Asylum / refugees / immigration (UK)
Guardian: Man being processed at Manston detention centre in Kent dies
A man who arrived in the UK on a small boat a week ago and was being processed at Manston has died, the Home Office said on Saturday. He became ill while at the Kent detention site and was taken to hospital, but later died.
It is understood that he arrived on 12 November and was taken ill on Friday evening.
“We can confirm a person staying at Manston has died this morning [Saturday] in hospital after becoming unwell,” a Home Office spokesperson said.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Guardian: Cold comfort Kent: where small-boat arrivals receive a fraying welcome
A few sturdy souls dressed in waterproof winter coats braved the elements to take a walk along Folkestone’s clifftop promenade, The Leas. Some winced as the biting wind and slanted rain hit their faces. Below them the waves of the Channel rose high as they bashed the shore. This was weather to gladden the heart of the home secretary, Suella Braverman.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Independent: Asylum seekers ‘can’t afford clothes or toiletries’ on £8 a week government support
Asylum seekers say they cannot afford the clothes and toiletries they need, or to leave their accommodation, as they survive on as little as £8 a week and living costs continue to soar.
People who have fled their home countries say they are struggling to get by on their government allowance – and are unable to do anything about it while banned from working.
https://www.independent.co.uk/
BBC: Albanian migrant: 'I wish I'd never tried to enter the UK illegally'
"I didn't seek asylum. I told them I was an economic migrant," said Artan. "They gave us plastic bags with our belongings; I was told tomorrow morning you will arrive in Tirana."
Unlike many other Albanians who have entered the UK illegally on small boats, he was quickly sent home on a rapid deportation flight.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Guardian: Rural areas will be asked to house more asylum seekers, minister suggests
Rural areas will be asked to accept more people seeking asylum, a minister has suggested, as the government faced criticism from Conservative MPs for placing migrants in their constituencies.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said small towns and the countryside may be asked to house more people crossing the Channel in small boats “as long as numbers are so high”.
https://www.theguardian.com/
BBC: People smugglers threatened to kill asylum seeker's children
An asylum seeker has described how people smugglers threatened to kill his children after he raised fears their small boat was unsafe to travel in.
Rasoul, an Iranian Kurd who now lives in Derby, said he was forced onto a dinghy crossing the Channel at gunpoint with his young son and daughter.
His family had paid a criminal gang to get him out of Iran where he said his life was in danger.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
BBC: Immigration will be very important for the economy, says Jeremy Hunt
Immigration will be important for the UK economy in the years ahead but the government still wants to bring numbers down, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said.
Official forecasts say net migration in 2026 will be 205,000, higher than previously predicted.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said it would help "offset slower growth in productivity".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
Tribune: Syrian refugee swimmer hopes biopic helps others displaced
Yusra, 24, believes "The Swimmers", chronicling the perilous journey across Europe she and her elder sister Sarah undertook in 2015, has "an amazing message" that will give viewers "joy, hope, tears, sadness".
The dramatisation, currently showing in some UK, US and German cinemas before its global release on Netflix next Wednesday, portrays the two leaving their parents and younger sister in Syria to seek refuge in Germany.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/
Half of asylum applicants are unable to access legal aid representation
Using data obtained via an FOI request, Dr Jo Wilding has estimated a deficit of at least 25,000 between the number of new asylum applications, and the number of immigration and asylum legal aid matters opened in England and Wales. This suggests that almost half of the main applicants (excluding dependants) who claimed asylum in the year to June 2022 did not have a legal aid representative.
The blog post explains how many clients are losing representation, either because of firms withdrawing from legal aid altogether or because their representatives will not do appeals work, and are having to find new representation in a ‘market’ which already can accommodate only half of the demand from new applicants.
UK treatment of asylum seekers must comply with international law
In a periodic examination of its human rights record, the UK government has been instructed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to make sure its “treatment of asylum seekers complies with international laws”. Referring to the plan to remove to Rwanda people seeking asylum in the UK who have their case deemed as inadmissible, the UK government was told by the Netherlands to “revoke parts of the migration economic development partnership which do not comply with the 1951 Refugee Convention”.
Asylum / refugees / immigration (international)
Guardian: Sayed fled Afghanistan, found safety in Australia and built a life. Then it was snatched away
Sayed* was home. At least he thought he was.
He held the piece of paper in his hand: an invitation to an Australian citizenship ceremony.
After five years in Australia, having fled religious persecution in Afghanistan as a teenager, this was proof he finally belonged.
“I felt amazing,” Sayed says. “I felt relief. I finally found a safe place. I can establish a life here and start to live peacefully. I felt home.”
https://www.theguardian.com/
Guardian: ‘Never given a chance’: freed asylum seekers lament lost decade in immigration detention
At least eight Bangladeshi asylum seekers have been released from immigration detention in Australia after languishing there for a decade, in a move that signals the Albanese government is winding back arbitrary detention, according to a lawyer for some of the men.
But while their release has given them hope, the men have spoken out about the terrible toll of the lengthy period of indefinite detention.
“Who is going to give me back 10 years of my life?” one man said through an interpreter.
https://www.theguardian.com/