News & Views Monday 24th September to Sunday 30 September 2018  

Children as Young as 10 Denied UK Citizenship For Failing ‘Good Character’ Test


Hundreds of vulnerable children as young as 10, who have spent most of their lives in the UK, are having their applications for British citizenship denied for failing to pass the government’s controversial “good character” test. Figures published by the Home Office after a freedom of information request by the Guardian show that, on average, one child a week has had their application rejected over the last five years – with campaigners estimating that as many as 400 have been denied citizenship for failing to satisfy the good character requirement since it was introduced in 2006. In some cases, children who were born in the UK have been turned down on the basis of convictions for crimes as trivial as petty theft, with even offences that are punished with a caution or a fine considered serious enough to warrant their rejection.

Critics say the figures are evidence of the Home Office failing to meet its statutory responsibilities to promote a child’s welfare and making the “best interests” of the child a primary consideration in these applications. They criticised guidelines for failing to differentiate between young people who have grown up in the UK and want to register as British citizens and adult migrants looking to naturalise.

“These are not adult migrants,” says Solange Valdez-Symonds, the director of the campaign group the Project for Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC), adding that young people should not be put in “a position where the secretary of state thinks or believes they can be removed to some obscure country where one of the parents or both parents were born. It’s not acceptable, it’s outrageous and an insult to them and the society of which they are members.”

Read more: Aamna Mohdin, Guardian, https://is.gd/VDkJYM



CPIN
Yemen: Security and Humanitarian Situation

Basis of claim
1.1.1 That the general humanitarian situation in Yemen is so severe as to make removal a breach of Articles 15(a) and (b) of the European Council Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 (the Qualification Directive); and/or 

1.1.2 That the security situation in Yemen presents a real risk which threatens life or person such that removal would be in breach of Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive. 

Published on Refworld: 24/09/2018
http://www.refworld.org/docid/5ba4bfee7.html


Free Immigration Seminar – Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery

Speakers: Parosha Chandran & Harriet Short
Date: Thursday 4th October 2018
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: St. Bridges Institute, Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 8EQ

This Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Update seminar will provide an oversight of recent judicial review judgments, in particular, from Autumn 2017 to Autumn 2018, including those concerning the unlawful detention of victims of trafficking and modern slavery (“VOTs”), the length of leave to remain granted to such victims, NRM decision challenges and the positive obligations of the Secretary of State in respect of trafficking and modern slavery victims. During this seminar Parosha and Harriet will also discuss recent developments in the field of trafficking and modern slavery law in the UK and abroad.

Book your place
If you would like to attend please register Online here . . . .  :


Solidarity Demo for 15 Defendants Who Stopped A ‘Charter Flight’

Assemble 08:30 am - Monday1st October

Chelmsford Crown Court, 3-5 New St, Chelmsford, CM1 1NT

On Monday 1st October the trial of the 15 people who stopped a deportation plane to Nigeria and Ghana last March will begin. They are a group of activists from End Deportations, Plane Stupid and Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants who prevented a secretive charter deportation flight taking off in March 2017. By chaining themselves to the plane, and lying on the tarmac for over ten hours, they prevented the flight from leaving. The activists knew some of the people booked on the flight, including a lesbian who was being threatened by her ex-husband in Nigeria, a man whose family had been killed by Boko Haram, and two young men who had lived in the UK since they were children.

Secret deportation flights take thousands of people from our communities every year. Parents, friends and neighbours are targeted on the basis of their perceived nationality and snatched to fill a flight that the Home Office has chartered. These flights enforce the structural racism of immigration controls. Violence and abuse from security contractors have been documented on them. Most people would be horrified if they were aware of the nature of this process.

The Stansted action was the first time a deportation flight has been grounded in the UK by people taking action against the immigration system. People who would have been forced onto the flight were able to stay in the UK because of the action, as it gave them time to have their applications heard.

Questions are being asked about why the activists are being prosecuted for endangering the safety of an aerodrome, a rarely used charge that only the attorney general can approve that carries a potential sentence of life in prison. The defendants were initially charged with aggravated trespass, an offence triable in the magistrates’ court. However, a terror-related charge of endangering airport security was added, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

People across the UK are standing together to stop the Home Office breaking up families and tearing communities apart.

David Ramsbotham, a former chief inspector of prisons, Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green party, David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, and dozens of other signatories, have called for the charges to be dropped. Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, criticised the “unjustified and draconian” use of terrorism laws, against the 15.

Supporters of the actions of the Stansted 15 are encouraged to attend!

