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Category: refugees

  • Home Office secretly funding Turkish border forces to stop migrants

    The UK government is secretly funding Turkey’s border forces to keep migrants out. A freedom of information (FOI) request revealed that it has handed £3m to the Turkish government to stop refugees from entering Europe.

    The FOI request by the Guardian detailed that the Home Office has diverted money to Turkish security forces to stem the flow of desperate refugees and migrants. This included practical training and material support. The money was taken from a fund meant for overseas development.

    The £3m figure is for the last year. But, the report suggests that the payments have been steadily increasing since 2019. The Guardian reported:

    The funding was diverted from the official development assistance (ODA) budget and delivered through Home Office International Operations, part of the department’s Intelligence Directorate.

    The UK also gifted security equipment, including nine vehicles to Turkey. This is despite, as the Guardian pointed out, Turkey’s track record of using violent force including live rounds against migrants.

    Refugee plight ignored

    Human rights lawyer Mahmut Kaçan told the paper that the UN overlooked Turkish brutality against refugees. And he said donor countries were responsible too:

    The UNHCR never criticises or mentions what Turkey is doing at the border. They are complicit in the deaths of these people, as are the EU and other countries that are giving money to Turkey for border security.

    And an anonymous Home Office source explained how the process of funding worked:

    We offer our expertise and provide officials [locally] with evidence, showing the routes we think illegal migrants or gangs are operating along… It’ll probably be along the lines of: ‘This is a route smugglers and illegal migrants use to get to the UK, we need to do more to stop it.’

    The source added:

    The Turkish government will then respond by saying: ‘This is what we need to be able to do that’, and then we fund it, basically.

    Accountability?

    The same source said that accountability wasn’t high on the agenda for the UK government:

    We don’t tend to hold local forces to account with any targets but certainly if we say: ‘We need to bolster X area of border security’, Turkey might respond by saying they need Y in order to boost border officer numbers and we’ll help them to do that.

    A spokesperson for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said the revelation exposed the British government’s real attitudes:

    This government has shown that it will break international law to prevent people from exercising the fundamental human right to seek safety.

    The UK government has been caught out again. Whether on the English Channel or at the Turkish border, it is absolutely committed to putting the boot into some of the most desperate people on earth. And, as ever, the unwitting taxpayer is funding it.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Amada44, cropped to 1910 x 1000, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0.

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Threatened Saudi dissident told to live like Edward Snowden by Met police

    Col Rabih Alenezi received advice after reporting death threats, of which he says he receives 50 a week

    A Saudi Arabian dissident living in London was told to “emulate” the life of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden by a Metropolitan police officer, amid death threats he received after fleeing his country.

    Col Rabih Alenezi, 44, had been a senior official in Saudi Arabia’s security service for two decades, but sought asylum in the UK after he claimed to have been ordered to carry out human rights violations. His life was threatened for criticising the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • The Bibby Stockholm is about to sail to Dorset to imprison 500 refugees – join the protest to stop it

    Residents of Cornwall are urgently asking for people to join a protest on the evening of Wednesday 31 May. They are gathering to demonstrate against the Bibby Stockholm, a floating barge which is to detain 500 male asylum seekers. The barge is currently docked for a refit in Falmouth. However, it is due to make its way to Portland port in Dorset on Wednesday night, where it will, effectively, become an offshore prison.

    Imprisoned and traumatised by the British state

    Cornwall Resists, which is a network of grassroots anti-fascist groups in the county, said:

    The Bibby is the first of its kind to be refurbished here, but it won’t be the last. The boat represents the hostile, fascist and illegal approach the Conservative party is taking towards vulnerable people, who have risked everything to flee war and persecution only to be imprisoned and retraumatised by the state.

    We will not allow this to happen. We will gather to remember migrants who have died making their way to safety, and Rachid Abdelsalam, who died on board the Bibby Stockholm.

    Indeed, Rachid Abdelsalam suffered heart failure and died onboard the barge in 2008, when it was used by the Dutch government to lock up those seeking asylum. Detainees onboard had warned the prison guards of Rachid’s deteriorating health, but the guards only opened his cell door two hours after he had died.

    The Dutch government only took the barge out of service after a Dutch media investigation uncovered horrors onboard, including rape, fire safety failings, and abuse by prison staff.

    This wasn’t the only death on Dutch prison barges. Diabetic Ahmad Mahmud El Sabah also died on another Rotterdam detention barge after he suffered from an infection of the liver.

    None of this has phased Suella Braverman. In fact, the Home Office plans to hire a second barge, which would imprison four times as many people.

    Community outrage over the Bibby Stockholm

    Cornwall Resists said of the Bibby Stockholm:

    We have seen a huge swell of community outrage and resistance to this human rights atrocity. It’s been incredible to see so many groups come together to show resistance to the Bibby Stockholm and to definitively prove that Cornwall Resists border violence!

    The group continued:

    On Wednesday we will take our place in protest of the use of this boat – and others like it. We must continue to show our collective power in action against the Bibby Stockholm. We must come together as a community in our last chance to show the full force of our resistance, and the strength of our community. We will gather in solidarity with refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and all people who are victims of state oppression. We will give voices to those unable to voice their struggle, we will show the true nature of our communities and we will continue to build on this coalition of amazing organisations fighting for what is right.

    See you on the streets.

    Join the protest

    To join the protest, head to the Bar Road carpark in Falmouth at 5pm on 31 May. Or if you have access to a boat, you can meet fellow protesters on the water.

    Cornwall Resists says that it is preparing to “stay the course“. It advises people to bring warm layers, as well as:

    banners, candles, blankets, camping chairs, warm layers, noise making devices, your friends and family, flask of hot tea and a picnic.

