Category Archives: Home Office

English test scandal: Home Office accused of ‘shocking miscarriage of justice’

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Students wrongly accused of deception should be helped to clear names, says shadow minister

The Home Office was accused of presiding over a “shocking miscarriage of justice” by MPs during an urgent debate on the English language testing scandal which saw thousands of international students wrongly accused of cheating in an exam they were required to sit as part of their visa application process.

Those students who were wrongly accused of deception, many of whom were subsequently detained and deported, should now be helped to clear their names, shadow Home Office minister Stephen Kinnock told parliament.

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Priti Patel says Macron ‘absolutely wrong’ over Channel crossings

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Home secretary rebuffs French claim UK immigration policy encourages people to risk dangerous journey

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said Emmanuel Macron is wrong to say the UK’s immigration policy is encouraging people to risk their lives crossing the Channel from France.

In a further escalation of the row between the two countries, Patel has dismissed claims by the French president that Britain’s immigration system favours clandestine migration and does not allow for asylum seekers to seek legal ways into the country.

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‘No running water’: foreign workers criticise UK farm labour scheme

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Government report on post-Brexit recruitment finds staff citing no health and safety equipment, racism and unsafe accommodation

Seasonal workers in the UK on a post-Brexit pilot scheme to harvest fruit and vegetables were subjected to “unacceptable” welfare conditions, according to a government review.

Issues cited by workers included a lack of health and safety equipment, racism, and accommodation without any bathrooms, running water or kitchens.

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Calls for safe routes to UK as arrivals by small boat treble in a year

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Refugee charities want change of approach from government after 28,300 people crossed Channel in 2021

Refugee charities are urging the government to open safe routes or risk a new wave of fatalities in the Channel after the number of people who travelled to the UK by small boats trebled last year.

Data released on Tuesday shows that more than 28,300 people crossed the Channel in 2021, three times the number for 2020. The record number came despite tens of millions of pounds being spent by the home secretary, Priti Patel, on new measures to discourage the journeys.

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Suicidal asylum-seekers subjected to ‘dangerous’ use of force by guards at detention centre

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Observer investigation finds officers without the usual certification used risky restraint techniques at Brook House

Suicidal asylum seekers were subject to force by guards who the Home Office allowed to remain on duty despite being “effectively uncertified” in the safe use of restraint techniques, according to internal documents charting conditions inside one of the UK’s most controversial immigration centres.

Experts say the department endangered lives last year by deploying custody staff whose training in the safe use of force had expired, as it detained hundreds of people who had crossed the Channel in a fast-track scheme to remove them.

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The best of the long read in 2021

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Our 20 favourite pieces of the year

After growing up in a Zimbabwe convulsed by the legacy of colonialism, when I got to Oxford I realised how many British people still failed to see how empire had shaped lives like mine – as well as their own

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Asylum-seeking children in UK at risk of self-harm and suicide, charities warn

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Figures reveal child refugees who arrived on their own are waiting longer than adults for Home Office decision

Children who have arrived in the UK on their own to seek asylum are at risk of self-harm and dying by suicide, according to 25 child and migrant rights organisations, as figures reveal they are waiting longer than adults for a decision on their claim.

The warning, in a letter to safeguarding institutions, including the children’s commissioner and the chief social worker, said the risk was “exacerbated by Home Office failures to decide the children’s asylum claims”.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

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Pregnant refugees not being seen by doctors for weeks after reaching UK

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Labour MP writes to Home Office raising concerns over treatment of at least five women being put up at hotel

The Home Office is facing demands for an inquiry after it was claimed that pregnant refugees are not being fed or examined by doctors or midwives after arriving in the UK.

A first-time mother who was 38 weeks pregnant was not seen by a doctor for several weeks after crossing the Channel, it is alleged. After the Iraqi Kurdish woman was examined, it emerged that she had a pathological fear of pregnancy, and the baby had a breech presentation.

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Home Office urged to stop housing asylum seekers in barracks

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Housing survivors of torture or other serious forms of violence in barracks ‘harmful’, all-party report says

A cross-party group of parliamentarians is calling on the government to end its use of controversial barracks accommodation for people seeking asylum, in a new report published on Thursday.

The report also recommends the scrapping of government plans to expand barracks-style accommodation for up to 8,000 asylum seekers. It refers to accommodation, including Napier barracks in Kent, which is currently being used to house hundreds of asylum seekers, as “quasi-detention” due to visible security measures, surveillance, shared living quarters and isolation from the wider community.

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Police treated us like criminals, say families of girls trafficked to Islamic State in Syria

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British authorities accused of interrogating parents who came seeking help when their daughters went missing

Details of how police attempted to criminalise British families whose children were trafficked to Islamic State (IS) in Syria are revealed in a series of testimonies that show how grieving parents were initially treated as suspects and then abandoned by the authorities.

One described being “treated like a criminal” and later realising that police were only interested in acquiring intelligence on IS instead of trying to help find their loved one. Another told how their home had been raided after they approached police for help to track down a missing relative.

