UK: Children and Families Seeking Asylum Face Dire Conditions
“Government policy is directly damaging the health and well-being of vulnerable children and their families who have come to the UK seeking safety,” said Jess McQuail, director of Just Fair. “Instead of pitting people seeking asylum against people already living in the UK, the government should use its available resources to ensure that everybody’s rights are met.”
Children and their families seeking asylum in the United Kingdom increasingly face inadequate living conditions in government-provided temporary housing, affecting their health, well-being, and access to education, Human Rights Watch and Just Fair said in a report released today. Serious Impacts on Physical, Mental Health, Education Access.
The 100-page report, “‘I Felt So Stuck’: Inadequate Housing and Social Support for Families Seeking Asylum in the United Kingdom,” found that families seeking asylum face inhumane conditions in temporary housing, including rat infestation and mold. The families experience daily struggles to get food their children will eat, as well as mental and physical health problems and serious disruptions to their children’s education.
Read more: Human Rights Watch, https://tinyurl.com/4vcjzs3m
£121m in Dividends to Shareholders of Companies Running Asylum Accomodation
Private companies contracted to run Government-funded accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK have collectively paid £121m in dividends to shareholders since securing the most recent contracts in 2019, according to research by PoliticsHome.
Mears, Serco and Clearsprings, the three firms that have been awarded contracts to run the vast majority of the UK’s asylum seeker accommodation, also posted a collective profit of well over £800m in that time. Since 2019, Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd has posted profits of £42.7m and paid £37.9m in dividends, according to Companies House filings. Clearsprings housing stock is mostly used for asylum seeker accommodation, but they also provide private rented accommodation as well as non-convention rentals, such as homes for ex-convicts.
Mears, a social housing provider, has recorded net profits of £89,800,000 from a combination of conventional rentals and asylum seeker accommodation. The company won the contract to provide asylum seeker accommodation in the North East and Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2019 and has paid £26.27m in dividends to its shareholders in that time. While Serco has posted profits of £729.6m since 2019, the firm runs a wide array of other services meaning profit from housing asylum seekers only accounts for a fraction of this income. It also paid £56.8m in shareholder dividends.
Read more: Polotics-Home, https://tinyurl.com/mrx5zz9f
Undocumented Migrants: One World - One Struggle - Together Onwards
Without immigration status, asylum seekers and other undocumented migrants are left destitute and deprived of fundamental rights, health care, decent housing and other resources. Women are particularly disadvantaged as the primary carers for children and other loved ones and live with the fear of their children being taken by the State.
Global Call Out for Actions - Support Regularisation in Canada
On/Around September 17, 2023 - Migrants' movements in Canada are organising to demand regularisation of undocumented migrants' status on and around September 17. We hope you can join in or organise your own actions that would strengthen migrants everywhere.
Half a million undocumented people in so-called Canada face exploitation at work, exclusion from essential services and live in daily fear of detention and deportation. Thousands are imprisoned each year and separated from their communities. Undocumented people and an additional million and a half migrant workers, students and refugees toil in the fields and factories, take care of children, sick and the elderly and face economic and racist violence.
Canada - itself a settler colony on Indigenous lands - imposes immigration rules that deny permanent residency to racialised, working-class migrants. This only serves the interests of bosses and the ruling elite, who constantly clamour for more exploitable workers.
Refusing to be silenced, migrant movements in the country are rising up and unifying under a single call: Status for All. Regularise Everyone! No exclusions, no exceptions. End detentions and deportations.
The mobilisation has already started to pay off - in 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau finally mandated the immigration minister to move forward on regularisation. Victory is within reach, but it has not yet been won, and now Canada is heading into elections - as early as next spring.
We raise our call in solidarity with struggles against imperialist wars, climate catastrophe, capitalist impoverishment and social strife that force people to migrate in the first place. We are united in our belief that the downtrodden peoples of our world must be free to move, return home, and stay wherever they choose.
On Sunday, September 17, 2023 - migrants, including undocumented people, migrant workers, students and refugees - will take to the streets in 15 cities in 9 provinces in Canada.