    We can not quietly sit back while the racist Tory government treats Brown and Black people – who have come to the UK in hope of safety and stability – with complete contempt. Together we must continue to resist the Bibby Stockholm, as well as all racist policies of the Tory government.

    Featured image via Cornwall Resists

    By Eliza Egret

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The state is now criminalising activists who tried to stop a racist deportation flight

    On Tuesday 30 May, the trial begins of three protesters who tried to stop a government deportation flight to Jamaica. The controversial flight caused uproar at the time – but thanks to the actions of lawyers and campaigners, the Home Office hardly managed to deport anyone. However, activists are now paying the price for defending people’s basic human rights. 

    Government deportation flights have rightly caused outrage in recent years. The Home Office runs these when it claims people are not British citizens, and sometimes when they’ve committed a crime. However, many of the people the government tries to deport have lived in the UK most of their lives. One particular flight in November 2021 summed up the scandal.

    Deportation flights in the spotlight

    SOAS Detainee Support is an abolitionist activist group. It supports people facing deportation. In November 2021, it was involved in protests against a flight to Jamaica. The government claimed the people it was deporting were “foreign national offenders” with “no right to be in the UK”. But SOAS Detainee Support tells a different story.

    It said in a press release that:

    The deportation flight to Jamaica in November 2021 was initially intended to carry as many as 50 people. They included a 20-year-old woman who had been in the country since she was 13 and has no relatives in Jamaica. Three allegedly had direct Windrush connections through grandparents or other older relatives.

    At least ten had come to Britain aged 16 or younger, and five had come at 10 or younger. Nine of them had been in the UK for 20 years or longer. Many of them have British children, and up to 24 children would have lost their fathers had the flight left with all intended.

    In the build-up to this flight on 9 November 2021, three protestors locked on to each other using metal pipes on a road outside the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre. In the end, just four people boarded the flight from Birmingham airport, from an original list of more than 50. So the protests as well as legal issues stopped most of the government’s planned deportations.

    But now, some protesters are facing the wrath of the state. 

    Protesters: penalised for defending human rights

    SOAS Detainee Support said in a press release that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has:

    charged [three protesters] with causing a public nuisance for blocking a road outside Brook House Immigration Removal Centre at Gatwick Airport in November 2021 to prevent people being forcibly removed on a flight to Jamaica. They will be tried by a jury, with the trial listed for seven days.

    They have crowdfunded almost £20,000 to support the costs of their case, with more than 750 people donating.

    The trial of these three protestors is taking place as the government cracks down further not only on the right to protest, but on people’s right to asylum, too. For example, as the Canary recently reported, the Public Order Act coupled with the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts (PCSC) Act will effectively allow police to stop all sorts of protest actions:

    The new Public Order Act powers include penalties of a year in custody for blocking roads, railways and airports. In addition, protesters who use the tactic of locking-on could face up to six months in prison.

    At the same time, the racist Nationality and Borders Act and the 2023 Illegal Migration Bill are entrenching the Tories’ hostile environment for Black, brown, and foreign-born people. 

    Fighting back against the government

    However, people are fighting back. On Saturday 27 May, thousands of people protested in London over the Public Order Act:

    Meanwhile, groups like Stop Deportations continue to fight the government’s racist agendas. Stop Deportations is supporting the three protesters on trial:

    A spokesperson for the group said:

    Blocking Brook House detention centre prevented people from being violently and cruelly taken away from their families and loved ones on a deportation flight. Many of those who were due to be deported to Jamaica arrived in the UK as children and have family here, including children of their own, some had Windrush connections and some are potential trafficking survivors. They did not receive proper legal advice or time to challenge their deportation, so direct action was necessary to prevent it.

    The government is now aggressively trying to suppress opposition and scare people from protesting and similar direct action by charging three people with such serious offences.

    Blocking the immigration detention centre condemns not only this charter flight but also seeks to show solidarity with all those locked in detention centres, subject to deportations and otherwise oppressed by racist border controls.

    On the racism inherent in forced deportations, they added:

    We reject the legitimacy of the entire deportation regime. It is premised on racist notions of racialised people – from their disproportionate treatment in the criminal injustice system to their demonisation by the Home Office.

    Racist borders, racist governments

    Overall, it is shocking yet predictable that the state would criminalise protesters who were defending people from its racist attacks on their human rights. SOAS Detainee Support said in a press release:

    The three blockaders should be praised, not prosecuted, for taking direct action to prevent a racist charter flight. Deportations destroy lives, tear families apart, and instill fear in our communities. If they are convicted, it will be a dark day for migrants in the UK – and for anyone who believes in the right to dissent against a government that is determined to divide, impoverish and disempower ordinary people.

    Against the backdrop of legislation designed to dismantle the remains of the asylum system, acts of resistance and solidarity will only become more urgent and necessary.

    So, not only is the government hell-bent on upholding neo-colonialist, white supremacist policies – it will also criminalise anyone who opposes them. While this isn’t new, in the case of the ‘Brook House Three’ it is particularly insidious, given the deportation flight was largely a failure, anyway.

    The trial will last around seven days. You can donate to the crowdfunder for the defendants here.

    Featured image via Stop Deportations

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Europe’s War Against Refugees Is Fueling the Far Right’s Ascension

    The European Union is waging war on refugees. Italy’s far right government recently declared a state of emergency and hermetically sealed its ports. The other EU member states look the other way. In February the leaders of the 27 EU countries agreed on tougher measures to tackle “illegal migration.” This includes, above all, the mutual recognition of deportation decisions and asylum rejections and…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Human rights and wrongs: the Australian calling out oppression at home and around the world

    Undeterred by the scale of challenges in her in-tray, the new head of Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, says ‘We need to be standing with those people’

    Tirana Hassan may be responsible for calling out abuses around the world, but the new global head of Human Rights Watch remains shocked by her home country of Australia’s “dehumanising” treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.

