refugees

Home Office defies high court by placing 100 asylum-seeker children in hotels

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/01/home-office-defies-high-court-by-placing-100-asylum-seeker-children-in-hotels

Unlawful practice still used in Kent was condemned after more than 200 went missing from accommodation

The UK Home Office has placed more than 100 lone asylum-seeker children in hotels in recent weeks, despite the practice having been found unlawful by the high court.

The government’s continued use of hotels has been condemned by human rights and refugee organisations since more than 200 children have gone missing, including dozens who vanished from one hotel in Brighton.

One of the reasons why children continue to be placed in hotels, some for a number of weeks, is that Kent county council says it cannot cope with the number of children arriving. The council’s geographical location means it has responsibility to take into care lone children who arrive at the Kent coast in small boats. It has warned that they are struggling to meet their legal obligations to UK as well as asylum-seeker children.

Both the Home Office and Kent county council have been found by the high court to have acted unlawfully by failing to look after these children properly.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/01/home-office-defies-high-court-by-placing-100-asylum-seeker-children-in-hotels

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Sunak failing to keep five key promises he made when appointed Prime Minister

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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps. Credit: Simon Dawson / 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sunak-failing-to-keep-five-key-promises-he-made-when-appointed-prime-minister

RISHI SUNAK’S five key promises, made shortly after becoming Prime Minister in January, have turned into five failures according to figures showing ministers’ lack of progress since then.

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Taking his pledges in turn, inflation remains the highest in the G7 –with RPI still at an eye-watering 10.7 per cent in June.

NHS waiting lists in England this week hit a new record high of 7.6 million.

And Britain’s debt pile was bigger than its economic output in June – the first time this has happened in more than 60 years.

Today’s 0.2 per cent growth in Q2 GDP was hailed as an unexpected win for Britain’s spluttering economy, which the Bank of England says will remain sluggish for years to come.

And dangerous refugee crossings not only set a new record for the month of June, but fresh arrivals on Thursday saw the total number of people risking their lives to cross the English Channel on small boats reach 100,000 for the first time since 2018.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sunak-failing-to-keep-five-key-promises-he-made-when-appointed-prime-minister

Continue ReadingSunak failing to keep five key promises he made when appointed Prime Minister

Eye-watering cost of sending each migrant to Rwanda revealed

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/06/eye-watering-cost-of-sending-each-migrant-to-rwanda-revealed/

If the government wants to break even on the Rwanda scheme, it would need to deter about 37% of people from crossing the Channel

Image of Sue-Ellen 'Suella' Braverman

It will cost the government £169,000 per person to send illegal migrants to countries such as Rwanda, according to new analysis.

An economic impact assessment of the controversial scheme published yesterday, also revealed that the government’s asylum system could cost £32 million a day by the end of 2026 if recent trends continue without the reduction of hotel usage.

And the analysis also estimates that if the government wants to break even on the Rwanda scheme, it would need to deter about 37% of people from crossing the Channel. The government has already given Rwanda £120million in initial investment even though no one has made the journey there.

The £169,000 cost can be broken down into the following. A £105,000 per person payment to third countries such as Rwanda, the Home Office £18,000, costs for flying and escorting would be £22,000, costs for detention would be £7,000 and costs to the Ministry of Justice would be £1,000.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/06/eye-watering-cost-of-sending-each-migrant-to-rwanda-revealed/

Continue ReadingEye-watering cost of sending each migrant to Rwanda revealed

Falmouth locals up in arms over migrant ‘prison barge’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/anti-racist-activists-gather-falmouth-protest-prison-barge

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The current accommodation capacity of the barge is just over 200. The refit commissioned by the government will see that capacity more than doubled to 500.

Which of course inevitably means cramped overcrowding and unhygienic conditions.

Regardless of how the government tries to portray it or dress it up in benign rhetoric, this barge is intended to be used as a prison ship in which to incarcerate refugees, many of whom have fled for their lives from harrowing and torturous conditions in the hope of finding safety from war or persecution in what they believe to be a civilised country.

The barge will, after its refit in Falmouth, be tugged to Portland in Dorset where it will be permanently moored — ironically not so far from where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were unjustly deported for trying to form a union of farm labourers almost 200 years ago.

On Wednesday May 10, within a day of the arrival of the prison barge in Falmouth, over a hundred protesters gathered at a point overlooking the harbour where the Bibby Stockholm is moored, chanted and displayed No To Floating Prisons banners. Speakers called for an end to the racist violence that the Bibby Stockholm represents.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/anti-racist-activists-gather-falmouth-protest-prison-barge

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Proposed changes to Illegal Migration Bill are a ‘clear and serious breach of international law’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/proposed-changes-to-illegal-migration-bill-are-a-clear-and-serious-breach-of-international-law

Government plans to make the ‘anti-refugee Bill’ harsher by allowing ministers to ignore European Court of Human Rights

ANY ministerial efforts to ignore European Court of Human Rights orders stopping the removal of migrants would threaten the rule of law, leading legal figures warned today.

The warnings follow reports that the government and Home Secretary Suella Braverman has caved in to backbench Tory rebels and agreed to make the Illegal Migrant Bill, dubbed the “anti-refugee Bill” by critics, more harsh.

Amendments include allowing ministers to ignore European judges and “Rule 39” interdiction orders in certain situations and requiring British judges to decide on deportations would cause “serious and irreversible harm.”

One group of Tory MPs said a deal has been reached with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the amendments as he hopes to see off a backbench rebellion in Commons.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/proposed-changes-to-illegal-migration-bill-are-a-clear-and-serious-breach-of-international-law

Continue ReadingProposed changes to Illegal Migration Bill are a ‘clear and serious breach of international law’