Asylum Seekers With Children to Have Support Payments Cut
Thousands of asylum seekers with children will have to live on £73.90 a week from August as a result of cuts of up to 30% in their support payments, the UK Home Office has announced. Ministers said the cuts, which would affect more than 27,800 destitute asylum seekers, were being made because the current payment system resulted in families with children in particular receiving Òsignificantly more cash than is necessaryÓ to meet their essential living needs.
The Refugee Council described the cuts as Òutterly appallingÓ for families who were not allowed to work and said they would plunge children further into poverty: ÒWe suspect the only place that families can live on this amount of money is in the imagination of government ministers,Ó the councilÕs policy officer, Judith Dennis, said.
The changes will see the support for a single parent with two children claiming asylum fall from £149.86 a week to £110.85, for a couple with one child from £125.48 to £110.85, and for a couple with two children from £178.44 to £147.80. A single parent with one child will receive £73.90, down from £96.90.
Read more: Alan Travis, Guardian, 16/07/2015
EDM 298: Immigration Status Of Domestic Violence Survivors
That this House is concerned that domestic violence legislation provides insufficient protection to survivors of domestic violence who have an insecure immigration status and have little recourse to public funds; notes that many of these survivors remain financially dependent on a violent spouse or family member, which prevents them from leaving due to fear of destitution, mendicancy and even deportation, and that this makes the survivors and their children vulnerable to further exploitation and abuse; emphasises that, in many other countries, survivors in this situation are given greater public support and granted greater access to public funds; and calls on the Government to ensure that such survivors have the financial capability to support themselves and their children independently.
Sponsors: Sheerman, Barry/ Lucas, Caroline / Bottomley, Peter / Durkan, Mark - House of Commons: 14.07.2015
Refusal of Fresh claims and Section 4 (S4) Support
Please see below a timely reminder from the excellent Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP), with very helpful Section 4 urgent contact details - we have been seeing the disturbing process they describe unfolding dramatically, since the General election; if you know of anyone likely to be affected it will be well worth taking note of suggestions.
Here at ASAP we are dealing with a glut of appeals due to the Further Submissions Unit refusing loads of fresh claims, which are then immediately being acted on by the S4 team, to discontinue support. As you know, the S4 team no longer sends out a warning letter, but instead within about 3 weeks of the refusal decision sends out the discontinuation decision.
As you'll be aware, many of these appeals are being allowed, on the basis that further steps in the asylum/immigration case are being taken, such as a Pre-Action Protocol (PAP) having been sent or other steps in the preparation of a Judicial Review (JR). Or yet further submissions have been (or are about to be) lodged.
As you know, the S4 team will not proactively contact the supported person or their representative to check on the situation before issuing a discontinuation decision. However, we urge you and/or their immigration practitioner to email them to keep them updated. Section4nationalteam@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
They say this email address is constantly manned Email address, from which a reply should be sent within 24 hours.
This way you prevent your clients being put at risk of destitution and going through the hassle of an appeal. And the scrabbling around for proof of the JR etc just in time for the Asylum Support Tribunal (AST) hearing is also avoided.
Please contact ASAP if you have any queries. It will be interesting to see if emailing the s4 team works.
Regards
Deborah Gellner, Solicitor
Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP) Please note I do not work on Wednesdays
tel: 020 3716 0284 ext 206 fax: 020 3716 0272
Find out about our work:
<http://vimeo.com/81816817>
Please note our Advice Line number is 020 3716 0283
The Advice Line operates Monday/Wednesday and Friday 2-4pm
http://www.asaproject.org/
Asylum Research Consultancy COI Update Volume 106
This document provides an update of Country Guidance case law and UKBA publications and developments in refugee producing countries between 1st July 2015 and 14th July 2015 - Volume 106 <>here . . .
Early Day Motion 294: Student Grants
That this House notes the increase in the participation of working class students in higher education since maintenance grants were reintroduced; condemns the proposal to cut grants as a direct attack on the poorest people accessing higher education in England; further notes that the transition from a subsidy to a loan will push the poorest into the highest level of debt; and urges the Government to halt these plans in favour of a system whereby students can access more generous grants in order to cover the rising costs of living.
Sponsors: Corbyn, Jeremy / McDonnell, John / Hopkins, Kelvin / Lavery, Ian / Burgon, Richard / Abbott, Diane
House of Commons: 13.07.2015
[Foreign Students no Longer Allowed to Work in UK
Thousands of foreign students at publicly funded colleges are to lose the right to work in Britain while they study. The immigration minister, James Brokenshire, announced on Monday that from next month students from outside the European Union who come to study at publicly funded further education colleges will lose the right to work for up to 10 hours a week. ]
Early Day Motion 293: Human Rights In Kashmir
That this House condemns all systematic human rights violations committed in Kashmir; calls on the Government to encourage the Indian government to abolish the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act pronounced by several UN treaty bodies to be in violation of international law; further calls on the Government to encourage the Indian government to deliver a referendum on Kashmir as promised in 1948 to allow Kashmiri self-determination; and calls on the Government to work constructively with Pakistan, India and China to bring a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict in Kashmir.