    Hassan visited the notorious Woomera immigration detention facility in central Australia when she was in the final year of a law degree and found “hundreds and hundreds of Iraqis, Iranians and Afghans who had just been wallowing without access to legal representation”.

    Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Proposed UK laws are labelling refugees as criminals, says European report

    Council of Europe committee warns new legislation risks breaching internal convention rights and the rule of law

    The UK has been accused of wrongly labelling refugees and trafficking victims as criminals in a critical report from European representatives.

    The report from a committee of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly has warned ministers they could be at risk of breaching their international obligations and the rule of law with their new legislation.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Repatriation scheme for Rohingya refugees being piloted among serious human rights concerns

    A Myanmar government team arrived in Bangladesh on Thursday 25 May as part of a pilot scheme to repatriate around 1,200 Rohingya refugees in the coming weeks. However, Rohingya people have expressed major misgivings about the scheme.

    The refugees have been stuck in ramshackle camps in southeastern Bangladesh since 2017. They fled there during a crackdown by the Myanmar military, which is now subject to a United Nations genocide investigation.

    Rohingya: second class citizens

    Bangladesh and Myanmar are looking to return around 1,100 of an estimated one million Rohingya refugees to the violence-racked state of Rakhine. However, rights organisations and Rohingya people in particular have raised concerns about the safety and living conditions of repatriated refugees.

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report on 18 May that said:

    Bangladesh and Myanmar are organizing returns of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar’s Rakhine State without consulting the community or addressing the grave risks to their lives and liberty

    Shayna Bauchner, HRW’s Asia researcher, added:

    Bangladesh is frustrated with its burden as host, but sending refugees back to the control of a ruthless Myanmar junta will just be setting the stage for the next devastating exodus.

    The team of 14 Myanmar officials arrived by boat in the Bangladeshi border town of Teknaf on Thursday morning. They made no comment to reporters, an AFP journalist there said.

    Rohingya demands

    “We have no permanent representative in this repatriation process,” Khin Maung, a prominent Rohingya leader, told AFP. He added that:

    This repatriation process is just an eyewash. If they didn’t ensure our dignity, there is no point returning to IDPs (internally displaced people)

    One refugee up for repatriation in the pilot project told AFP – on condition of anonymity – that they did not want to go back and live in Myanmar “as non-citizens and stay in IDP camps”. They said:

    Our place should be given back to us, our right to live like other ethnic groups should be legally guaranteed. Otherwise we cannot believe the mass murderers.

    Another refugee, Semon Ara, said:

    What will we do living in IDP camps? We are citizens of Myanmar, not guests. Myanmar should give back our rights and repatriate us.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Foreign and Commonwealth Office, licensed under the Open Government Licence version 1.0 (OGL v1.0), resized to 1910*1000.

    By Afroze Fatima Zaidi

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Millions of Syrian refugees face fight to reclaim homes, says human rights group

    Report by Syrian Network for Human Rights details laws giving Assad’s government powers to seize land

    As many as 14 million Syrians face a near insurmountable barrier to returning to their homes after the government passed laws giving the state power to seize their land and property, according to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

    The report, shared with the Guardian, urged the UN high commissioner for refugees to highlight the laws as one of the main obstacles to refugees returning home.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Tories’ racist, floating refugee prison once again faced the wrath of Cornwall locals

    The Tories floating refugee prison barge the Bibby Stockholm has once again seen protests – this time, with dozens of groups and hundreds of people turning out in Cornwall.

    Bibby Stockholm and the racist Tories

    The Bibby Stockholm is an already notorious barge the Tory government will be using to detain refugees. As the Canary previously reported:

    The government announced it would be using it to detain male refugees and would be operational for “at least” 18 months. It also said that more of these barges were on the way. The government also noted how barges will “cut the cost to the taxpayer” – blaming refugees for trying to come here, and not the government for its disastrous hotels policy. Of course, this also ignores the fact that the problem is not where and how the government detains people – but the fact that it does so in the first place.

    Campaign groups have hit back at the Tories for using a barge to detain refugees. Moreover, when the Dutch government did the same thing with the Bibby Stockholm staff abused refugees on board. The government had to take it out of service. Not that any of that has stopped the racist Tories from pushing this policy forward.

    So, currently, the Bibby Stockholm is in Falmouth, Cornwall. However, people have already protested it. And on Sunday 21 May campaigners were once again out in force resisting the barge and what it represents.

    Cornwall resisting, again

    Cornwall Resists is a network of grassroots anti-fascist groups in the county. As the Canary has documented, it has been prominent in resisting both the far-right’s and the state’s racist abuse of refugees in Cornwall. The group has recently turned its attention to the Bibby Stockholm and held its first demo on Wednesday 10 May. Now Cornwall Resists, other groups, and local people have protested again:

    Cornwall Resists said in a statement for the Canary that around 300 people joined the protest. It noted that:

    The protest – Resist Border Violence – No Floating Prisons – United Against the Bibby Stockholm – was supported by local groups including Cornwall Resists, Divest Borders Falex, Falmouth and Penryn Welcomes Refugees, Radical Pride, Reclaim the Sea, All Under One Banner, the Bakers’ Union, and Falmouth and Penryn Acorn.

    A concurrent protest also took place in London at the Home Office.

    In Falmouth, the protest was varied – with some people even sailing a protest boat in front of the Bibby Stockholm:

    Anti Raids Plymouth made the point of the demo pretty clear:

    Bibby Stockholm protest one Cornwall Falmouth

    Bibby Stockholm protest two Cornwall Falmouth

    Falmouth is just the beginning

    Cornwall Resists told the Canary:

    Sunday’s protest was an amazing display of community action and solidarity. However, as speaker after speaker made clear, this needs to be the start of our resistance and not the end of it. Attending one or two protests is not enough. It is the responsibility of every one of us to act against this floating human rights violation in our dock.