Check out the End Deportations website for updates:

http://enddeportations.com/event/stansted-15-court-demo/



UK Asylum Seekers Refused Housing Over 'Social Cohesion Issues'

Some asylum seekers have been banned from accommodation in north-east England because of “social cohesion issues” and far-right activity, a move lawyers have described as “discriminatory”, the Guardian has learned. Details of the ban emerged in a note from the Home Office to an asylum seekers solicitor, in which the department said that it had an agreement with local authorities in that region not to house any “foreign nationals with known criminality”. However, sources close to Home Office contractors providing asylum accommodation in the region said that some councils refused their requests to house any asylum seekers because of local far-right activity.

The North East Migration Partnership, an organisation which includes local authorities, confirmed there were concerns around social cohesion when sending asylum seekers to the region. A spokeswoman for NEMP said: “In Late 2017, the NEMP communicated to the Home Office the collective concerns of individual local authorities regarding pressures associated with asylum dispersal in their areas. There have been a number of different concerns raised by local authorities in the north-east, some of which relate to social cohesion matters highlighted by local policing teams. It would not be appropriate to comment on specific issues or areas.” Earlier this year Julie Elliott, the Labour MP for Sunderland Central , also wrote to the home secretary to ask the Home Office to stop sending asylum seekers to the north-east due to “tensions” in the area. Elliott referred to tensions linked to the commission of “very serious criminal offences” as justification for her request for a temporary suspension.

Read more: Diane Taylor, Guardian, https://is.gd/bklicI



Mental Health of Children on the Move

Mental health of children affected by migration, their well-being and their rights was the key subject of the address by Regina Jensdottir, the Head of the Children’s Rights Division and Programme Co-ordinator at the Council of Europe, to the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) Annual Conference in Paris.

In her speech Jensdottir stressed that children affected by migration are one of the most vulnerable groups: “These children suffer violations of their rights within our borders which can have severe consequences on their mental health and development.” She specified that the violations arise from the use of detention practices rather than welfare protection, lack of or ineffective guardianship and family reunification procedures, as well as demeaning age assessment procedures, and spoke about their negative impact on the mental health of children.

The Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child, the Action Plan on Protecting Refugee and Migrant Children in Europe (2017-2019) and other instruments at the disposal of the Council of Europe focus on standards for guardianship, for age assessment but also on developing policy tools for life projects for unaccompanied migrant minors, as well as for providing child-friendly information, ensuring effective protection and enhancing the integration of the children who would remain in Europe, through the provision of education, training, and opportunities to participate in society.

Council of Europe strives to support its member States so that to ensure that the rights of the child are upheld without any discrimination on the basis of their or their parents’ migratory or any other status, Jensdottir stressed.

Council of Europe< https://is.gd/FRyyvt



CPIN
Republic of Congo (DRC): Gender Based Violence

1.1 Basis of claim

1.1.1 Fear of gender-based persecution or serious harm by (rogue) state or nonstate actors because the person is a woman/girl.

1.2 Points to note

1.2.1 For the purposes of this note, gender-based persecution or serious harm includes, but is not limited to: conflict related abuse, domestic abuse, and sexual violence including rape.

1.2.2 Domestic abuse is not just about physical violence. It covers any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. It can include psychological, physical, sexual, economic or emotional abuse. Children can also be victims of, or witnesses to, domestic abuse. Anyone can experience domestic abuse, regardless of background, age, gender, sexuality, race or culture. However, to establish a claim for protection under the refugee convention or humanitarian protection rules, that abuse needs to reach a minimum level of severity to constitute persecution or serious harm.

Published on Refworld, 24/09/2018

http://www.refworld.org/docid/5ba8d7a44.html



CPIN Iran: Women Fearing Domestic Abuse

1.1 Basis of claim

1.1.1 That a woman fears domestic abuse.

1.2 Points to note

1.2.1 Domestic abuse is not just about physical violence. It covers any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. It can include psychological, physical, sexual, economic or emotional abuse. Children can also be victims of, or witnesses to, domestic abuse. Anyone can experience domestic abuse, regardless of background, age, gender, sexuality, race or culture. However, to establish a claim for protection under the refugee convention or humanitarian protection rules, that abuse needs to reach a minimum level of severity to constitute persecution or serious harm.

1.2.2 Domestic abuse may include so-called ‘honour’-based violence, female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage. However, this note does not cover these. Decision makers can consult the Iranian country policy information notes on honour crimes against women and forced marriage.

Published on Refworld, 27/09/2018
http://www.refworld.org/docid/5baca75b4.html