New Home Secretary to Ban all Small Boats Crossing the Channel

The Observer reported on Saturday that the new Home Secretary Suella Braverman has set the Home Office a target of entirely stopping small boats crossing the Channel. While the article gave no direct quotes from Braverman, the Observer reported that the Home Secretary told Home Office staff during her inaugural address on Wednesday that she wanted to ban all small boats crossing the Channel and this would be a top priority for her.

One anonymous civil service source was quoted as saying: "Suggesting she can stop all boat crossings is pie in the sky – it doesn't bode well." The Times reported earlier in the week that pursuing fresh talks with the French government over the crossings is set to be a top priority for the new Home Secretary. In addition, the Times said Braverman wants to substantially increase the use of detention facilities to house asylum seekers who cross the Channel.

Read more~: EIN, https://rb.gy/eq07d0

Priti Patel: an Unparalleled Record of Failure

Patel was appointed Home Secretary by Boris Johnson in July 2019. Here 'Fremovement' take a look at her immigration legacy over the three years of her tenure. To cut a long story short, she announced much and achieved nothing. Patel failed at everything, leaving the Home Office in a far worse state than she found it. She was the perfect Home Secretary for a Boris Johnson government.

Let us judge Patel by her own yardstick. Fully half of her resignation letter is devoted to immigration and asylum issues. Here on this website we are obsessed with immigration and asylum. It’s all we do. But we might hope that the Home Secretary, who is responsible for policing, crime, drugs policy, national security and more, was not as single minded as us.

Patel refers in her letter to the ending of free movement, the taking back control of our borders, “ending abuses of the immigration and asylum system” and a “firm but fair” approach. Yet it was on Patel’s watch that control of the border was so spectacularly lost by a dramatic increase in small boat crossings of the Channel.

In 2018, almost no-one was crossing the Channel in a small boat. By June 2022, the latest statistics available, an average of 3,000 people per month were entering the UK by that route.

Patel does not claim credit for one of the few positive developments occurring on her watch. The success rate for asylum claims rose to new, unprecedented heights. In the most recent statistics, for the year ended June 2022, the success rate for initial asylum applications to the Home Office was 76%.

Read more: Freemovement, https://rb.gy/e2rzvw

Suella Braverman Sets Home Office ‘No Boats Crossing the Channel’ Target

The new home secretary has already prompted consternation among Home Office officials after telling them she wants to ban all small boats crossing the Channel, the Observer has learned. During her inaugural address to departmental staff last Wednesday, Suella Braverman said a top priority would be stopping all Channel crossings.

During her address last week, Braverman – who is expected to adopt an even more hardline agenda than Patel – also prompted widespread discontent from thousands of Home Office staff by challenging their working practices.

Read more: Mark Townsend, Guardian, https://rb.gy/6jtnr0

‘Anti-Monarchy’ Protestors Entitled to Free Speech Amid Arrests

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and ascension to the throne of King Charles, several people have been arrested in connection to protests and criticisms of the monarchy. The ‘anti-monarchy’ protestors were arrested this week, for holding up signs reading: ‘Not my King’, blank pieces of paper and calling out messages of criticism of Prince Andrew. Individuals were arrested and some charged, despite them exercising their rights to free speech and to assemble, both of which are enshrined in the Human Rights Act (HRA) and are a central part of democracy.

A man only identified as Rory, 22, joined the crowds who lined the streets of Edinburgh to see the Queen’s coffin make its journey to London. The procession was joined by Prince Andrew, who can be seen in a video walking behind the Queen’s coffin. As the procession made its way down the royal mile, Rory shouted: “Andrew, you’re a sick old man,” referring to an ongoing FBI investigation into a paedophilic-sex-trafficking ring, which Prince Andrew has been linked to.

Earlier this year, Prince Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement worth £12m with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has testified that she was trafficked by the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, and later sexually abused by the prince. In January, the Queen stripped him of his HRH status, military titles and royal patronages. He denies the allegations.

Read more: Emma Guy, Each Other, https://rb.gy/mffroz

50 Million People in Modern Slavery

The latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, published by the International Labour Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and international human rights group Walk Free, revealed that last year, some 50 million people were living in modern slavery: 28 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriages. “It is shocking that the situation of modern slavery is not improving,” said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. “Nothing can justify the persistence of this fundamental abuse of human rights”.

No Justification for ‘Fundamental’ Human Rights Abuse
Compared to 2016 global estimates, 10 million more people were in modern slavery in 2021, with women and children disproportionately vulnerable. Modern slavery occurs in almost every country in the world, and cuts across ethnic, cultural and religious lines. More than half of all forced labour and a quarter of all forced marriages can be found in upper-middle income or high-income countries.

Read more: United Nations, https://rb.gy/odymzf

US States Fail to Protect Children’s Rights

(New York) – United States state laws overwhelmingly fail to meet international child rights standards, with the vast majority failing to protect children from child marriage, hazardous child labor, extreme prison sentences, and violent treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch gave 20 states a failing “F” grade, and 26 a “D.” Not a single state received a “B” or an “A.” New Jersey, Ohio, Iowa, and Minnesota were the only states to receive a “C” grade.

A new Human Rights Watch interactive scorecard assessed 12 specific state laws in all 50 states against standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the primary international treaty on the rights of children. The laws address four issues: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor, and juvenile justice. The United States is the only country that has failed to ratify the Convention, ratified by 196 countries.

Read more: Ben Wiseman, Human Rights Watch, https://rb.gy/ospnpj

Immigration Detainees in Prisons for Immigration Reasons Unable to Obtain Legal Advice and Representation

Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) last month published new research looking at the problems with the availability of immigration legal advice for people in prison held under immigration powers. In the first research of its kind, BID sent questionnaires to 81 of its clients held in prisons under immigration powers. The report is based on the 27 responses received from people held in 22 different prisons across England.

A new scheme was designed to remedy the discriminatory treatment identified by the court. BID's research found that the scheme is not working and it suffers from serious deficiencies that prevent people in prison from accessing justice. 70% of respondents to BID's survey said that they do not have a legal representative for their immigration case.

People are not being given sufficient information by the prison to enable the telephone advice scheme to work effectively, and most people are not given a list of solicitors as required by the telephone advice scheme, the report found.

Read more: EIN, https://rb.gy/3mopam

British Muslims’ Citizenship Reduced to ‘Second-Class’ Status

British Muslims have had their citizenship reduced to “second-class” status as a result of recently extended powers to strip people of their nationality, a thinktank has claimed. The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) says the targets of such powers are almost exclusively Muslims, mostly of south Asian heritage, embedding discrimination and creating a lesser form of citizenship.

The IRR’s report was published on Sunday amid renewed controversy over the case of Shamima Begum, who was smuggled into the hands of Islamic State aged 15, and in the wake of the Nationality and Borders Act – that allowed citizenship to be stripped without notifying the subject, coming on to the statute books.

Frances Webber, IRR vice-chair and report author, wrote: “The message sent by the legislation on deprivation of citizenship since 2002 and its implementation largely against British Muslims of south Asian heritage is that, despite their passports, these people are not and can never be ‘true’ citizens, in the same way that ‘natives’ are.

Read more: Haroon Siddique, Guardian, https://rb.gy/xfthbf