    Indeed, as the Canary previously said:

    a hostile environment where humans are housed on barges simply for fleeing war, persecution, or to seek a better life, is exactly what the colonialist UK government and its agents want. The only way to begin to stop this is to resist, like Cornwall did. It’s certainly not begging the government for reforms and fairness.

    So, the Tories (and by default their racist, nasty barge) can expect more protests in Falmouth. They can also expect people to protest wherever the Bibby Stockholm ends up.

    Featured image via Cornwall Resists

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Behrouz Boochani, the refugee reporter who exposed the cruelty of Australia’s island jail | Ten years of Guardian Australia

    One inmate became the voice of the men locked up on Manus. Behrouz Boochani and Ben Doherty look back at the risks he took to get this story to the world

    When Ben Doherty met Behrouz Boochani for the first time, it was the middle of the night on Manus Island.

    The two journalists embraced in the darkness of the immigration detention centre.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • UK’s broken asylum system sees £3.5bn in UK aid money spent internally

    The government is spending billions in aid, meant for overseas projects, here at home. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), a watchdog organisation, warned that the Home Office is spending up to a third of foreign aid within the UK. This came about because aid money can be drawn on in the first year of a refugee‘s stay.

    As the watchdog explained:

    Under international aid rules, the first year of some of the costs associated with supporting refugees and asylum seekers who arrive in a donor country qualifies as official development assistance (ODA). This category of aid is referred to as ‘in-donor refugee costs’.

    It’s housing and accommodation costs that ramp up the exorbitant figures. In 2022, up to £4.7m per day went on accommodation for Afghan refugees alone.

    Failing system

    The ICAI’s rapid review:

    examines UK aid spent on refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK, which it estimates to be around £3.5 billion in 2022, approximately one third of the UK’s total aid spend that year.

    The availability of these staggering amounts, the report adds, reduces the incentives for government departments to reduce their use of aid money. Plus, the UK’s failing asylum system makes the problem even worse:

    Soaring costs resulting from the failure to tackle the processing backlog and competition for scarce accommodation have absorbed a growing proportion of the limited budget for aid, making it an inefficient way of providing humanitarian assistance.

    Additionally, conditions for refugees in hotels are extremely poor. Asylum seekers housed in this way often lack basic necessities like clothing. They are also frequently develop mental health issues, and are harassed by the far right.

    Aid money cap

    The ICAI accused the Home Office of not overseeing aid effectively. It also warned that protections for women asylum seekers were not up to scratch:

    ICAI heard a lot of anecdotal evidence of safeguarding lapses, particularly for women and girls, who face significant risks of harassment and even gender-based violence while in hotel accommodation.

    Another reason for the wild aid spending is that there is no cap. This means departments can use aid money with little restraint. The ICAI said:

    The government should consider introducing a cap on the proportion of the aid budget that can be spent on in-donor refugee costs (as Sweden has proposed to do for 2023-24) or, alternatively, introduce a floor to FCDO’s aid spending, to avoid damage to the UK’s aid objectives and reputation.

    Gross negligence

    The government’s gross dereliction of duty over the foreign aid budget beggars belief. Its spending to support refugees should come out of domestic budgets – not be syphoned off from the aid budget at the expense of people in other countries, who are often also in desperate need.

    Moreover, it’s not even spending this money well. The Home Office leaves refugees languishing in the asylum system, invariably in squalid conditions, and under the constant threat of attacks from the far right. However, the biggest threat to refugees comes from the government itself – which is about to persecute them further by housing them in former military bases.

    It’s time that the government fixed our broken, unfair, grossly negligent, and mismanaged asylum system – and while it’s at it, fix the foreign aid budget, too.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/FCO, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under Open Government Licence

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A multimedia collaboration between photographer Platon and UNHCR launched

    On 27 March 2023 “Portrait of a Stranger,” a creative multimedia collaboration between world-renowned photographer and storyteller Platon, and UNHCR, was launched in partnership with the Movies That Matter International Human Rights Film Festival in The Hague, Netherlands. 

    The 18-minute film features interviews and portraits of over 20 refugees who fled conflict and persecution in various parts of the world, exploring the universal desire to be free, safe, respected and valued, and to belong.

    Over the last year, UNHCR and Platon interviewed a diverse group of refugees ranging in age, nationality, ethnicity and personal circumstances. The result, Portrait of a Stranger, is a holistic, multimedia experience, marrying film and photography. It asks audiences to look beyond our differences and instead focus on our shared humanity. 

    “Living in exile may be their life circumstance, but it is not what defines them,” said Platon. “I hope the images and voices of the refugees in this film will help audiences focus on the shared humanity that unites us, rather than the barriers that divide us. Not only for these particular refugees but for all people forced to flee around the world.”

    As the number of people forcibly displaced continues to rise – last year there were more than 100 million people uprooted globally – it is hoped that the collaboration will help to reframe the narratives and perceptions around people forced to flee.  

    “This film and these images are powerful reminders of who refugees really are. They are people like your neighbour, your friend, your colleague. Like you and me, each with our own personality; our hopes; our dreams,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said. “By amplifying the voices of refugees, the film offers an important reality check to counter the negative public discourse we often hear about people forced to flee.” 

