'Indefinite Leave To Remain' for people who are undocumented, destitute, and those in the legal process #HealthAndSafetyForAll
This is our call:
We call upon the British and Irish States to act immediately so that all undocumented, destitute and migrant people in the legal process in both the UK and Ireland are granted Status Now, as in *Indefinite Leave to Remain. In this way every human, irrespective of their nationality or citizenship can access healthcare, housing, food and the same sources of income from the State as everyone else
Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan / Pakistan / South China Sea / Venezuela / Haiti / Somalia / Bosnia And Herzegovina / Russia (Internal) / Israel/Palestine
Violence escalated in Haiti after the country’s two largest gang coalitions launched coordinated attacks across the capital Port-au-Prince to deter an international security mission from deploying. Gangs targeted critical sites, freed over 4,700 inmates and forced tens of thousands to flee.
Electoral authorities in Venezuela blocked the opposition coalition from registering their banned candidate María Corina Machado or her replacement, in an apparent bid to strengthen President Maduro’s hand in the lead-up to July elections.
Continue reading “Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees – April 2024“
This scheme is separate to the initial Rwanda policy (which was defeated in the Supreme Court), the Rwanda Treaty which was recently signed by the Home Secretary, and the Safety of Rwanda Bill which is currently being rushed through Parliament.
Continue reading “Urgent notice: Home Office offers of ‘voluntary departure’ to Rwanda”All 10 amendments made by peers voted down, giving much-needed boost to beleaguered PM
Rishi Sunak’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda took a step forward on Monday night after MPs voted overwhelmingly to throw out a series of amendments made to the Rwanda bill by the House of Lords.
MPs voted down all 10 amendments made by peers over the past few weeks to return the bill to the form in which it was initially passed by the Commons in January, giving a much-needed boost to the beleaguered prime minister.
Continue reading “MPs vote to throw out amendments to Rwanda deportation bill”Major flaws in a huge Home Office immigration database have resulted in more than 76,000 people being listed with incorrect names, photographs or immigration status.
Leaked internal documents reveal the scale of the database fiasco at the Home Office, which has recently been criticised for delays in immigration application processing, long queues at borders and the distribution of incorrect identity cards.
The Home Office has been relatively silent about the database failures, referring vaguely to them as “IT issues”. Ministers have denied there is a “systemic” problem with Atlas, the tool used by border officials and immigration officers which operates off the flawed database.
Continue reading “Home Office immigration database errors hit more than 76,000 people”Exclusive: Union says Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement deportations
Civil servants have threatened ministers with legal action over concerns that senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.
The FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, have warned they could also be in violation of the civil service code – and open to possible prosecution – if they followed a minister’s demands to ignore an urgent injunction from Strasbourg banning a deportation.
It has sent a pre-action legal letter to James Cleverly, the home secretary, calling for clarity – with a request to either amend the legislation or change the code.
Continue reading “Civil servants threaten ministers with legal action over Rwanda bill”New report finds food insecurity and malnutrition are commonplace for people seeking asylum in London, and outlines key areas for local action.
New report, Food experiences of people seeking asylum in London: areas for local action, published today by Sustain, finds serious issues with food access for people seeking asylum in London. Key areas for local action are outlined, with recommendations of how councils can work with local actors to improve the situation.
Serious concerns were raised about food provided in catered accommodation, with evidence of poor food safety and lack of provision for people with medical conditions and allergies, in some cases leading to hospitalisation. Key issues were raised around unsafe infant feeding with parents lacking access to equipment to sterilise and store bottles, and food being inappropriate for children, who were losing significant amounts of weight. People want to have choice over what they eat and be able to cook their own meals. This was particularly important to mothers, who were deeply impacted by not being able to provide for their children, who were becoming malnourished.
Sustain worked with Jesuit Refugee Service UK and Life Seekers Aid to conduct the research between October 2023 and February 2024. This included focus groups with people with lived experience of the asylum system, interviews with local authorities, healthcare providers and voluntary and community sector organisations, and a workshop with local authorities.
Continue reading “People seeking asylum in London face malnutrition, but there is scope for local action”Curtailing migrant rights may help score quick political gains, but electoral success doesn’t give governments carte blanche to place themselves above the law.
Europe’s insistence on looking tough on migration is endangering rule of law across the Continent.
Pursuing ever more stringent asylum and migration policies, European countries are not only perpetuating human rights violations against asylum seekers and migrants; they are also dismantling collective human rights safeguards, as well as eroding wider legal and democratic checks and balances that protect all our rights.
The upcoming adoption of the United Kingdom’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, currently working its way through the House of Lords, is perhaps the starkest illustration of this dangerous trajectory.
Continue reading “Looking tough on migration is eroding human rights”The chief inspector of borders and immigration angered ministers by exposing an ineffective, cruel system
here is a role in public life, for sure, for people who speak truth to power,” said David Neal, the sacked UK borders inspector, at a hearing of the home affairs select committee last week. It is a role that Mr Neal, who once commanded the 1st Military Police Brigade, did his best to perform. Independent inspectorates play a vital role in upholding standards – particularly when their job is to inspect places otherwise hidden from view. Often, they reveal problems that make ministers uncomfortable. But the truths unearthed by Mr Neal about the borders and asylum system are ones they do not want even to hear.
