Category Archives: Home Office

Shamima Begum ruling deals bitter blow to chances of UK return

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Past supreme court ruling meant Siac judges found themselves unable to contradict home secretary

Almost exactly four years after she was stripped of her citizenship, Shamima Begum’s hopes of returning to the UK have been dealt a bitter blow, with the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) upholding the decision.

It is the latest development – and unlikely to be the last – in a legal fight that Begum’s family began in March 2019, one month after the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, took his controversial decision, shortly after she was found in a refugee camp in north-east Syria.

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UK counter-terrorism report author accused of basing conclusions on ‘handful of cases’

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William Shawcross analysed just six Channel cases before calling for more focus on Islamist extremism, say critics

The author of a controversial review into Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy has been accused of failing to do his job properly because he attended only a handful of the thousands of meetings of its key deradicalisation programme.

William Shawcross was appointed to review Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme, in January 2021. Last week his controversial conclusion that the programme had concentrated too much on the far right and not enough on Islamist extremism was met with widespread condemnation.

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‘It’s too cruel’: family stuck in Ukraine after UK host dies suddenly

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Exclusive: Nadiia Luba is one of 9,700 Ukrainians still waiting on visa decision under Homes for Ukraine scheme

Nadiia Luba was sheltering in a basement in central Ukraine earlier this month when she learned that her family’s chances of escaping to Britain had been dashed.

After nearly eight months of waiting for visas for her and her two sons, she got a text to say that the British host who had been so ready to welcome them had died suddenly. “I couldn’t stop crying,” she said. “My brain didn’t want to accept it.”

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UK’s hostile environment policies ‘disproportionately impact’ people of colour

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Government evaluation of the legislation is the first official review of the policies that led to the Windrush scandal

The Home Office’s hostile environment policies appear to have had a disproportionately negative impact on people of colour, a government evaluation of the legislation has shown.

The long-awaited impact assessment of the package of hostile environment measures which were introduced when David Cameron was prime minister, and later rebranded as “compliant environment” policies, reveals for the first time the government’s own assessment of the legislation’s potential risks.

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UK recruiter of debt-hit Indonesians loses seasonal workers licence

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Some of the over 1,450 people brought by AG Recruitment owed thousands to unlicensed brokers

A British recruitment agency that brought Indonesian farmworkers to the UK who had debts of thousands of pounds to foreign brokers has lost its licence as a seasonal worker sponsor.

More than 1,450 Indonesians were brought to Britain last year by AG Recruitment to pick berries and other fruits to supply British supermarkets.

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Care worker whistleblower outed by Home Office over exploitation claims

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Zimbabwean worker whose visa relies on job says government disclosed confidential details of interview to employer

A victim of suspected labour abuse who confidentially disclosed details of exploitation to government investigators says she has been subjected to threats and intimidation after she was outed to her employer.

The Zimbabwean national, 25, was interviewed by Home Office compliance officers for an investigation into illegal recruitment practices and told them she had paid a fee of about £1,500 to an agent who arranged for a care home in Surrey to sponsor her visa.

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Afghan refugees settled in London told to uproot families and move 200 miles

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Forty families brought to UK after fleeing Taliban given only weeks to move to West Yorkshire

Hundreds of Afghan refugees who settled in London after fleeing the Taliban 18 months ago have been told they have only weeks to uproot and move 200 miles away, the Guardian can reveal.

The Home Office has told 40 families with 150 children who have lived for more than a year in Kensington, west London, that they must leave the capital for another hotel in Wetherby, on the outskirts of Leeds.

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Hongkongers in UK ask Suella Braverman to ditch ‘repressive’ anti-protest bill

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Exclusive: Letter to home secretary says bill echoes ‘dangerously broad laws’ that result in jailing of protesters

Hongkongers in Britain have called on Suella Braverman to reconsider controversial measures in her public order bill, which they likened to the repressive measures used to crack down on democratic opposition in their home city.

In a letter to the UK home secretary, aspects of the bill were described as “repressive measures that threaten to paralyse entire social movement” and posed a threat to their right to protest in Britain, including against Chinese communist repression in Hong Kong.

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Revealed: child migrants racially abused and threatened with violence at Home Office hotel

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Whistleblower tells of threats and illegal detention in fresh revelations about failures that drove children into hands of criminals

Children seeking asylum in the UK were threatened and subjected to racist abuse by staff at a Home Office-run hotel, a whistleblower has claimed as pressure grows on the government to act over the growing crisis in the system.

The source, who worked in the Brighton hotel for more than a year, said that in such an environment of “emotional abuse”, scores of children, who had arrived in the UK without parents or a carer, were driven on to the streets and into the hands of criminals.

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Asylum-seeking families with children could face removal from UK to Rwanda

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Immigration minister Robert Jenrick says ‘not necessarily a bar’ to families being sent to African country

Families with children seeking asylum in the UK are being considered for forced removal to Rwanda, according to a Home Office minister.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick told an evidence session at parliament’s women and equalities committee on Wednesday that, while there were no plans to remove unaccompanied child asylum seekers to the east African country, families with children are being considered for removal.

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New hostile environment policies show Windrush lessons ‘not been learned’

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Immigration experts scathing about Home Office plans to tighten access to services for people without legal status

Home Office plans to reheat “thoroughly discredited” hostile environment policies show the government has not learned lessons from the Windrush scandal, immigration experts have said.