    About Platon:  

    Photographer, communicator and storyteller Platon has gained worldwide fame with his portraits. Platon has worked with a range of international publications including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and won a Peabody Award for his photo essays for The New Yorker. He has photographed over 30 covers for TIME Magazine and is a World Press Photo laureate. He is currently on the board for Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum. In 2013, Platon founded The People’s Portfolio, a non-profit foundation dedicated to celebrating emerging leaders of human rights and civil rights around the world.  See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2015/02/25/photographer-platon-speaks-about-human-rights-in-indiana-wells-on-february-27

    https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2023/3/642175f64/unhcr-platon-launch-collaboration-bring-refugee-voices-aspirations-focus.html

  • Thousands of refugees will be packed in former military bases, Tory minister confirms

    Tory minister Robert Jenrick has confirmed plans to put thousands of asylum seekers into old military bases in Essex, Lincolnshire, and Sussex. Jenrick also said those held there would get the most basic housing possible. The move is being opposed by charities and local people.

    The Independent’s race reporter Nadine White tweeted the news on 29 March:

    Military bases

    Immigration minister Robert Jenrick deployed divisive rhetoric in his address to parliament, saying:

    We must not elevate the wellbeing of illegal migrants above those of the British people.

    This is obviously a bizarre claim considering how child poverty and homelessness have skyrocketed under the Tories.

    Typically, his report to the Commons suggested that many of the people coming to the UK were economic migrants:

    This government remains committed to meeting our legal obligations to those who would otherwise be destitute. But we are not prepared to go further. Accommodation for migrants should meet their essential living needs and nothing more. Because we cannot risk becoming a magnet for the millions of people who are displaced and seeking better economic prospects.

    Jenrick also said that boats could be used to house asylum seekers offshore, citing other countries which did the same:

    We are continuing to explore the possibility of accommodating migrants in vessels, as they are in Scotland and in the Netherlands

    Opposition

    However, some Tory MPs opposed the idea. Edward Leigh MP, whose Gainsborough constituency is home to the proposed RAF Scampton camp, said he would seek an injunction. Meanwhile, several local councils – including Tory-led councils – have said they will also seek injunctions. Concerns were raised about community safety and practicalities, and Jenrick confirmed that only single adult males would be held in the facilities.

    The Refugee Council said:

    Conditions

    It’s also essential to consider what the conditions in these bases are going to be like. The Tories have used military bases to hold asylum detainees in recent years, with some alarming reports.

    A former RAF site in Norwich temporarily housing asylum seekers has faced allegations of “poor conditions, poor food quality and mental health crises”. Moreover, the Canary has extensively documented human rights abuses at Manston in Kent, another former RAF base. And there have also been reports of appalling conditions for people living on former army barracks in Penally, Wales.

    In June 2021, a number of detainees brought a case against Napier Barracks in Kent to the high court. They won after arguing that the barracks was unfit for their needs. A judge ruled that the then-home secretary Priti Patel had acted “irrationally”. The judge also that ordered a number of asylum seekers be relocated from the squalid conditions.

    Slippery slope

    It’s likely that Jenrick is aware of these instances of the mistreatment of asylum detainees at former military barracks, yet he still chose to announce this plan. His announcement comes on top of the Illegal Migration Act and plans to deport desperate refugees to Rwanda.

    More and more, the UK’s asylum system is a playground for posturing racists playing to the very worst sections of society – and at the expense of the most vulnerable people in the world.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Harvey Milligan, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CC BY 4.0.

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture highlights ‘inhuman’ treatment of migrants in latest report

    On 30 March, Europe’s top rights body blasted the “inhuman” treatment of migrants who were brutally turned away at its borders. This is especially true of the external borders of EU territory.

    The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s (CPT) annual report said that border forces had beaten migrants. They also suffered:

    punches, slaps, blows with truncheons, other hard objects… by police or border guards…

    Other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment were also deployed, such as firing bullets close to the persons’ bodies while they lay on the ground.

    It said other tactics included:

    pushing them into rivers (sometimes with their hands still tied), removal of their clothes and shoes and forcing them to walk barefoot and/or in their underwear and, in some cases, even fully naked across the border.

    The CPT said it found “increasing numbers” of people who claimed they were pushed back from the European frontier by force.

    CPT head Alan Mitchell said:

    Many European countries face very complex migration challenges at their borders, but this does not mean they can ignore their human rights obligations. Pushbacks are illegal, unacceptable and must end.

    The committee visited police, border and coastguard posts, detention centres, and transit areas on the main migratory routes to Europe.

    The CPT called on the Council of Europe’s member states to guarantee migrants’ rights. This would involve registering each individual, providing medical and vulnerability assessments, and offering people the opportunity to apply for asylum. Moreover, the CPT added that:

    Detention should only be used as a measure of last resort

    46 countries make up the Council of Europe. The watchdog excluded Russia after its invasion of Ukraine last year. However, it remains a party to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture.

    More than a million people arrived in Europe during the 2015-16 refugee crisis. The number of attempts by migrants to enter Europe hit 330,000 in 2022. This is up 64% from the previous year, the EU’s border agency Frontex said. And, as NGO Climate Refugees reported, this situation is only going to become more urgent:

    Every day vulnerable people are forcibly displaced due to impacts generated by climate change. This isn’t something that will happen, this is something happening now.

    Numerous studies, like The World Bank, forecast a grim picture of internal displacement in the millions, as the adverse effects of climate change induce more extreme weather, rising sea levels, threaten food security and impact livelihoods.

    As we are seeing play out now, it is the poorest and most vulnerable communities – those who contributed the least to global warming – that are paying the price and are hit hardest by this crisis.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse
    Featured image via YouTube

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

  • Refugees subject to widespread physical ill-treatment, Council of Europe finds

    Human rights body says European states are increasingly resorting to illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers

    European countries are increasingly resorting to illegal pushbacks of refugees and asylum seekers “with minimal accountability”, a report from the continent’s leading human rights body, the Council of Europe, has found.

    The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee (CPT) said it had identified “clear patterns of physical ill-treatment” against people trying to cross borders all over Europe.

