Paula Serre lost her job after being stripped of the right to live and work in the UK after confusion over immigration process
A French woman who lost her job in the UK after a mix-up over the Brexit immigration process has had her residency and work rights restored by the Home Office after publicising her story.
Paula Serre had been waiting for two years for a final decision on her application when her life was turned upside down.
Continue reading...Rise in salary requirements will further fuel staff shortages in industry that relies on skilled migrant workers
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What do you call an Italian restaurant that doesn’t serve pizza?
During the 2022 Edinburgh fringe, Gusto’s restaurant in the city sounded like the punchline to one of the comedy festival’s jokes.
There’s a threshold at which it becomes impossible to make money, so you have to put prices up, which drives inflation, which flies in the face of what the government say they’re trying to do,” says Snell.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leonard Farruku’s former roommate was offered no support after being relocated to another room without belongings
The man who was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm barge after it was suspected he had killed himself lay undiscovered for up to 12 hours, his former roommate has claimed.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Leonard Farruku, 27, an asylum seeker from Albania, was found dead in a shower room on the barge last month, Yusuf Deen Kargbo, 20, urged the Home Office to stop using it to accommodate those seeking refugee status.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. Youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Woman was detained overnight and removed despite presenting Home Office documents showing her right to work and live in UK
A 34-year-old Spanish woman was forcibly removed from the UK after returning from a Christmas holiday near Málaga despite presenting Brexit paperwork to border officials showing she has a right to live and work in the country.
She was flown back to Spain after being detained overnight in Luton airport on 26 December and told she was “wasting her time” if she thought the Home Office documentation she had showing her right to live in the UK was valid.
Continue reading...Independent French auditors say UK information on people crossing Channel is ‘very patchy’
The UK is not coordinating sufficiently with France to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats or providing enough detailed information, French state auditors have said.
The cour des comptes, an independent French body that examines the use of public funds, has published a report on the efficiency of French policy on illegal migration, in which it said France was “struggling to develop operational cooperation arrangements” with its neighbours, including the UK.
Continue reading...Leonard Farruku’s family ‘facing a double tragedy with not being able to have his body back home’ in Albania
The family of a man believed to have killed himself on the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, say they have had to turn to crowdfunding to bring him back to Albania for burial.
Leonard Farruku, 27, was found unresponsive onboard the vessel commissioned by the Home Office to accommodate up to 500 asylum seekers at Portland Port, Dorset, on 12 December.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Silvana one of potentially thousands who were unaware of need to apply for post-Brexit EU settlement scheme
An Italian environmental technology investor who has lived in the UK for 14 years has discovered she could be removed despite getting a “permanent residency” card after Brexit.
She is one of potentially tens of thousands of EU citizens who were unaware the Home Office changed the rules in 2019 requiring them to apply for a different scheme, called EU settlement.
Continue reading...Home secretary said secret of a long marriage was sedating spouse on the same day a new policy on spiking was announced
James Cleverly has apologised for joking about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug in comments made at a Downing Street reception.
The home secretary’s remarks came just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking, when someone puts drugs into another person’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent.
Continue reading...PM announces different timetable for rise in earnings threshold people must cross to bring family to UK
Rishi Sunak has said the minimum salary levels needed for British nationals to bring foreign relatives to the UK will rise to £38,700 in 2025, adding yet more confusion to the rapidly changing rules.
The prime minister’s comments come just a day after an initially unnoticed parliamentary answer said the much-criticised plan to more than double the threshold from £18,600 a year to £38,700 was being shelved.
Continue reading...Massimo and his British wife Dee say settlement scheme designed to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK
An Italian restaurant owner and his British wife have had their bank accounts frozen overnight after 15 years of custom in a “catastrophic” post-Brexit tactic they say is designed by the government to frighten immigrants into leaving the UK.
Massimo and Dee are two of thousands of EU citizens who are discovering the permanent residence (PR) cards they obtained were invalidated by Brexit and even after 21 years of paying tax in the UK it does not entitle them to remain.
Continue reading...Rightwing factions criticise decision to raise minimum salary to £29,000 in spring, rather than £38,700
Rightwing Conservatives have expressed concern at the decision to U-turn on more than doubling the minimum salary needed for British nationals bringing foreign relatives to the UK, in yet another sign of the party’s continued splits on migration.