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‘Shocking’ that UK is moving child refugees into hotels

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Children’s Society criticises practice of placing unaccompanied minors in hotels with limited care

Record numbers of unaccompanied child asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on small boats are being accommodated in four hotels along England’s south coast, a situation that the Children’s Society has described as “shocking”.

About 250 unaccompanied children who arrived in small boats are thought to be accommodated in hotels, which Ofsted said was an unacceptable practice.

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Channel crossings: who would make such a dangerous journey – and why?

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Most of the people who reach the UK after risking their lives in small boats have their claims for asylum approved

Last week’s tragedy in the Channel has reopened the debate on how to stop people making dangerous crossings, with the solutions presented by the government focused on how to police the waters.

Less has been said about where those people come from, with most fleeing conflicts and persecution. About two-thirds of people arriving on small boats between January 2020 and May 2021 were from Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria. Many also came from Eritrea, from where 80% of asylum applications were approved.

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UK asylum claims at highest level since 2004, with record backlog of cases

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Home Office says 67,547 applications waiting to be dealt with, as ministers urged to drop ‘nationalist posturing’

Asylum claims made in the UK have risen to their highest level for nearly 20 years, according to new figures from the Home Office, as the head of the Refugee Council calls for less “nationalist posturing” over people fleeing war zones.

The backlog of cases waiting to be dealt with is also at a record high, with 67,547 people in the queue and more than 125,000 either waiting for a decision or due to be removed from the UK.

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Priti Patel under ‘immense pressure’ from No 10 over Channel crossings

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Downing Street declines to praise home secretary over attempts to stop crossings in small boats

Priti Patel is being put under “immense pressure” from Downing Street and Conservative MPs over government efforts to halt Channel crossings in small boats, with No 10 refusing to say the home secretary had done a good job.

As figures revealed, the number of people making perilous crossings has tripled since 2020, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson twice declined to praise Patel’s strategy on Monday. He said the prime minister had “confidence in the home secretary” but would only say she has “worked extremely hard and no one can doubt this is a priority for her”.

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Most people who risk Channel boat crossings are refugees – report

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Analysis contradicts Priti Patel’s claim that 70% are single men who are economic migrants to UK

Nearly two-thirds of people who migrate to the UK in small boats are deemed to be genuine refugees and allowed to remain, a report says, in an apparent contradiction of past statements by the home secretary, Priti Patel.

Analysis using Home Office data and requests under freedom of information laws has concluded that 61% of migrants who travel by boat are likely to be allowed to stay after claiming asylum.

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Union considers legal action over Channel refugee ‘pushbacks’

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Border Force staff express concern at Priti Patel’s proposed tactic of forcing boats back to France

Border Force guards, who the government says will be asked to turn refugee boats in the Channel around, are considering applying for a judicial review to stop the tactic from being used.

Officers from the PCS union have said they are prepared to launch a high court challenge to the lawfulness of Priti Patel’s plans. The home secretary has maintained that the tactic of intercepting and sending back boats to France would be within the law.

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Brexit and UK immigration policy ‘increasing risks to trafficking victims’

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Damning report highlights greater risk of EU worker exploitation and vulnerability of undocumented migrants

A damning new report on trafficking in the UK has warned that Brexit and the Home Office’s new plan for immigration are increasing the risks to trafficking victims.

The report has also found links between terrorism and trafficking in cases involving families from the UK ending up with Islamic State in Syria and an increase in the recruitment of trafficking victims via social media.

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Priti Patel’s fury as Johnson blocks public sexual harassment law

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Home Office fears PM views aggressive targeting of women and girls as ‘mere wolf whistling’ amid moves to create specific offence

Boris Johnson has infuriated the home secretary by overruling attempts to make public sexual harassment a crime. This has prompted concern at the Home Office that the prime minister views the issue as mere “wolf whistling”, rather than the aggressive targeting of women and girls going about their daily lives.

Sources say tensions have emerged between Johnson and Priti Patel, and other senior Home Office figures, after he blocked plans to make public sexual harassment a specific offence.

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Fruit sculptures in Hackney honour Windrush generation

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Veronica Ryan creates UK’s first permanent artwork dedicated to people affected by the scandal

The first permanent artwork to honour the Windrush generation in the UK has been unveiled in the east London borough of Hackney, as councils across the country kick off the first day of Black History Month.

The work, created by the artist Veronica Ryan, is one of two permanent sculptures that symbolise the council’s respect and commitment to the Windrush generation and their legacy and contribution to the area. The second, by Thomas J Price, will be unveiled next spring.

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‘Chaotic’ UK response criticised as Afghan babies wait for milk and donations turned away

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Volunteers ‘operating blind’ about refugees’ needs, while hotels left with no staff to distribute aid

The government’s response towards families evacuated from Afghanistan to Britain has been “chaotic and uncoordinated”, hampering volunteers’ efforts to help, charities have said.

One hotel where 50 babies were in quarantine with their families after fleeing the Taliban had no formula milk, they said. In other hotels, supplies of clothes, toiletries and nappies donated by the public were turned away by managers who had no staff to distribute them.

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