    Continue reading…

  • Europe’s human rights watchdog warns UK over illegal migration bill

    Council of Europe’s experts say bill is ‘step backwards’ in fight against modern slavery

    Europe’s human rights watchdog has warned the UK government that its plans to curb the rights of trafficking victims in its illegal migration bill is a “significant step backwards” in the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery and demonstrates a lack of compliance with international law.

    In a highly unusual move, the Council of Europe’s group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings (Greta) on Wednesday expressed deep concern about the bill and its lack of compliance with core elements of the Council of Europe convention on action against trafficking in human beings.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Italy impounds Banksy-financed refugee rescue ship

    Italian authorities have detained a refugee rescue ship run by German charity Louise Michel, the organisation said on 26 March. Italy’s coastguard confirmed it had seized and impounded the vessel at Lampedusa. Louise Michel was carrying out life-saving rescues of people from the Mediterranean at the time.

    Rescue ship defies killer law

    The Canary previously reported that the MV Louise Michel was bought “with the proceeds of some of Banksy’s works”. Furthermore, Banksy painted the vessel’s distinctive pink hull. Its website said the charity chose the name for historical French anarchist Louise Michel, and embodies principles of “feminism, anti-racism and anti-fascism”. And its Twitter account said the Italian state had blocked the vessel on 26 March after it had recovered 180 people through four rescue operations.

    Italy’s far-right government has vowed to curb the number of refugees landing the country. To do this, it passed a controversial law forcing charity ships to perform just one rescue mission at a time. The ship then must return to a port designated by the authorities before embarking on another rescue. This increases the risk of people drowning.

    The Italian coastguard said it had ordered the MV Louise Michel to dock in the port of Trapani after conducting a rescue operation in Libyan waters:

    but had disobeyed that order and headed out to three other migrant boats.

    The charity said on Twitter that, as a result, the authorities have detained its vessel for 20 days. It then added:

    The only aim of the decree law is the blockage of Rescue ships, willingly taking into account the deaths of people on the move.

    World’s most perilous crossing

    Since taking office in October 2022, prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has introduced a series of measures aimed at stopping the rescue of refugees crossing the Mediterranean. It is considered the world’s most perilous crossing. Meloni’s government accuses charity rescue ships of encouraging migrants and of helping people-traffickers. However, life-saving vessels only pick up a small percentage of the people seeking to reach the EU via Italy’s shores.

    Critics of Italy’s new law on charity ships say it contradicts “international maritime, human rights and European law”, and increases the risk of deaths at sea. Many of those attempting the crossing – including families fleeing conflict, persecution or abject poverty – do so on flimsy, overcrowded boats.

    The International Maritime Organisation, a UN body, estimated that 1,417 people disappeared in the Mediterranean in 2022.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/DerPetzi, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, resized to 770*403

    By Glen Black

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • MPs urged to uphold UK’s global obligations in migration bill debate

    Council of Europe commissioner raises concerns that legislation may not meet human rights standards

    A European human rights commissioner has warned UK parliamentarians, before a debate on the government’s illegal migration bill, to uphold international obligations when scrutinising the proposed legislation.

    In a letter to the House of Commons and House of Lords published on Monday, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović, said: “It is essential that parliamentarians prevent legislation that is incompatible with the United Kingdom’s international obligations being passed.”

    Continue reading…

  • Rwanda scheme would ‘completely erode’ UK’s standing on world stage

    New Human Rights Watch head Tirana Hassan says UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers is ‘cheap politics’

    The UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda would “completely erode” Britain’s standing on the world stage, the new head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

    Tirana Hassan, who takes over as HRW’s executive director on Monday, also said other conservative governments in Europe were considering following Britain’s lead and looking at African states as an offshore dumping ground for asylum seekers, potentially dealing further blows to established refugee protections.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • US and Canada Announce Joint Plan to Turn Away Asylum-Seekers

    In a move that critics say will push people to attempt more dangerous border crossings, the United States and Canada on Friday announced an agreement allowing both countries to block migrants from seeking asylum at unofficial points of entry. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hosted U.S. President Joe Biden Friday in Ottawa, where the leaders announced the deal. The agreement will allow…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • BBC Disciplined Commentator Who Spoke Out Against UK’s Anti-Immigrant Law

    For the last week, Britain has been consumed by drama surrounding ex-soccer superstar Gary Lineker’s temporary removal from his role as a BBC commentator after he took to twitter to attack the government’s new asylum policy. In early March, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s conservative government proposed a new law that would make it impossible for people to claim asylum if they entered the country…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Cops directly to blame for the far right organising a second racist protest at a Newquay hotel

    Content warning: This article contains mention of rape and sexual assault

    The far-right is once again targeting refugees in a hotel in Cornwall. However, this time the police and the media are to blame, for helping to spread misinformation. Meanwhile, anti-fascists are once again taking a stand as the far right plans to descend on Newquay in another racist onslaught.

    Racists will target the Beresford Hotel in Newquay for the second time in just over a month. The Home Office is housing refugees there. The far-right action comes after police arrested and charged a man with rape – and media outlets like CornwallLive reported on it. As its website noted:

    A man has been charged in connection with the rape of a woman in Newquay on Sunday, March 12.

    Ghenadie Babii, 38, of Narrowcliff, Newquay, has been charged with rape and appeared at Bodmin Magistrates’ Court today (Friday, March 17) where he was remanded in custody. The case was sent to the crown court at a later date.

    However, this is not the full story.

    The far-right: mobilising again in Cornwall

    Cops released a statement, which they’ve since deleted, giving Babii’s address as “Narrowcliff”. This is the same road the Beresford Hotel is on. Local media then published the statement in articles. Far-right groups, as well as other individuals, immediately latched onto the fact the suspect was from Narrowcliff – and assumed he was staying at the Beresford Hotel. They then organised a second protest – scheduled for Sunday 26 March at 10:30am – based on this racist assumption.

