Category Archives: Home Office

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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Manston asylum centre now empty after weeks of controversy

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Apparent vacating of Home Office site follows series of concerns including over outbreak of diphtheria

Manston asylum centre, the troubled Home Office site in Kent where people arriving in the UK in small boats are taken for initial checks, is understood to be completely empty, the Guardian has learned.

Just a few weeks ago about 4,000 arrivals were placed there by the Home Office, almost three times the maximum 1,600 capacity of the tented site in Ramsgate.

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‘More of the same’: UK-French deal fails to address causes behind crossings

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Enforcement-focus agreement ignores lack of safe and legal routes for people to apply for asylum in UK

Following a flurry of selective UK government briefings promising a “groundbreaking” new deal under Rishi Sunak which would curb the numbers of people arriving by small boats, a £63m UK-French deal has arrived.

And much like the last three bilateral agreements over the past four years, which promised to break the “evil” people-smugglers’ model, this one also concentrates on bolstering law enforcement along the French coastline, funded by UK taxpayers.

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MPs find people still sleeping on mats on visit to Manston asylum centre

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Home affairs committee members say site is still engulfed in crisis despite government assurances

Manston processing centre is still engulfed in a crisis despite government reassurances, a committee of MPs who visited the site has said.

Families of people seeking refuge in the UK are still sleeping on mats for weeks on end, the home affairs select committee (HASC) discovered.

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Immigration detainees removed from Harmondsworth centre after disturbances

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Heathrow centre finally emptied on Sunday despite minister expecting everyone to be evacuated by Saturday evening

Dozens of immigration detainees were finally removed on Sunday from a Heathrow immigration centre where a disturbance broke out on Saturday after a power cut, despite a government minister saying he expected everyone to be evacuated by Saturday evening.

Robert Jenrick issued a statement undertaking to empty the centre of detainees by the end of Saturday.

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Harmondsworth detention centre to be emptied by the end of the day

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Detainees say they have not been told where they are going as minister announces closure after protests over conditions

The minister for immigration has announced that a detention centre near Heathrow will be emptied by the end of Saturday after power cuts and a disturbance at the site.

A power outage that began just after midnight on Friday morning plunged the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, in west London, into darkness.

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No 10 distances itself from minister’s remark about asylum seekers’ ‘cheek’

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Chris Philp’s comments spark row as government faces pressure to fix ‘chaos’ at Manston refugee centre

No 10 has distanced itself from a Home Office minister’s remarks that it is “a bit of cheek” for asylum seekers to complain about the conditions at immigration processing centres.

The government has come under criticism for allowing 4,000 people to be held at the Manston centre, a short-term holding facility in Kent, which is designed to hold no more than 1,600 asylum seekers for only a few days.

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‘We were left by the road’: asylum seekers stranded in London describe experience

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Two Afghans tell of how they were taken from Manston centre and left without accommodation or money

People taken from Manston immigration holding centre have described their dismay at being deposited late at night in central London, without accommodation, appropriate clothing or money.

Amid growing controversy over the circumstances in which large numbers of people were bussed out of the acutely overcrowded camp, the Home Office has insisted that it only released asylum seekers who told staff that they had family or friends they could stay with.

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Sadiq Khan calls for urgent review after asylum seekers stranded in London

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Mayor tells Suella Braverman of his shock at people from Manston facility being left cold and hungry in capital

Suella Braverman is facing demands from Sadiq Khan to launch an urgent review of how dozens of people once held in Manston holding centre were abandoned without food or accommodation in the capital.

The mayor of London has also raised concerns with the home secretary that overcrowding and poor safeguarding in hotels housing people seeking asylum has led to reports of sexual assaults against children.

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Home Office removing asylum seekers from Manston as fears rise for their health

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Young girl in overcrowded Kent processing centre throws note over fence pleading for help and comparing facilities to prison

The Home Office is removing 600 people every day from a controversial processing centre in Kent amid growing concerns over the mental health of people detained for weeks in cramped and unhygienic conditions.

After an outcry at the treatment of asylum seekers at Manston processing centre, the local MP, Roger Gale, has been told by ministers that the total number held within the facility will be cut from 4,100 on Monday to 1,500 by the weekend.

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Britain is targeting Albanians to excuse policy failures, says country’s PM

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Edi Rama urges ministers to ‘stop discriminating’ after Suella Braverman’s ‘Albanian criminals’ comments in Commons

The Albanian prime minister has accused Rishi Sunak’s government of using his country’s citizens as scapegoats for failed immigration policies after critical comments by Suella Braverman about Albanian asylum seekers.

