Rwanda Deportation Flight Migrants Include Torture Victims
A detailed clinical review of the backgrounds of asylum seekers likely to be sent to Rwanda has found many may have been tortured. The research by charity Medical Justice questions how people have so far been selected for the proposed flights. The plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is being challenged next week in the High Court. The government says the scheme will help end people smuggling and dangerous crossings of the English Channel. The Home Office's £120m plan aims to send some of those who cross the English Channel on to the African nation to have their claims dealt with there. If they are found to be in genuine need of protection, Rwanda would offer them resettlement, rather than sending them back to the UK.
The plan is widely opposed by asylum experts, including the United Nations' refugee agency. The first planned flight was aborted in June after the European Court of Human Rights said judges in London must first rule on whether it was lawful. The Supreme Court's judicial review into the policy has now been postponed to September.
Dominic Casciani, BBC News, https://rb.gy/jv2scs
Baby Dies in ‘Inhuman’ Dutch Centre for Asylum Seekers
The death of a three-month-old baby at an overcrowded centre for asylum seekers in the Netherlands is being investigated, as medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) were deployed at the controversial facility for the first time. The unnamed infant’s death is the latest incident at the Ter Apel centre in northern Netherlands, where conditions have been denounced by MSF as “inhuman” and staff have walked out due to the failures of the service.
Those seeking asylum have been forced to sleep in the open, while tents have been banned as they impede the view of CCTV and there is evidence of the pegs being used as weapons. On Wednesday, more than 700 people slept outside. The child was said to have died in a sports hall that was acting as an overflow service next to the main reception centre.
A spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers that staffs the facility said: “The staff are deeply shocked by this terrible event. This is particularly hard on Ter Apel. There are feelings of sadness and powerlessness among residents and employees.”
Read more: Daniel Boffey Guardian, https://rb.gy/m5ce1m
Refugee Left Vulnerable After Exposing Safeguarding Breaches at SERCO Managed Hotel
A man, who was forced to leave Afghanistan after his life was threatened following the Taliban take-over last year, is living in a Serco-managed hotel in Manchester with his wife and son where he has spoken out about serious safeguarding concerns. Rumi disclosed details of the safeguarding issues at the hotel to a social worker from Manchester city council and a police officer from GMP Divisional Safeguarding Team. Rumi and his family were accompanied at the meeting by Dr Rhetta Moran from RAPAR. They were assured their fears would be investigated thoroughly and that they would not be moved to accommodation outside Manchester while the investigation is ongoing and they wait for their asylum decision. Subsequent discussions with NHS staff confirmed that the family would remain in Manchester near their support groups.
The serious safeguarding concerns Rumi revealed to police and social services included incidents of harassment at the hotel and parents being told their children must be supervised at all times within the building and its grounds. Rumi said Serco staff knocked on every door in the hotel and told parents they must keep their children in the rooms. If they did leave their rooms, they must stay with their children. Serco staff told parents that their children were at risk in the hotel. But parents were also informed that, if they complained, it would be noted in their asylum profiles - so most families are too frightened to speak out, despite being deeply worried about the Serco staff’s safeguarding warnings.
Read more: RAPAR, https://rb.gy/bbjtff
Immigrants/Asylum Seekers Locked In Cells Without Legal Representation
New research from Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has found that 89% of detainees held in prisons have difficulty accessing legal representation. 74% have reported being locked in their cell for 22-24 hours per day. Allegations raise concerns that immigrants’ human rights are not being protected. People held in Immigration Removal Centres (IRC) have long been entitled to 30 minutes of free immigration legal advice but this does not extend to people held under the immigration act in prisons. In February 2021, the High Court found that the lack of legal advice for immigration detainees in prisons was ‘discriminatory and unlawful’. The judgment found that the difference in treatment between detainees in prisons and detainees in IRCs constituted ‘unlawful discrimination’ contrary to article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Locked in cells for 22-24 hours a day: Annie Viswanathan, Director, Bail for Immigration Detainees, said: “Not only does the Home Office lock individuals up without trial and threaten them with permanent exile from the UK, but people are detained in prisons where they are denied the legal representation that would enable them to exercise their fundamental right to challenge these decisions. The stakes could not be higher, with children forced to grow up without a parent and severe and lasting damage caused to vulnerable people as a result of detention. Meanwhile, the majority of people are locked in their cells for more than 22 hours per day, every day.