    Of course, it’s now come to light that Babii was not staying at the Beresford Hotel – nor is he a refugee. CornwallLive reported on Monday 20 March that:

    Moldovan national Ghenadie Babii, 38, of Narrowcliff, Newquay, was charged with rape and appeared at Bodmin Magistrates’ Court on Friday (March 17) where he was remanded in custody…

    CornwallLive has confirmed that his address is not the hotel but another property in the area. Babii was in this country legally on a short-term visa.

    Yet as of 9am on Tuesday 21 March, the far-right demo was still happening. However, the protest brief had changed to remove reference to the fascists’ assumption about Babii. Still, though, the cops are partly to blame for this demo even happening. Grassroots coalition Cornwall Resists told the Canary:

    Devon and Cornwall police are responsible for massively stoking community tensions in Newquay. The rapist was not in the hotel or even a refugee. How could the police screw up this badly? They should have known this would inflame community tensions. Publishing the address “Narrowcliff” when they know the hotel has been subject to a concerted far-right racist smear campaign is disgusting and staggeringly incompetent.

    So, Cornwall Resists have organised a counter-protest on 26 March, meeting at 9:30am. However, larger questions still need to be asked of the police’s conduct, as the incident encapsulates cops’ institutional racism and misogyny.

    Cops and media: stoking far-right racism

    Cornwall Resists told the Canary:

    Our thoughts are with the survivor of this attack who now, thanks to the police, has to face the devastating trauma of her assault being publicised, lied about and politicised by the far-right.

    Our thoughts are with the refugees in the hotel, who are once again facing hate because of the lies of fascists and the racist ignorance of a police force who don’t give a shit about their welfare.

    Like other forces across the UK, Devon and Cornwall police is institutionally racist and misogynistic. Black people in Cornwall are 14 times more likely to be stopped by the cops. The force showed its contempt for Black people when a sergeant who shared a vile meme of George Floyd’s death, kept his job. Just weeks ago, another cop from the force was charged with rape and sexual assault. In February, a report found that the police were often failing “to record reports of violent crime including harassment, stalking, controlling and coercive behaviour and domestic abuse”. It further found that it “does not always accurately record” reported incidents of rape, and the recording of crimes against children were also a concern.

    Moreover, local news outlets should not have just published the cops’ statement without questioning the address. Cornwall Resists told the Canary:

    We would also like to know why the press release was taken word-for word with no questions or editing. Only the police are given the privilege of having their statements covered word-by-word. Our own statements aren’t treated like this, nor would we expect them to be. However, any local journalist or editor should have been aware of the current tensions around Narrowcliff and taken the decision to edit this information out of the press release.”

    Misogyny and racism

    Furthermore, there’s also the survivor of Babii’s alleged rape in all of this. CornwallLive reported that the cops are appealing for witnesses:

    Senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Chris Donald. said earlier today: “Our enquiries remain ongoing in relation to this case and we are really keen to identify and speak to a person who may have seen or heard something which may assist our enquiries.

    Through CCTV enquiries we believe a person was fishing on the beach in the early hours of Sunday and I would ask them to get in touch with us. I’d also ask that anyone else who was in the area and may have relevant information, to please get in touch.

    Anyone with information which may assist this appeal or the wider investigation is asked to contact police on 101 quoting log 158 12/3/23.

    As Cornwall Resists summed up:

    While our focus is now on opposing the racists who’ll continue using this smear to push their vile agenda, it’s important that we remember that it is the police who’ve enabled this situation and who will to be blame if anything happens in Newquay on Sunday.

    So, once again, the far right will be descending on Newquay to hurl racism and intimidation at refugees. However, the wider context here is that the cops should have known this would be the result when they published Babii’s address. Yet they chose to do it anyway. This shows the cops’ complete lack of concern for refugees after the first far-right protest. The police’s actions also show their lack of concern for the survivor of Babii’s alleged rape. However, they also sum up the police’s mentality more broadly: anyone who isn’t white or one of them gets second-class, thoughtless treatment – especially women and Black and brown people.

    Featured image via Cornwall Resists

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Papuan liberation group calls for more ‘serious’ global efforts to end violence

    Tabloid Jubi in Jayapura

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has called on the international community to “pay serious attention” to the escalated violence happening in West Papua.

    Head of ULMWP’s legal and human rights bureau, Daniel Randongkir, said that since the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) — a separate movement — took New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens hostage last month, tensions in the Papuan central mountainous region had escalated.

    The New Zealand government is pressing for the negotiated peaceful release of Mehrtens but the Indonesian security forces (TNI) are preparing a military operation to free the Susi Air pilot.

    Randongkir said the TPNPB kidnapping was an effort to draw world attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Papua, and to ask the international community to recognise the political independence of West Papua, which has been occupied by Indonesia since May 1, 1963.

    Negotiations for the release of Mehrtens, who was captured on February 7, are ongoing but TPNPB does not want the Indonesian government to intervene in the negotiations.

    Randongkir said that in the past week, there had been armed conflict between TPNPB and TNI in Puncak Papua, Intan Jaya, Jayawijaya, and Yahukimo regencies. This showed the escalation of armed conflict in Papua.

    According to Randongkir, since 2018 more than 67,000 civilians had been displaced from conflict areas such as Intan Jaya, Nduga, Puncak, Puncak Jaya, Yahukimo, Bintang Mountains, and Maybrat regencies.

    Fled their hometowns
    They fled their hometowns to seek refuge in other areas.

    On March 16, 2023 the local government and the military began evacuating non-Papuans in Dekai, the capital of Yahukimo Regency, using military cargo planes.

    “Meanwhile, the Indigenous people of Yahukimo were not evacuated from the city of Dekai,” Randongkir said in media release.

