Institute of Race Relations (IRR): Calendar of Racism and Resistance (1st – 11th May 2022)

Priti Patel - Rwanda Asylum Plan Will Take Time to Implement

The plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda will "take time" to bring into force, Home Secretary Priti Patel says. She said the plan to send some to apply for asylum in the east African country would send a "clear signal" that there would be no right to remain in the UK. The Home Office has said it will begin to inform people they will be relocated to Rwanda soon, but acknowledged delays were expected over legal challenges.

Ms Patel said lawyers would create "hurdles and barriers" to block it. She added that the government was committed to implementing the scheme and would use "every tool and every piece of legislation at our disposal" to remove anyone who arrives "illegally". Under the scheme, people who are seeking asylum after being deemed to have entered the UK unlawfully will be flown to the African country, where their application will be processed. If successful, they would then have the option of long-term accommodation in the African country.

Read more: BBC News, https://rb.gy/doq7ij

Protesters Block Edinburgh Immigration Detentions

More than 100 campaigners gathered in Edinburgh to block what they said was an "immigration raid". The large crowd was loud but mostly good-natured with a bagpiper playing.assembled amid reports that two immigration vans had arrived at Nicolson Square on Thursday evening 5th May 2022. Posts on social media said officers were attempting to detain people from a nearby restaurant. Protesters claimed Home Office staff had agreed to leave but the Home Office later said the protest had no impact on its operation.

At one point, a line of police officers formed to allow Home Office enforcement staff to leave the restaurant. The protesters booed and jeered at them with chants of "shame on you". Once the immigration officers left, the crowd began to disperse.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "It is unacceptable for people to attempt to block legitimate actions of law enforcement as they work to remove those with no right to live or work in the UK."Through our Nationality and Borders Act we are taking steps to fix the broken system to make it fair to those in genuine need and firm on those who seek to abuse it. An operation was carried out in Edinburgh today and to suggest that protesters had an impact on the outcome is wrong."

Read more: BBC, https://tinyurl.com/3u4b2bse

Damning Report Finds “Systemic Failures” of Detention Centres to Identify Harm

A damning report on healthcare and safeguarding in detention has concluded that the existing protocols for vulnerable detainees are “totally and utterly flawed”. The Medical Justice report Harmed not Heard focuses on the inadequacy of the Rule 35 safeguarding process, designed to identify vulnerable detainees for release. The research comes only a few weeks after the conclusion of the Brook House inquiry, which uncovered appalling abuse of detainees and exposed how ineffective the safeguarding processes designed to protect vulnerable individuals truly were. Medical Justice’s research took data from five of the UK’s seven detention centres, concluding that failings exist across the detention estate.
Key findings: Medical Justice’s clinical staff began by identifying vulnerable detainees who met the Rule 35 criteria. By comparing their own assessments with those carried out by staff at IRCs, the report found striking failures of IRC healthcare, and identifies a culture of non-compliance where legal obligations to vulnerable detainees are concerned.

Read more; Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/2p8ux36x

Continuing Conflicts That Create Refugees - May 2022

Deteriorated Situations - ?Moldova, Iraq, Ukraine

Conflict Risk Alerts for May - ?Ukraine, Yemen

Improved Situations: Somalia, Mozambique, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Resolution Opportunities: Yemen

Source: International Crisis Group,

Priti Patel’s Rwanda Plan for UK Asylum Seekers Faces its First Legal Challenge

Lodged last Tuesday, the legal challenge states that the home secretary’s proposals run contrary to international law and the UN refugee convention, as well as breaching British data protection law. Lawyers believe that the Rwanda plans are a “publicity stunt” to discourage people crossing the Channel in small boats. Patel is refusing to disclose key framework documents explaining which migrants may be eligible to be removed.

The action has been launched by the law firm InstaLaw. The Home Office has three weeks to respond and the process could lead to Patel being challenged in the high court. Stuart Luke, partner at InstaLaw, said their case was based on an Iranian asylum seeker who believes he would face an extremely difficult time if sent to Rwanda.

Read more, Mark Townsend, Guardian, https://tinyurl.com/mryatbf3

65 Charter Flight Deportations - From the UK in 2021

The Home Office’s deportation charter flights programme has been steadily growing over the last few years, up from 35 flights in 2016. In turn, so has its cost to the public. The Home Office spent over £11.7m on charter deportation flights in 2021, with the average flight costing over £180,000. This is a marked increase from the almost £8.2m reportedly spent on 47 flights in 2020. The figures do not include any costs that may be charged retrospectively, nor does it include the costs of the guards who keep deportees quiet and in their seats, often inflicting pain to do so.

Last year, the Home Office deported a total of 1,305 people on 65, multi-leg charter flights. While deportations from the UK have dropped overall due to the pandemic, the use of charter deportation flights increased more than threefold during this period, representing 45% of total deportations.

In 2021the emphasis of the charter flight programme shifted largely to deporting so-called Foreign National Offenders (FNOs). Before looking at the numbers, we must understand who these ‘FNOs’ actually are. Home Office communications always play up deportees’ criminal records and emphasise the people on the flights with violent pasts to paint everyone with the same brush. However, speaking with detainee support groups who actually meet these people gives another picture.

Most deportees have committed relatively minor offences which are often connected to trying to survive life in the UK without documents or access to social services. These include selling drugs, sleeping rough, working without legal permission, or driving without insurance or a valid licence. If sentenced to twelve months or more, foreign nationals can be automatically deported at the end of their term. The fact that many have spent most – and in some cases all – of their adult lives in the UK, and have already been sentenced by the criminal injustice system, does not stop the Home Office tacking on deportation as an added punishment in order to appear ‘tough’ on crime and immigration.

Deportees
Destination Flights Deportees
Albania 20 497
Romania 14 324
Poland 13 183
Lithuania 11 172
Vietnam 2 47
Zimbabwe 2 21
Bulgaria 3 20
Hungary 3 14
Jamaica 2 11
Portugal 1 8
Nigeria 1 6
Ghana 1 1
Spain 1 1
Total 74 1305

Read more: Corporate Watch, https://tinyurl.com/bd9ve7t5

Useful Case From Court of Justice of the European Union on Palestinian Refugees

In C-349/20 NB and AB v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Court of Justice of the European Union has again addressed the question of when Palestinian refugees are entitled to refugee status under EU law. This is the fourth major judgment on this issue we have seen from the court over the last decade.

This decision deals with the interpretation of Article 12(1)(a) of the Qualification Directive and is of practical importance to those representing Palestinian refugees in appeals to the First-tier Tribunal. Firstly, the UK continues to be bound by judgments in cases pending before the CJEU before the end of the transition period (Article 89(1) of the Withdrawal Agreement/Section 7A of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018). Secondly, what the CJEU says about the interpretation of the Refugee Convention may be influential in international jurisprudence in any event.

Article 12(1)(a) of the Qualification Directive, which is the EU law analogue of Article 1D of the Refugee Convention, provides:

Read more; Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/yu646fph

Upper Tribunal Reiterates High Threshold in Article 3 Cases

In HA (expert evidence, mental health) Sri Lanka [2022] UKUT 111 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal considers whether the removal of a Sri Lankan man with mental health difficulties would violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Article 3 prohibits inhumane and degrading treatment. Where a person’s mental health creates a high risk of suicide on return to their country of origin, this can (in theory) require the Home Office to let them stay in the UK. However, as the decision in HA makes clear, the threshold is incredibly high.

The tribunal also provided guidance on the duties of expert witnesses.

Read more; Freemovement, https://tinyurl.com/4mvvr52s