Suella Braverman - To Visibly Stigmatize Asylum Seekers/Migrants
Has the Home Secretary a complete disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system?
SB has announced plans for electronic tagging to control Asylum Seekers/Migrants. Those tagged will have to wear the tag on their wrist, plainly visible for all to see.
Asylum Seekers/Migrants, forced to wear electronic tags - is Equal to and just as evil as Jewish people in Germany, who were forced to wear the 'Star of David'! A blatant stigmatization
Nazi officials implemented the 'Star of David', an identifying badge to mark people of the Jewish faith; between 1939 and 1945, children of all ages and adults had to wear the badge visibly.
The German government used the badge not only to stigmatize and humiliate Jewish people but also to segregate them and to watch and control their movements; the badge also facilitated deportation.
Bibby Stockholm Asylum Barge, should it not be called a Concentration Barge: (Internment centre for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, deportation)
Migrants wearing tags will become easy targets for racists!
Source: John O for 'No-Deportations'
Children Reaching UK in Small Boats Sent to Jail For Adult Sex Offenders
Vulnerable children who arrive in Britain by small boat are being placed in an adult prison that holds significant numbers of sex offenders. A growing number of cases have been identified where unaccompanied children, many of whom appear to be trafficked, have been sent to HMP Elmley, Kent, and placed among foreign adult prisoners. According to the most recent inspection of Elmley, the block where foreign nationals are held also houses sex offenders.
Of 14 unaccompanied children so far identified by staff at Humans For Rights Network as being sent to an adult prison, one is believed to have been 14 when they spent seven months in Elmley. Most of the cases involve Sudanese or South Sudanese children who travelled to the UK via Libya, with most appearing to have been trafficked or having experienced some form of exploitation.
This weekend there were calls for the Home Office to launch an immediate investigation into the issue and urgently release anyone believed to be a child who is inside an adult jail.
Read more: Mark Townsend, Sian Norris, Katharine Quarmby,
Guardian, https://tinyurl.com/5br5f2fs
Crisis in Asylum System Will Worsen Significantly by Next Election
A fascinating new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) attempts to predict the outlook for asylum policy in 2025 following the next election.
According to the report, the current crisis in the UK's asylum system can be expected to be significantly worse by the next general election, with the new government likely facing a permanent backlog of thousands of asylum seekers living in limbo due to the Illegal Migration Act 2023.
The report finds there is only a very narrow window for success on asylum in the next 12-18 months, and it explores five potential scenarios that could face the next government. Even if the Illegal Migration Act is fully implemented, IPPR predicts it is more likely that new arrivals of asylum seekers will still outpace removals.
Read more: EIN, https://tinyurl.com/5enmx2dj
Supporting Migrants in the Community as an Alternative to Detention
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 23/08/2023, published a comprehensive final evaluation report of a pilot scheme for alternatives to immigration detention in the UK.
The report explains: "The UK maintains one of the largest immigration detention estates in comparison with EU countries and at the time of writing, government policy indicated an intention to expand the immigration estate. In 2019, the Home Office and UNHCR launched the Community Engagement Pilot (CEP) series to test approaches to supporting people to resolve their immigration case in the community.
Under the RMAS pilot, adult migrants without leave to remain were supported in a community-based, engagement-focused alternative to detention (ATD). Pilot participants were provided with one-to-one support from a caseworker and legal counselling from a qualified legal professional. Each participant had three meetings with a legal advisor for support with their immigration casework.
NatCen (the National Centre for Social Research) said that its evaluation found the pilot scheme worked well and was a success.
Read more: EIN, https://tinyurl.com/dvnma9bs
|
No Slowdown in Rise of Asylum Backlog - 170,000 Asylum Seekers Await a Decision
As was widely reported by the media, the Home Office last week released its latest set of immigration statistics. Much of the press coverage focused on the growing backlog of asylum seekers waiting for an initial decision on their claim.
In response to the release of the immigration statistics, both the Refugee Council and the Law Society issued statements criticising the growing backlog. The Law Society called the scale of the backlog "staggering" and said the figures show the inefficiency and under resourcing of the asylum system. Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, commented: "The record high asylum backlog is having a devastating impact on the people we work with, whose lives are put on hold indefinitely while they anxiously wait to hear whether they will be allowed to stay in the UK."