Sponsors: Hussain, Imran / Burgon, Richard / Harpham, Harry / Long Bailey, Rebecca / Lynch, Holly / Cooper, Julie
House of Commons: <>13.07.2015
EDM 287: Israeli Military Treatment Of Palestinian Children
That this House condemns the charging of Palestinian children with offences under Israeli military law and their trial in military courts since the occupation of Palestinian territory in 1967; further condemns the arrests, detention and prosecution of around 700 Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system each year; acknowledges the work that Defence for Children International - Palestine do in increasing awareness and providing legal assistance for Palestinian children; condemns the physical violence that more than three-quarters of Palestinian child detainees in 2014 endured in some form between the period of their arrest and interrogation with half of those also strip-searched; notes that during arrest and interrogation, 93 per cent of children were denied access to legal counsel and rarely informed of their rights, particularly their right against self-incrimination; further notes that last year almost all children confessed regardless of guilt to stop further abuse; notes that in 2014 more than 25 per cent of children signed statements in Hebrew despite not understanding the language; notes that between 2012 and 2014 Israeli military, police and security agents held 54 Palestinian children in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, prior to charging them with any offence, and that in 2014 the average time that an individual child spent in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes was 15 days; and calls on the Government to demand immediate action from the Israeli government to behave in line with international law.
Sponsors: Whitford, Philippa / Sheppard, Tommy / O'Hara, Brendan / Law, Chris / McDonald, Stewart / Grady, Patrick
House of Commons: <>13.07.2015
Put your MP to work demand they sign EDM's 294/293/287
You can contact your MP for free, through: WriteToThem.Com
http://www.writetothem.com/
UKHO CIG: Jamaica: Women Fearing Domestic Violence
1.1 Basis of Claim
1.1.1 Women in fear of domestic violence and lack of effective protection from the
Jamaican authorities.
1.2 Summary of Issues to Consider
1.2.1. Is the person's account a credible one?
1.2.2. Do women in Jamaica constitute a particular social group (PSG)?
1.2.3. Are women in Jamaica at risk of domestic violence amounting to
persecution?
1.2.4. Is there effective protection for female victims of domestic violence?
1.2.5. Is a woman able to internally relocate within Jamaica to escape the risk of
domestic violence?
Published on Refworld, 13/07/2015
http://www.refworld.org/docid/55a3bbcd4.html
|
Time To Debunk Myths/Prejudices About Roma Migrants in Europe
Political and media debates on Roma migration have become recurrent in several European countries. Since the eastward expansion of the European Union in 2004 and 2007, and the lifting of employment restrictions regarding Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in a number of EU member states in 2014, fears of Roma migration have often triggered uninformed and inflammatory discourse.
No "invasion" by Roma
Media in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and other countries have often put forward unfounded figures about actual or potential arrivals of Roma. However, I found out that in some places, the number of Roma migrants has remained stable over the years. In France, for example, it is estimated that the number of Roma migrants is around 15-20 000, a stable figure since the beginning of the 2000s. Last year, during a visit to a Roma migrant settlement in Strasbourg, I was informed that the overall number of Roma there has remained at around 400 persons over the last few years. Numbers might have been more variable elsewhere but, in general, there is no research-based evidence indicating that Roma form a larger share of those emigrating than their respective share of the population in their countries of origin. A 2013 study on Roma in Romania found that they were not more inclined to emigrate than non-Roma.
Read more: Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights,<>16/07/2015
Serco Must Give Inmates Access to Guide on Avoiding Deportation
Staff at Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre who confiscated a legal, 'Self-Help Guide against detention & deportation' have been ordered by the Home Office to return copies to inmates. The booklet, which has circulated around immigration centres for more than a decade, was removed by security officials employed by Serco, the private contractor which runs the centre in Bedfordshire. The company said staff began seizing copies last week "given the nature of the content". Inmates said they were told the reading material was banned.
The seizures were made at a time when legal aid for immigration, as opposed to asylum, cases is no longer available and few lawyers can afford to take up such cases. As many as 90 copies of the book were confiscated, according to organisations that support detainees. However, Serco said it only removed a dozen.
