Detained Migrants Are Workers. They Belong in the Trade Union Movement

Currently, hundreds of migrants are detained in appalling conditions in immigration removal centres (IRCs) across the country. Rather than treating them as victims devoid of agency, trade unions must start organising as we would in any other workplace; through member-led activity and industrial action. Before they are detained, the Home Office prevents the majority of asylum seekers and those without immigration status from taking up employment. Robbed of their capacity to legally earn wages, they are forced into lives of precarity and destitution.

But in a cruel twist, as soon they have been detained, these same migrants are permitted, even encouraged, to work. Worst of all, they are paid just £1 per hour to do so. In return for this poverty wage, they clean the toilets, dispose of waste, staff the kitchens and provide welfare support. In response to Covid-19, migrants in immigration detention have even allegedly been asked to intensively clean for just £2 per day, so that the centres in which they are detained can pass inspection.

The trade union movement has an obligation to start treating detained migrants as workers and to organise and incorporate them into the workers’ movement. This must not replace the fight to close detention centres altogether but instead act as a complimentary attack on the Home Office’s deeply inhumane policies.

Source: Isaac Ricca-Richardson and Franck Magennis, https://rb.gy/htxioo

Deteriorated Situations: Mali, Ethiopia, Somalila, Mozambique, India, Ecuador

Violence skyrocketed in Mali, leaving hundreds killed as jihadist groups launched multiple attacks and engaged in intense fighting with security forces, notably in central regions.

In Mozambique, Islamist insurgents advanced into the southern districts of Cabo Delgado province, launching attacks in areas previously unaffected by the nearly five-year old insurgency.

After leaders from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party made derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad, tensions rose as thousands took to the streets across India.

Anti-government protests demanding lower fuel prices and limits to the expansion of extractive industries turned violent in Ecuador as demonstrators clashed with security forces.

Source: International Crisis Group
https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch

Report Condemns Life in the UK Test as a “Random Selection of Obscure Facts”

The Life in the UK test is a “random selection of obscure facts and subjective assertions” and needs urgent reform, a Lords committee has concluded. Most migrants have to sit the Life in the UK test when applying for settlement or citizenship. The 24-question, multiple-choice exam is designed to ensure that “people who are committing to become British citizens have knowledge of our values, history and culture” but even the Home Secretary has described it as a “pub quiz”.

Immigration minister Kevin Foster told the Justice and Home Affairs Committee that his department plans an “in-depth review” of the test and will say more about this “over the next 12 months”. This is not fast enough for the committee, which professed itself “astonished” that an overhaul hasn’t happened already and recommended change “as a matter of priority”.

Academics who (for reasons best known to themselves) take an interest in the Life in the UK test complain that it is by turns esoteric, facetious and contentious. The official version of the UK’s colonial and martial history is a particular bugbear.

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/tms4og

Detailed Policy on Differential Treatment of Refugees Announced

The government has announced the details of its much-trailed policy of treating some refugees differently to others based on their mode of arrival in the United Kingdom. The Home Office refers to this as “differentiation” but the word “discrimination” is equally apposite.

The changes are being made today because section 12 and other related sections of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 come into force for asylum claims made on or after 28 June 2022. Some refugees will now receive what is being called “temporary refugee permission to stay” (as opposed to “refugee permission to stay”).

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/bp8mod

Conditions at Napier Barracks Improve But Bedrooms Still Grim

Conditions at a notorious asylum accommodation centre in Kent have improved, a watchdog reports. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Neal, said his team had “observed conditions at Napier Barracks that should have been in place over a year ago”.

Inspectors were so appalled by their first visit to Napier in February/March 2021 that they rushed out an emergency report. This re-inspection took place in March 2022 and the report published yesterday. The main improvement on last time is the guarantee that people will spend no more than 90 days in the former military camp. Mr Neal describes this as “central to the improved atmosphere on the site”. There have also been physical improvements: better kitchens and recreation areas, no barbed wire, electrical sockets and clean showers. Residents praised the food and the “kind” staff.

The actual bedrooms remain grim despite “some superficial improvements”. The original inspection had “found the sleeping accommodation to be in a poor condition and unfortunately there had been little improvement… Sleep deprivation was a problem that was consistently raised with inspectors”. Mr Neal said he was “disappointed” about the lack of progress.