Both groups also expressed concerns over the high number of asylum claims that are now being withdrawn, meaning the Home Office will no longer consider the claim and the claimant will not receive a decision.
Read more: EIN, https://tinyurl.com/fj8cvehe
Suella Braverman Will Not Roll Out Asylum-Support Scheme Deemed ‘More Humane’
The UN has backed a Home Office-funded pilot that would dramatically reduce the spiralling costs of the crisis-hit asylum system – yet Suella Braverman is refusing to endorse the scheme, despite it being described as “more humane”.
This week, the UNHCR (the refugee agency that helps the UK government improve its asylum system) will praise a Home Office-funded scheme in Bedfordshire, which it found cut the cost of accommodating refugees and migrants by more than half when compared with placing them in detention. The savings came through housing people and giving legal and welfare support.
The home secretary, however, is intent on overseeing a huge increase in the Home Office’s detention estate, which experts estimate will take billions to fund. Braverman told parliament that she intends to pursue “a programme of increasing immigration-detention capacity”, which reportedly includes disused RAF bases and barges. The only barge used so far is the Bibby Stockholm, which was to hold 500 asylum seekers but is now empty after legionella bacteria was discovered on board.
Read more: Mark Townsend, Obsever, https://tinyurl.com/35ksu5nn
More Than Two Million Children Displaced by Brutal Conflict in Sudan
At least two million children have been forced from their homes since the conflict in Sudan erupted four months ago – an average of more than 700 children newly displaced every hour. As violence continues to ravage the country, over 1.7 million children are estimated to be on the move within Sudan’s borders and more than 470,000 have crossed into neighbouring countries.
“With over two million children uprooted by the conflict in only a few months, and countless more trapped in its merciless grip, the urgency of our collective response cannot be overstated,” said Mandeep O’Brien, UNICEF Country Representative in Sudan. “We are hearing unimaginable stories from children and families, some of whom lost everything and had to watch their loved ones die in front of their eyes. We said it before, and we are saying it again: we need peace now for children to survive.
At present, close to 14 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian support, many facing multiple threats and terrifying experiences every single day. Apart from conflict hotspots like Darfur and Khartoum, the heavy fighting has now spread to other populated areas, including in South and West Kordofan, limiting the delivery and access of lifesaving services to those in urgent need.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in Sudan (IPC) report estimates that 20.3 million people will be food insecure between July and September 2023 and expected to further exacerbate close to 10 million children’s health and nutrition status.
Read more: Relief Web, https://tinyurl.com/5n6jnub7
Adult Dependent Relative Visas: Not (Quite) Impossible
Adult dependent relative visas have one of the highest refusal rates of all immigration routes. Between 2017 and 2020, 96% of applications were refused. In this article I look at why these applications often go wrong and what you can do to try make them go right. This is not a template for success, but it is intended as a general guide to help you help the Home Office make the right decision.
What is an Adult Dependent Relative Visa?
Before we get into what this visa is, let’s be clear what it is not. This is not simply a parent visa. This is not simply an elderly person’s visa. This is not a visa for retired people of independent means. This is not a visa for financially dependent but otherwise healthy parents. An adult dependent relative visa is something considerably more than all these things.
Read more: Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/2shja5n2
More Delays, More Refusals ‘Bad Faith’: The Latest Trafficking Statistics
The latest trafficking statistics show a huge increase in both refusals and delays, suggesting the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 had had a disastrous impact on the protection of survivors of modern slavery. Most of the trafficking provisions of the legislation came into effect on 30 January 2023. Changes were simultaneously made to the modern slavery statutory guidance and the immigration rules. The newly published data contains the first full quarter of statistics since then.
Refusals at the first stage of the national referral mechanism for survivors of modern slavery have increased significantly. Between April and June 2023 there were 1,348 negative reasonable grounds decisions for adults who had been referred to the national referral mechanism. That amounts to 75% of the total 1,809 decisions made.
This contrasts with the period October to December 2022, before the relevant sections of the Act were brought into force, when 2,322 decisions were made and only 16% of those were negative.
The impact of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has been both significant and damaging to survivors of modern slavery who need support.
Bad faith exclusions:This is where the Home Offce decid that they have claimed to be a victim of modern slavery ‘in bad faith’. This was included in the Act because of assertions of abuse of the system made by the government. There have been precisely zero ‘disqualification requests’ on bad faith grounds.
Read more: Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/2p8xukj7
|