Edi Rama wrote that the UK was falsely targeting Albanians “as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems”. In a series of tweets, he called for the UK to “fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating [against] Albanians”.

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Child asylum seekers say UK officials pressed them to lie about their age

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Boy recorded telling guard he was told he could move from Manston holding centre more quickly if he said he was over 18

Child asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK on small boats say screening officials have put pressure on them to say they are adults, the Guardian has been told.

In some cases, the children say they were told that if they said they were over 18 they would be able to leave the troubled asylum processing site of Manston in Kent more quickly.

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Home Office is putting 2.6m EU citizens at risk of removal, court hears

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Implementation of Brexit withdrawal agreement threatens rights of those with ‘pre-settled status’, watchdog argues

The government is putting 2.6 million EU citizens at risk of detention or removal from the country by the Home Office, the high court has heard.

The claim was made at a judicial review of the Home Office’s implementation of the part of the withdrawal agreement guaranteeing the rights of about 6 million EU citizens living in the country before Brexit.

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Rishi Sunak reportedly seeking deal with France to curb Channel crossings

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Draft deal includes targets and staff bonuses for tackling the number of asylum seekers in the UK

Rishi Sunak is aiming to reach an agreement with France to address the unprecedented number of Channel crossings by asylum seekers which could include new targets and bonuses, according to reports.

Ministers and officials are expected to review a draft deal that was previously close to being signed with France, which encompasses targets for how many boats are stopped from reaching the UK and a minimum number of French officers patrolling the beaches at any one time, sources told the Times.

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Doubts arise over Braverman’s claim to have come forward about code breach

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Former intelligence select committee chief warns issue threatens to undermine confidence in sharing sensitive information

Suella Braverman is under pressure to answer fresh questions about alleged “security breaches”, as a former head of parliament’s intelligence and security committee warned the row threatened to undermine officials’ confidence in sharing sensitive information with her.

The account given by the home secretary and backed up by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, when he defended reappointing her just six days after she was found to have broken the ministerial code were challenged by government insiders and a senior Conservative MP.

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Court rules abandoned wives should be allowed to return to UK

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Judge finds woman unlawfully discriminated against in case of transnational marriage abandonment

A woman who was abandoned in Pakistan by her British husband and forcibly separated from her two-year-old daughter has won a high court case against such practice.

In a landmark ruling, a judge found that women in her situation have been unlawfully discriminated against and should be allowed to return to the UK.

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Barrister says she became legal expert while in Home Office immigration detention

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Aderonke Apata says she has Home Office to thank for career as she fought removal to Nigeria

A refugee who has just been called to the bar says she has the Home Office to thank for her career after she became an amateur legal expert while locked up in a detention centre.

Aderonke Apata, 55, from Nigeria, said she was proud to take part in a ceremony last week where she, along with dozens of other newly qualified barristers, were formally called to the bar.

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Airline hired for UK’s Rwanda deportations pulls out of scheme

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Exclusive: Privilege Style causes problem for Home Office as it bows to pressure from campaigners

A charter airline hired to remove people seeking refuge in the UK to Rwanda has pulled out of the scheme after pressure from campaigners.

A plane operated by Privilege Style first attempted to fly asylum seekers to the east African country in June but was grounded by an 11th hour ruling by the European court of human rights.

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Suella Braverman replaced by Grant Shapps; Labour motion calling for fracking ban fails – live

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Home secretary departs after sending an official document by personal email but uses resignation letter to criticise PM

Plans to create Great British Railways, a public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways, have been delayed, MPs have been told.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the transport secretary, told the Commons transport committee that the transport bill, which would have set up the new body, has been delayed because legislation to deal with the energy crisis is being prioritised. She said:

The challenges of things like the energy legislation we’ve got to bring in and various others has meant that we have lost the opportunity to have that [bill] in this third session.

What we are continuing to pitch for will be what I would call a narrow bill around the future of transport technologies, the legislation around things like e-scooters.

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What will new UK home secretary Grant Shapps bring to the role?

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Johnson’s former transport secretary, an aviator with multiple names, has been parachuted in to replace Suella Braverman

Answering the question “who is Grant Shapps?” is more complicated than it would be for most MPs.

The new home secretary has had a varied political career, with rapid rises and precipitous falls – serving as transport secretary, international development secretary, Conservative party chairman, housing minister and now home secretary.

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