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/jr3znm

Victory For Domestic Workers in UK Supreme Court

The Supreme Court opens the door for exploited domestic workers in diplomatic household to obtain compensation in a landmark decision on Wednesday 6th July.

The Supreme Court has decided that diplomats who profit by exploiting their workers in conditions of modern slavery cannot rely on diplomatic immunity to stop their domestic worker’s claim for compensation.

In a majority decision the Supreme Court has found in favour of the Appellant, Ms Wong, holding that her employer, a Saudi diplomat, held her in conditions of domestic servitude thereby substantially profiting from her labour.

Read more: https://rb.gy/gsfb5q

What is the Difference Between Refugee Status and Humanitarian Protection?

On the face of it, refugee status and humanitarian protection seem like two sides of the same coin. Both are a form of international protection granted to a person in need. They give most of the same rights to work, study and access benefits.

But as we shall see, they are underpinned by very different legal frameworks, and refugee status is undoubtedly superior to a grant of humanitarian protection in several ways. In particular, refugee status can allow people to move towards permanent residence and citizenship in the UK much more quickly than humanitarian protection.

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/5k22mv

Do Political Beliefs Need to be Genuinely Held to get Asylum?

In SR (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 828, the Court of Appeal has considered whether an asylum seeker attending political demonstrations needs to be genuinely committed to the cause being promoted at the protest. Ultimately, genuine belief is relevant, but not decisive. This has previously been considered by the Upper Tribunal in KK and RS (Sur place activities, risk) Sri Lanka (CG) [2021] UKUT 130 (IAC) (see Laura’s write-up here). The Home Office’s attempt to appeal that decision was unsuccessful (see Deborah’s write-up here). Nothing in SR (Sri Lanka) overrules or modifies what was said in KK and RS.

When is Genuineness Relevant?
The case concerned a Sri Lankan man who had attended Tamil protests in the UK. The First-tier Tribunal found that this was “entirely self-serving and not motivated by a genuine commitment to the cause of an independent Tamil state” [paragraph 57].
SR argued on appeal that the First-tier Tribunal judge was wrong to test whether he had a genuine commitment to the cause. He would be questioned on arrival in Sri Lanka and would have to admit attending anti-government protests; at that point, “the nuance of whether ‘he really meant it or not’ will not save him” [63]. The interrogator, SR said, would not care if his motivation was genuine.

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/gvsp4m

Nationality and Borders Act 2022: Implementation

As of Tuesday 28th June, new measures from the Act came into effect, including:

Amended criminal offences with increased maximum penalties for those attempting to arrive in the UK illegally—from six months to four years—and maximum life imprisonment for people smugglers, including pilots of small boats in the Channel and others who dangerously smuggle migrants into the UK. In addition, we have increased the maximum penalty for Foreign National offenders who return to the UK in breach of a deportation order from six months to five years;

A suite of asylum reforms, with the central principle that those seeking protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. Our reforms also introduce a new differentiated approach, whereby those who did not come to the UK directly, did not claim without delay, or did not show good cause for their illegal entry or presence, may be given lesser entitlements than those who have complied with these requirements, for example refugees who have come to the UK via safe and legal routes. The different entitlements include a shorter grant of permission to stay—a minimum of 30 months instead of five years—no automatic right to settlement and access to family reunion only where a refusal would breach our international obligations.

An ability to impose visa penalties—this means slowing or stopping our services where countries pose a risk to international peace and security and those that refuse to take back their own citizens who have no right to be in the UK.

Nationality changes, creating fairer access to British nationality.

Changes to bail and returns, which includes strengthening the early removal scheme for Foreign National offenders to remove them sooner than was the case previously.

These reforms sit alongside other important changes, including a world-leading migration and economic partnership with Rwanda. Further reforms from the Act will be implemented over the coming months and into next year as we seek to build and deliver a fair but firm asylum and immigration system.

Source Parliament, 28-06-2022, https://rb.gy/q1cwya

Detailed Policy on Differential Treatment of Refugees Announced

The government has announced the details of its much-trailed policy of treating some refugees differently to others based on their mode of arrival in the United Kingdom. The Home Office refers to this as “differentiation” but the word “discrimination” is equally apposite.

The changes are being made today because section 12 and other related sections of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 come into force for asylum claims made on or after 28 June 2022. Some refugees will now receive what is being called “temporary refugee permission to stay” (as opposed to “refugee permission to stay”).

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/bp8mod