In a surprise and low-key announcement on Thursday evening, the Home Office said the threshold would still rise significantly from the current £18,600, but to £29,000 instead of the £38,700 initially announced earlier this month.
Continue reading...High court order says hotels can be used only for very short periods ‘in true emergency situations’
The Home Office has been banned from accommodating lone asylum seeker children in hotels apart from for very short periods “in true emergency situations” after a long-running high court case.
The home secretary’s practice of routinely and systematically accommodating these children in hotels has been ruled unlawful in an order finalised on Thursday. The order states that since December 2021 this practice has “exceeded the proper limits of his powers”.
Continue reading...Department unexpectedly announces interim increase to just £29,000, with no timeline given for planned full rise to £38,700
The Home Office has made a U-turn on its much-criticised plan to imminently raise the minimum salary requirement for British nationals bringing foreign family members to the UK, saying the threshold will first be raised to £29,000 instead of £38,700.
The revised proposal, announced unexpectedly and without fanfare in a parliamentary answer, said the threshold would be increased “incrementally” and would still eventually hit £38,700, but gave no timescale for when this would happen.
Continue reading...Idea quietly shelved after Tory splits over Rwanda bill, as Home Office is accused of ‘fiddling’ asylum claim data
No 10 has dropped a proposal for an end-of-year immigration update from Rishi Sunak amid concern that key policies that are meant to “stop the boats” are running into trouble.
The prime minister had been expected to make a statement in December outlining progress on the Rwanda deportation scheme and plans to house asylum seekers in ships such as the Bibby Stockholm and in former barracks, Whitehall sources said.
Continue reading...Home Office plans wording ‘update’ but campaigners call for new offence to help address low conviction rate
The Home Office has announced plans to “modernise” spiking laws in a move it claims will help bring perpetrators to justice. But experts said the changes will not make any difference without simultaneous investment in police training and other measures to improve the handling of cases on the ground.
Under plans unveiled this weekend, the government will amend the criminal justice bill to make clear that spiking is illegal. It is also drawing up new guidance to provide an “unequivocal” definition of the crime.
Continue reading...Furore over the controversial Rwanda scheme labelled far from ‘helpful’ as Britain seeks to fulfil role in the international forum
Tensions between the Home Office and Foreign Office are said to be “strained” before the largest international gathering in years on the refugee crisis, with the UK’s contribution overshadowed by the row over Rwanda.
Headed by development minister Andrew Mitchell, the UK delegation at this week’s UN Global Refugee Forum will unveil what it describes as an “ambitious package” that includes delivering schooling to hundreds of thousands of refugee children.
Continue reading...Top civil servant summoned to give ‘full and frank’ answers after costs of scheme rose from £140m to £290m
The Home Office has been ordered to disclose the full costs of Rishi Sunak’s secretive deal to deport migrants to Rwanda, as insiders told of turmoil within the department over the controversial policy.
Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary of the Home Office, will be hauled before the public accounts committee on Monday, after the initial costs of the scheme rose from £140m to £290m.
Continue reading...Prime minister holds emergency press conference to try to regain control over immigration debate as Tory rebellion grows
Rishi Sunak was forced into a desperate defence of his new Rwanda asylum law as he battled to hold together the fractured Conservative party amid speculation that he could face a challenge to his position.
The prime minister told an emergency Downing Street press conference that he would “finish the job” of getting his controversial deportation plan off the ground despite criticism from the Tory right and anxiety among centrist MPs.
Continue reading...Council says it will apply to appeal court after judge rules in favour of government plans citing high risk of migrants being made homeless
Council bosses are planning to appeal against a high court ruling that gives the government the green light to use two military sites to accommodate thousands of asylum seekers.
Lawyers representing West Lindsey district council in Lincolnshire argued that plans to use the disused RAF Scampton, where the “dambusters” were based during the second world war, were unlawful. Lawyers for Braintree district council where Wethersfield airfield is based, made similar arguments. A local Braintree resident, Gabriel Clarke-Holland, was also involved in the legal challenge.
Continue reading...Clampdown announced by James Cleverly is a shift in strategy by the government, which is rated poorly by the public on the issue
Soon after James Cleverly was announced as the new home secretary, one Labour frontbencher expressed surprise at the appointment.
“This must be the most liberal home secretary we’ve had in years – including during the Labour years,” the person said.
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