Labour promised to scrap the Rwanda policy. But its new approach aims to be just as tough on asylum seekers: Home secretary Yvette Cooper has started to lay out the government's migration policy plans. Number 10/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND Migration policy has always been an ideological headache for the Labour party. Caught between the party’s labour …
UK’s failed asylum deportation plan puts Rwanda’s human rights and refugee struggles in the spotlight: The UK Supreme Court ruled on 15 November 2023 that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. The plan would have seen tens of thousands of asylum seekers sent from the UK to Rwanda, which would then process and host …
Suella Braverman warns of ‘unmanageable’ numbers of asylum seekers – the data shows we hardly take any: A migration “hurricane” is coming, Suella Braverman has warned. Speaking at the Conservative party conference, the home secretary claimed that without action by the Conservatives, millions more people will come to Britain, “uncontrolled and unmanageable”. The idea that …
Bibby Stockholm: legionella is not the only health threat on the asylum barge: shutterstock Just days after being moved in, people seeking asylum were removed from the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge due to legionella bacteria on board. Dorset council, where the barge is located, has raised concerns that delays in removing people increased their risk …
Sending UK asylum seekers to Ascension Island is a legal non-starter – if the government really is planning to do it: Shutterstock/Alexander Trybushny As part of attempts to prevent people crossing the English Channel in small boats, the UK government has been briefing the press that it is considering sending arrivals to Ascension Island – …
Many people think it’s impossible to be LGBTQ+ and religious – this ‘homosecularism’ is dangerous for asylum seekers: gnepphoto/Shutterstock The UK government’s plan to send refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda has been controversial from the start. For LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in the UK, it remains a frightening prospect. The government has insisted that …
Europe outsourcing asylum to African countries is a terrible idea – there are alternatives: Nigerien police processing Emergency Travel Mechanism evacuees in Niamey, Niger in 2019. Laura Lambert For 40 years, western governments have entertained ideas of outsourcing asylum processing and refugee hosting to the global south. It is not a new idea. And neither …
‘It’s like you’re a criminal, but I am not a criminal.’ First-hand accounts of the trauma of being stuck in the UK asylum system: Warning: this story contains graphic descriptions of violence. Pseudonyms are used to protect the interviewees’ identities. Angela had already been in the UK as an asylum seeker for nine years and …
Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing: Dances and concerts were usually the only opportunity for patients to meet in a large group. K. Drake/Wellcome Collection, CC BY-NC Music has a powerful effect on the listener. It is linked to better mental health, and it has been shown …
The government’s plan to remove asylum seekers will be a logistical mess – and may not deter people from coming to the UK: Migrants rescued by Border Force after crossing the English Channel. Sean Aidan Calderbank/Shutterstock In its new illegal migration bill, the UK government has introduced some surprisingly radical proposals designed to discourage people …
LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa: major new study identifies a diverse, wide-spread community: South Africa is the only African nation to formally extend refugee protection to LGBTI+ people. Luca Sola/AFP via Getty Images Since 1998, South Africa has recognised persecution based on gender and sexuality as legitimate grounds for asylum. This makes …
The Home Office is sabotaging its own plan to tackle the asylum backlog: There are more than 166,000 people in the UK awaiting a decision on their asylum claim. Sean Aidan Calderbank/Shutterstock To cope with a record high backlog of asylum applications, the Home Office has announced it will instruct thousands of applicants to complete …
Asylum claim rejections show the UK government has little understanding of what people are fleeing – and it’s costing lives: After yet another tragedy in the Channel, there is no doubt that something needs to be done to improve the processes overseeing asylum seekers coming to the UK, through whatever route. The UK’s prime minister, …
UK immigration: creating a spectacle around people seeking asylum generates fear and chaos, not solutions: Suella Braverman's Chinook flight to an immigration holding facility in Kent is the latest move in a decade of border spectacle. Gareth Fuller / PA images When the Home Office left a group of people seeking asylum stranded at London’s …
Manston holding facility: does the UK’s treatment of asylum seekers violate the law?: A woman held at the Manston holding facility in Kent is taking legal action against Home Secretary Suella Braverman. The asylum seeker claims that she was held unlawfully in “egregiously defective conditions” at the centre. Her case is supported by the organisation …
The UK’s asylum system is in crisis, but the government – not refugees – is to blame: Kent Police are investigating an attack on a Home Office migrant processing centre in Dover, after incendiary devices were reportedly thrown at the building on Sunday October 30 2022. Reports have said that witnesses at the scene described …
The UK’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda raise four red flags: British Home Secretary Priti Patel (left), and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, seal asylum seeker deal with a handshake. Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images Like many others, I was surprised and upset to hear about the UK’s new deal to …
How the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is 21st-century imperialism writ large: In announcing his plan to partner with Rwanda to manage migration, Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed, on April 14 2022, that the UK is “a beacon of openness and generosity”. He lauded the great British tradition of offering sanctuary to …