Continue reading “The chief inspector of borders and immigration angered ministers by exposing an ineffective, cruel system”Dave Neal, who has been ICIBI was sacked – see this report: https://qarn.org.uk/its-scandalous/. He has complained throughout his time as ICIBI that the Home Office was slow, sometimes very slow to publish his Department’s reports. They have now published 13 of them all at once. In his absence the ICIBI team will be unable to act until there is a new appointee.
The role of the Independent Chief Inspector is to help improve the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of the Home Office’s border and immigration functions through unfettered, impartial and evidence-based inspection.
His findings and recommendations for improvement to the Home Office are captured in inspection reports. They are submitted to the Home Secretary and laid before Parliament before publication.
The Independent Chief Inspector has developed a set of expectations against which his staff conduct inspections.
The Home Office publishes official responses to the ICIBI reports.
The letter highlights key concerns raised in the session and request further information on an number of issues, including the role of ICIBI and the impact of the post remaining vacant; outstanding ICIBI reports and their publication; the situation at Wethersfield asylum accommodation centre; and UK border operations.
Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Dame Diana Johnson said:
“We were deeply troubled by what we heard at yesterday’s session with David Neal. Irrespective of the whys and wherefores of his dismissal, we are left with yet another Home Office mess. The ICIBI is a vital part of scrutinising border operations but it is left without leadership for months. 15 reports remain unpublished by the Home Office and we have to wonder how far the Home Office will have taken on board their findings to improve border operations. We have asked them to set out how they intend to restore the authority and effectiveness of this vital role.
“We are also concerned about the conditions at Wethersfield and have asked the Home Office to allow us to see for ourselves what is going on here.”
https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/83/home-affairs-committee/news/200152/
In today’s newsletter: Why David Neal lost his job, and what he had to say about the faltering immigration system
Good morning. When then-home secretary Priti Patel appointed David Neal as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration in 2021, the Commons home affairs committee refused to endorse the decision. They were worried that the recruitment process had been inadequate and said they had seen no evidence that he was “confident to challenge performance publicly”. Well, they’ve seen it now.
Last week, David Neal was sacked from his job by James Cleverly, now the home secretary, just a month before he was due to stand down. Neal’s crime was to disclose unauthorised information to the media – a tactic that he appears to have resorted to after 15 reports he wrote uncovering problems with the immigration system went unpublished, instead gathering dust on a Home Office shelf. Now Neal has told the same parliamentary committee of “shocking leadership” at the Home Office and said he was “sacked for doing my job” – and his testimony paints a grim picture of the state of the accommodation centres where the government houses asylum seekers.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Diane Taylor, who covers immigration and asylum for the Guardian, about what her own reporting has uncovered about the facilities that drove Neal to go rogue – and what his departure tells us about the Home Office’s appetite for scrutiny. Here are the headlines.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/28/first-edition-david-neal-james-cleverly-immigration
This report, published by the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford and Border Criminologies, shows how people have been imprisoned for their arrival on a ‘small boat’ since the Nationality and Borders Act (2022) came into force. It details the process from sea to prison, and explains how this policy is experienced by those affected. Analysis is based on observations of over 100 hearings where people seeking asylum were prosecuted for their own illegal arrival, or for facilitating the arrival of others through steering the dinghy they travelled on. The report is informed by the detailed casework experience of Humans for Rights Network, Captain Support UK and Refugee Legal Support. It also draws on data collected through Freedom of Information requests, and research interviews with lawyers, interpreters, and people who have been criminalised for crossing the Channel on a ‘small boat’.
Read the full report here, and the summary here.
You can join for the launch of the report at Garden Court Chambers on the 7th March, 2024. To register for this hybrid event, click here.
This report produced by the Labour Exploitation Advisory Group (LEAG) explores the ‘continuum of exploitation’ model which shows that workers’ experiences can be understood as existing along a ‘continuum’, or spectrum, ranging from decent work through to breaches of employment rights and at the severe end, conditions of forced labour and trafficking.
It looks at the limits of the ‘modern slavery’ approach to labour exploitation and the need for the UK to move toward a more preventative approach informed by workers’ real lived experiences.
The report is based on engagement with migrant workers with thanks to the Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organization, Latin American Women’s Rights Service and Work Rights Centre and the workers who shared their experiences to inform this report.
Download the report from the website here: https://labourexploitation.org/publications/so-i-decided-to-carry-on-the-continuum-of-exploitation-in-practice/
Mr Neal, whose tenure was due to end on 21 March, told the Times on Tuesday that he had not made the decision to speak to the media “lightly”. He added: “But I’ve been forced into this because my reports aren’t being published.”
“I’ve spent all my working life protecting this country, I’ve identified a security failing and I’ve brought it back to the Home Office,” he is quoted as saying.
“There’s a strong public interest here and that’s why I’ve done what I’ve done. The border is there to keep us safe, it’s critical that there are clear auditable risk decisions made to protect every one of us in the country.”
Continue reading “It’s scandalous”