Asylum / refugees / immigration (UK)
Guardian: Home Office staff call for ‘unpalatable’ small boats deal to be scrapped
Home Office staff are rebelling against the government’s attempts to tackle small boats crossing the Channel, demanding its recent deal with the French be scrapped because it is “doomed to fail”.
A day after France announced it was increasing the number of rescue vessels in the Channel, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has written to the home secretary, Suella Braverman, saying the only solution to the crisis is creating a safe passage visa that allows refugees a secure route to the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Independent: Revealed: ‘Appalling’ reality of healthcare inside the Home Office’s asylum hotels
Asylum seekers in hotels are being left without access to adequate healthcare, leaving torture injuries untreated, children suffering weight loss, and pregnant women without maternity services, doctors have warned.
Healthcare workers told The Independent of extreme cases such as children who had multiple teeth pulled out due to lack of dental care, as well as adults suffering from PTSD and suicidal thoughts.
https://www.independent.co.uk/
Guardian: Labour wants to fast-track asylum cases from ‘safe’ countries to clear backlog
Labour would rush through asylum applications for people from certain countries deemed “safe”, including Albania, in an attempt to clear the backlog of claims, Yvette Cooper has said.
The shadow home secretary said she wanted to create a new system under which the Home Office would prioritise some claims and process them within days.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Church Times: UK’s treatment of asylum-seekers is wasteful and cruel, says Welby
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has laid into the UK’s system for dealing with immigration, calling it “grossly wasteful”, “staggeringly inefficient” and “cruel”.
The Government’s proposed solution, outsourcing the problem to Rwanda, was not a solution, he said. “It’s a mistake, and it will be a failure.”
And he criticised the language of “invasion”, most recently used by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. Such terms denied “the essential value and dignity of fellow human beings”, he said.
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/
Asylum / refugees / immigration (international)
Guardian: Afghan refugee freed in Greece after two years of wrongful imprisonment
An imprisoned Afghan refugee wrongfully accused of smuggling people into Greece has been told he can walk free in a trial that activists hope will set a precedent for thousands of others in similar situations.
After a marathon day of proceedings, an appeals court sitting on the Aegean island of Lesbos ruled that Akif Rasuli could be released more than two years after he began serving a 50-year sentence for the crime of “facilitating the illegal entry” of undocumented migrants into the country. The three-member tribunal overturned the conviction citing lack of evidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Sky News: 'They beat the hell out of us and stripped us naked': Asylum seekers 'abused in cage' by Bulgarian forces
They call it the "cage" or the "jail". Tucked away in the small Bulgarian town of Sredets is a crumbling outbuilding on the edge of a compound where border forces are stationed.
The floor is often covered with litter, there are no proper beds and at one side are metal bars.
https://news.sky.com/story/
Guardian: First refugees arrive in tiny Catalan villages under repopulation plan
It’s been a long journey since Orwa Skafe fled the war in Syria seven years ago but thanks to an innovative resettlement scheme he’s found peace in a tiny village 900 metres (3,000ft) up in the Pyrenees. He is one of the first to benefit from a Catalan government programme to relocate refugees in depopulated villages.
The programme, called Operation 500 because it involves villages with fewer than 500 inhabitants, is being run jointly by the regional employment agency, the equality commission and the Association of Micro-villages.
https://www.theguardian.com/