A taskforce to crack down on illegal immigration is being set up, the Home Office announced on Sunday. As well as blocking access to banking for those without immigration status, it intends to find new ways of checking individuals’ immigration status when they use schools or the NHS.

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Black Britons and MPs condemn ‘cruel’ plan to dump Windrush pledges

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Ian Wright and MPs David Lammy, Yvette Cooper and Caroline Lucas criticise U-turn by Suella Braverman before 75th anniversary

The government has been criticised by several public figures after the news of the home secretary’s plans to abandon several key commitments made after the Windrush scandal in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the ship’s arrival in the UK.

On Friday, the Guardian reported that Suella Braverman was planning to abandon several of the key commitments made since the Windrush scandal, including dropping the pledge to create a migrants’ commissioner and a U-turn on the promise to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration.

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Rishi Sunak tells MPs he will clear asylum backlog by end of 2023

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PM says he has signed deal with Albania and will resume ‘hostile environment’ checks on bank accounts

Rishi Sunak has insisted he can clear a backlog of nearly 100,000 asylum claims by the end of next year as part of a set of policies that include resuming “hostile environment” checks on bank accounts suspended after the Windrush scandal.

The prime minister outlined a five-point plan in the Commons including law changes to criminalise and then remove tens of thousands of people who claim asylum after travelling to the UK by small boats, and a deal with Albania to aid removals to the Balkan state.

A small boats command, with an extra 700 staff from Border Force, the National Crime Agency and other agencies, to combat people smugglers and the surge in arrivals across the Channel.

An end to the use of hotels for more than 40,000 asylum seekers. They will be sent to disused former military bases, holiday camps and student accommodation.

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Home Office adviser Nimco Ali appears to quit by criticising Suella Braverman

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Adviser on violence against women says on live radio she is on a ‘completely different planet’ to home secretary

A government adviser on violence against women appears to have effectively resigned from her role on live radio after saying she is on a “completely different planet” to the home secretary, Suella Braverman.

Nimco Ali, a social activist who was appointed to the independent role by the then home secretary, Priti Patel, in 2020, used an interview to criticise Braverman’s stance on the issue and announce her intention to relinquish her role.

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Revealed: UK has failed to resettle Afghans facing torture and death despite promise

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Those who risked their lives helping British government face a ‘toxic combination of incompetence and indifference’

Afghan nationals who were promised resettlement to the UK nearly a year ago are facing torture and death while they wait for a response from the British government, the Observer can reveal.

Not one person has been accepted and evacuated from Afghanistan under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme (ACRS), launched in January, prompting claims that ministers are showing a “toxic combination of incompetence and indifference”. The scheme was intended to help Afghans who worked for, or were affiliated with, the British government – including its embassy staff and British Council teachers – and all of whom face severe harm at the hands of the Taliban.

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Conditions at Manston asylum centre prompt torture monitor visit

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Council of Europe’s ‘rapid reaction visit’ followed reports of diphtheria outbreak and squalid conditions

Conditions for small boat arrivals at the Manston reception centre in Kent have sparked international concern and triggered a “rapid reaction” visit from European torture monitors in the last few days.

A seven-strong delegation from the Council of Europe’s Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Committee carried out a the visit to Manston from 25-28 November due to concerns over conditions there.

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Charities call for Windrush-style inquiry into Manston asylum failings

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Letter from 44 charities urges independent investigation into ‘appalling’ treatment of people at Kent processing centre

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is being urged by 44 leading charities to launch a Windrush-style inquiry into the crisis that engulfed Manston processing centre.

Organisations including the Refugee Council, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee have written a letter to the Guardian seeking an independent investigation into how people seeking refuge in the UK were forced to live in cramped and insanitary conditions.

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Revealed: half of English police forces fail to meet standards in crime investigations

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Analysis by the Observer raises questions over whether policing is fit for purpose and will put more pressure on the home secretary

• Read more: ‘In Gloucester, young boys are carrying weapons’

Half the English police forces inspected since last year are failing to meet required standards at investigating crime, according to analysis by the Observer that raises questions over whether policing is fit for purpose.

The findings will pile renewed pressure on the home secretary, Suella Braverman, who has told police leaders she “expects” them to cut crimes including murder by 20%, without detailing how, as part of her “back to basics approach”.

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‘Desensitised’ ex-IS followers remain threats, Shamima Begum hearing told

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Home Office argues people trafficked to Syria were exposed to extreme violence which poses ‘almighty problem’

People trafficked to Syria and radicalised remain threats to national security as they may be desensitised after exposure to extreme violence, the Home Office has argued, in contesting Shamima Begum’s appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.

Begum was 15 when she travelled from her home in Bethnal Green, east London, through Turkey and into territory controlled by Islamic State (IS). After she was found, nine months pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019, the then home secretary, Sajid Javid, revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds.

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Suella Braverman says people coming to UK illegally ‘at fault’ for processing chaos

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Home secretary faces five legal challenges over crisis at Manston processing centre for asylum seekers

Suella Braverman is facing five legal challenges over a crisis at Manston processing centre but insisted that people seeking asylum in small boats and their smugglers were to blame for the chaos.

The home secretary told MPs that legislation planned to tighten the asylum system would not come before parliament this year. Her most senior civil servant has not yet signed off a £140m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as “value for money”, it emerged.

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