Read more: Ella Hopkins, Each Other, https://rb.gy/dpzohn
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Protests This Sunday Against Deportations to Rwanda
This Sunday 4 Sept. we will be protesting at Colnbrook & Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centres, Manchester STHF: Against the Rwanda plan and the Borders Act which are an attack on everyone’s right to asylum and protection in the UK.
We are helping organise these protests as part of a new coalition: Action Against Detention & Deportations. Another Rwanda flight could be announced shortly. The policy is being challenged in the High Court on 5 Sept. It is urgent that the growing movement against these brutal laws is visible right now.
“Many of us are survivors of rape and other torture - if this policy is legalised – none of us will be safe or free. We will not let this government destroy our lives.” -- All African Women’s Group In defending the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to move freely we defend everybody’s rights!
Please join us.
Demos in your area: Manchester Short Term Holding Facility, M90 5PZ - Sunday 4th September - 3pm
Colnbrook/Harmondsworth IRC, UB7 0HB (near Heathrow) - Sunday 4th September - 3pm
Action Against detention & Deportation -
https://sites.google.com/view/no-deportations
And All African Women’s Group Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/AllAfricanWomen
Crossroads Women’s Centre -
http://crossroadswomen.net/
UK Asylum Statistics Year Ending June 2022
Grants of Protection
The UK offered protection (in the form of asylum, humanitarian protection, alternative forms of leave and resettlement) to 15,684 people (including dependants) in the year ending June 2022. This number was 24% lower than in 2019, but similar to levels seen from 2015 to 2018. Resettlement accounted for 1,622 (10%) of the people offered protection in the latest year. The resettlement data here does not include the people who have been resettled under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme or relocated under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy; statistics on these schemes will be included in future editions of Immigration Statistics.
There were 63,089 asylum applications (main applicants only) in the UK in the year ending June 2022, this is 77% more than in 2019. This is higher than at the peak of the European Migration crisis (36,546 in year ending June 2016) and is the highest number of applications for almost two decades (since 2003).
In the year ending June 2022, there were 14,706 initial decisions made on asylum applications. Although the number of decisions has increased in the last year, they remain 29% below numbers in 2019, before the pandemic. Just over three quarters (76%) of the initial decisions in the year ending June 2022 were grants (of asylum, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave), which is a substantially higher grant rate than in pre-pandemic years and the highest since 82% in 1990. Of the top ten nationalities applying for asylum, half have a grant rate above 80% (Iran 85%, Afghanistan 97%, Eritrea 97%, Syria 98% and Sudan 92%). This rise in grant rate is in part because of the low number of refusals (including third country refusals, which have been affected by the UK leaving the EU), although the overall grant rate can vary for a number of reasons.
How Many People Entered Immigration Detention
24,004 people entered immigration detention in the year ending June 2022, this represented a small decrease of 2% compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019. At the end of June 2022, there were 2,038 people in immigration detention (including those detained under immigration powers in prison), close to three times more than at the end of June 2020 (698) when the impact of the pandemic was most pronounced and 24% more than pre-pandemic levels at the end of December 2019 (1,637).
23,529 people left detention in the year ending June 2022 which was 4% fewer than in 2019. Just over two-thirds (67%) had been detained for seven days or less, compared with 39% pre-pandemic in 2019. This change was in part due to an increasing proportion of detainees being detained for short periods on arrival to the UK before being bailed (85% of those leaving detention in the year ending June 2022 were bailed) with the most common reason being an asylum (or other) application being raised.
How Many People Were Deported
In the year ending March 2022, there were 3,231 enforced returns, 55% fewer than in 2019 pre-pandemic (7,198). The vast majority of enforced returns in the latest year were of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) and 51% were EU nationals. Enforced returns have been declining since the peak in 2012 with the most recent fall related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of enforced returns were very low during quarters that coincided with lockdowns starting in late March 2020 and early January 2021 (363 and 429). Numbers have increased to around 810 per quarter; however, this was still below the pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (which saw around 1,800 returns per quarter).
In the year ending March 2022, there were 3,025 FNOs returned from the UK, of which 55% were EU nationals (1,673) and 45% were non-EU nationals (1,352). FNO figures are a subset of the total returns figures and in the year ending March 2022 constituted the vast majority of enforced returns and 26% of enforced and voluntary returns combined. This figure of 3,025 FNO returns was 41% lower than in 2019 (5,128). Whilst non-EU FNO returns have started to increase following the COVID-19 pandemic, FNO returns have shown an overall downward trend since 2016, following a steady increase before this, with the majority of FNOs returned being from the EU in every year since 2014
Source: Government Statistics, https://rb.gy/tthokv
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