Read more: Owen Bowcott, Indpendent,<>15/07/2015
Foreign Students no Longer Allowed to Work in UK
Thousands of foreign students at publicly funded colleges are to lose the right to work in Britain while they study. The immigration minister, James Brokenshire, announced on Monday that from next month students from outside the European Union who come to study at publicly funded further education colleges will lose the right to work for up to 10 hours a week. The 'new crackdown on visa fraud', as the Home Office describes it, is aimed at ensuring that student visas are used for study and Ònot as a backdoor to the country's job market'.
Further measures will be introduced this autumn, including:
Reducing the length of further education visas from three years to two.
Preventing college students from applying to stay on in Britain and work when they finish their course, unless they leave the country first.
Preventing further education students from extending their studies in Britain unless they are registered at an institution with a formal link to a university.
The number of foreign students at British further education colleges has slumped in recent years from a peak of more than 110,000 in 2011 to 18,297 in the last 12 months.
Read more: Alan Travis, Guardian, 13/07/2015
Neo-Nazis Lay Siege to Asylum-Seekers Hostel in Germany
Once a model Social Democrat community where the poor in Germany's Weimar Republic found help and support, the small town of Freital, just south of Dresden, has become a byword for German racism and intolerance. Its target is Hotel Leonardo, or rather, the 300 or so asylum-seekers who are now virtual prisoners in the former conference hotel. Thanks to local hostility the building is under a round-the-clock police guard and surrounded by a 10ft-high wire fence. Police patrol cars have blocked off access roads.
Since March this year the hotel has been the scene of angry anti-foreigner protests in which the rule of the lynch mob has held sway. Up to 1,200 Freital residents and neo-Nazi hangers-on have gathered outside the hostel on weekday evenings chanting slogans such as 'Filth out' and 'This is no place to flee to'. The often-intoxicated mob threw eggs and shot fireworks at the hostel claiming that Freital was Òdefending itselfÓ. The small groups of local refugee supporters who tried to show sympathy with the asylum-seekers had to be protected by riot police.
Read more: Tony Patterson, Independent, 12/07/2015
UKHO CIG: Jamaica: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
1.1 Basis of Claim
1.1.1 Fear of harm or mistreatment by state and/or non-state actors because of the person's actual or perceived:
a) sexual orientation (i.e. that the person is, or is perceived to be, a lesbian, a gay man or bisexual).
b) gender identity (i.e. that the person is, or is perceived to be, transgender).
c) gender recognition (i.e. that the person is, or is perceived to be,
transsexual).
For the purposes of this instruction, this is hereafter referred to as 'LGBTI persons'.
1.2 Summary of Issues to Consider
1.2.1. Is the person's account a credible one?
1.2.2. Do LGBTI persons from Jamaica constitute a particular social group (PSG)?
1.2.3. Are LGBTI persons at risk of mistreatment or harm amounting to persecution in Jamaica?
1.2.4. Is the person open about their sexual orientation?
1.2.5. Are those at risk able to seek effective protection?
1.2.6. Are those at risk able to internally relocate within Jamaica to escape that risk?
Published on Refworld, 13/07/2015
http://www.refworld.org/docid/55a3bb984.html
UKHO CIG: China Contravention Population/Family-Planning Laws
1.1 Basis of Claim
1.1.1 Fear of harm or ill-treatment by the Chinese authorities due to having children in contravention of national population and family-planning laws.
1.2 Summary of Issues to Consider
1.2.1 Is the personÕs account a credible one?
1.2.2 Do those from China who have children in contravention of national population and family-planning laws constitute a particular social group (PSG)?
1.2.3 Are those who have children in contravention of national population and family-planning laws at risk of mistreatment or harm amounting to persecution in China?
1.2.4 Are those at risk able to seek effective protection?
1.2.5 Are those at risk able to internally relocate within China?
Published on Refworld, 13/07/2015
http://www.refworld.org/docid/55a395a14.html
UKHO CIG: Jamaica Fear of Organised Criminal Gangs
1.1 Basis of Claim
1.1.1 Fear of harm or ill treatment by criminal organised gangs and lack of effective protection from the Jamaican authorities.
1.2 Summary of Issues to Consider
1.2.1. Is the person's account a credible one?
1.2.2. Do victims or potential victims of criminal organised gangs in Jamaica constitute a particular social group (PSG)?
1.2.3. Are victims or potential victims of criminal organised gangs at risk of mistreatment or harm amounting to persecution in Jamaica?
1.2.4. Are those at risk able to seek effective protection?
1.2.5. Are those at risk able to internally relocate within Jamaica to escape that risk?
Published on Refworld, 13/07/2015
http://www.refworld.org/docid/55a3bb434.html
|