We call on comrades, supporters and friends in every country worldwide to organise actions at Canadian embassies and in other public spaces in solidarity with migrant struggles in Canada. Show up with one friend or many, and hold up signs supporting Status For All. Share your photos with info@migrantrights.ca and on social media using #StatusForAll.
We are also asking comrades to write to the relevant authorities in Canada to move forward on regularisation. Template letter here.
You can let us know about your action by registering it at www.MigrantRights.ca/Sep17 (not required).
Migrants: One World - One Struggle - Together Onwards
Source: Global Women Against Deportations* and Payday Men's Network
https://ymlp.com/zxt64uuuuzA
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Over 7 Million Refugee Children Out Of School
More than half of the world’s 14.8 million school-aged refugee children are currently missing out on formal education, risking their future prosperity and the attainment of global development goals, according to a new report published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The 2023 UNHCR Refugee Education Report draws on data from over 70 refugee-hosting countries to provide the clearest picture yet of the state of education among refugees globally. It reveals that by the end of 2022, the number of school-aged refugees jumped nearly 50 per cent from 10 million a year earlier, driven mostly by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. An estimated 51 per cent – more than 7 million children – are not enrolled in school.
Read more: Relief Web, https://tinyurl.com/2jnyrsn6
£121m in Dividends to Shareholders of Companies Running Asylum Accomodation
Private companies contracted to run Government-funded accommodation for asylum seekers in the UK have collectively paid £121m in dividends to shareholders since securing the most recent contracts in 2019, according to research by PoliticsHome.
Mears, Serco and Clearsprings, the three firms that have been awarded contracts to run the vast majority of the UK’s asylum seeker accommodation, also posted a collective profit of well over £800m in that time. Since 2019, Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd has posted profits of £42.7m and paid £37.9m in dividends, according to Companies House filings. Clearsprings housing stock is mostly used for asylum seeker accommodation, but they also provide private rented accommodation as well as non-convention rentals, such as homes for ex-convicts.
Mears, a social housing provider, has recorded net profits of £89,800,000 from a combination of conventional rentals and asylum seeker accommodation. The company won the contract to provide asylum seeker accommodation in the North East and Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2019 and has paid £26.27m in dividends to its shareholders in that time. While Serco has posted profits of £729.6m since 2019, the firm runs a wide array of other services meaning profit from housing asylum seekers only accounts for a fraction of this income. It also paid £56.8m in shareholder dividends.
Read more: Polotics-Home, https://tinyurl.com/mrx5zz9f
Statement of Changes HC 1780: Restrictions on Administrative Review
A new statement of changes has been published along with the explanatory memorandum and a written statement from the immigration minister. The biggest change is the removal of administrative review from decisions made under the EU Settlement Scheme.
Many of the changes are minor technical or drafting changes. It is 66 pages because changes have been made to tuberculosis testing and applications involving children. These are rules that apply to many different routes and so amendments need to be made to all of the relevant rules.
Read more: Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/yckrhm9z
Over 7 Million Refugee Children Out Of School
More than half of the world’s 14.8 million school-aged refugee children are currently missing out on formal education, risking their future prosperity and the attainment of global development goals, according to a new report published by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The 2023 UNHCR Refugee Education Report draws on data from over 70 refugee-hosting countries to provide the clearest picture yet of the state of education among refugees globally. It reveals that by the end of 2022, the number of school-aged refugees jumped nearly 50 per cent from 10 million a year earlier, driven mostly by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. An estimated 51 per cent – more than 7 million children – are not enrolled in school.
Read more: Relief Web, https://tinyurl.com/2jnyrsn6
Refugee Family Reunion: A User’s Guide
This post is intended for refugees (including those with humanitarian protection), their families and their friends trying to understand the rules on refugee family reunion. The requirements to be met are fairly straightforward and simple for children and partners who existed at the time the refugee fled their country of origin.
For new family members such as a new spouse the refugee married after leaving the country of origin or newly born child or for children who are over the age of 18 at the date of application or for other relatives, the normal immigration rules apply and these are far harder to meet.
Where the refugee family reunion requirements or other immigration rules cannot be satisfied it remains possible to rely on human rights arguments and to argue that your application should be considered “outside of the rules”.
Read more: Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/yw8kzbkv
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