    ULMWP said that the evacuation of non-Papuans was part of the TNI’s preparation to carry out full military operations. This had the potential to cause human rights violations.

    Past experience showed that TNI, when conducting military operations in Papua, did not pay attention to international humanitarian law.

    “They will destroy civilian facilities such as churches, schools, and health clinics, burn people’s houses, damage gardens, and kill livestock belonging to the community,” he said.

    “They will arrest civilians, even kill civilians suspected of being TPNPB members.”

    Plea for Human Rights Commissioner
    Markus Haluk, executive director of ULMWP in West Papua, said that regional organisations such as the Pacific Islands Forum and the African Caribbean Pacific bloc, have called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to immediately send the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua.

    ULMWP hoped that the international community could urge the Indonesian government to immediately stop all forms of crimes against humanity committed in West Papua, and bring about a resolution of the West Papua conflict through international mechanisms that respect humanitarian principles, Haluk said.

    Haluk added that ULMWP also called on the Melanesian, Pacific, African, Caribbean and international communities to take concrete action through prayer and solidarity actions in resolving the conflict that had been going on for the past six decades.

    This was to enable justice, peace, independence and political sovereignty of the West Papuan nation.

    Mourning for Gerardus Thommey
    RNZ Pacific reports that Papuans are mourning the death of Gerardus Thommey, a leader of the liberation movement.

    Independence movement leader Benny Wenda said Thommey was a regional commander of the West Papuan liberation movement in Merauke, and since his early 20s had been a guerilla fighter.

    He said Thommey was captured near the PNG border with four other liberation leaders and deported to Ghana, and lived the rest of his life in exile.

    Wenda said that even though he had been exiled from his land, Thommey’s commitment to a liberated West Papua never wavered.

    Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Cruel Tory migration bill will erode basic right to seek asylum | Letters

    The impact the policy will have across the world can’t be ignored, says Oliver Lough. Plus letters from Derrick Joad, Nigel Griffin and David Duell

    Rafael Behr is right to draw attention to both the unworkability and the inhumanity of the proposed illegal migration bill (‘Stop the boats’ shows how Britain is really being governed: by Tory campaign leaflet, 14 March). But it is also important to look beyond domestic concerns. At a time when displacement across borders due to war, climate breakdown and economic collapse are becoming increasingly common, Britain risks joining a growing list of privileged countries whose actions threaten to undermine the basic right to seek asylum from persecution. Already, the US is turning away refugees at its southern border, and the militarisation and criminalisation of asylum in the Mediterranean is well entrenched.

    Countries adjacent to crises are the primary hosts of most of the world’s refugees. They are not blind to the hypocrisy of wealthy nations, which insist that refugees be supported and protected “over there” while relying on hostile and legally dubious solutions to prevent them coming “over here”. If the world’s richest countries are prepared to undermine its norms, the international refugee protection regime risks descending into a free-for-all, where each country will act as it sees fit – denial of refugee status, detention, violent pushbacks and forced repatriation – with the rights and needs of vulnerable people relegated to an absolute last priority.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Suella Braverman’s ‘stop the boats’ plan would bar 45,000 children from UK

    Refugee Council’s claims on impact of her bill come as the home secretary, on a visit to Rwanda, faces pressure from her own party

    Suella Braverman’s plan to stop the Channel crossings would see as many as 45,000 children effectively barred from refugee status in the UK, the Observer has been told.

    The claims are made in a forthcoming Refugee Council report analysing the overall impact of the illegal migration bill, which reveals the possible extent of children who could have their asylum claims deemed inadmissible under the new laws. The news comes as the home secretary is facing a mounting rebellion from both wings of the Tory party over her controversial plans to tackle the Channel crossings, amid growing concerns over their impact on children and trafficking victims.

    Continue reading…

  • Inside the Underground Network Fighting for Asylum Seekers in Scotland

    This article was originally published by Waging Nonviolence. Every Sunday for the past six weeks, far-right protesters have been gathering in the small Scottish town of Erskine to complain about plans to house some 200 asylum seekers in a local hotel. However, they are not alone. Asylum seekers in Scotland and their local allies have also been protesting the use of these hotels, and for a much…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Afghan refugees detained in ‘prison conditions’ in the UAE, says human rights group

    Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of arbitrarily detaining at least 2,400 Afghan refugees in “miserable” accommodation for more than a year, pending resettlement elsewhere.

    The human rights group said that between 2,400 and 2,700 Afghans are “arbitrarily detained” in makeshift refugee housing. There, they have limited freedom of movement and scarce access to legal counsel. The refugees were first evacuated to the UAE following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021.

    HRW’s UAE researcher, Joey Shea, called for their immediate release, stating:

    Emirati authorities have kept thousands of Afghan asylum seekers locked up for over 15 months in cramped, miserable conditions with no hope of progress on their cases

    HRW reported that authorities have stationed guards throughout the complexes. Furthermore, the refugees are only permitted to leave the camp for essential hospital visits, during which time security will accompany them. Authorities also tightly control visits to the camp from outside.

    ‘Prison-like conditions’ for Afghan refugees

    The UAE, for its part, said it was working with US counterparts to complete the resettlement process. However, it denied reports of dire living conditions. An Emirati official told AFP:

    The UAE continues to work with the US embassy to process travellers and liaise with US counterparts in efforts to resettle the remaining evacuees in a timely manner

    We understand that there are frustrations and this has taken longer than intended to complete.

    The official also said that the country had agreed to temporarily host Afghan refugees at the request of the US.

    However, according to HRW, detained Afghans suffer “prison-like conditions”. It said they have no freedom of movement, and suffer around-the-clock surveillance. The organisation also described a “mental health crisis” in the camp, adding it has learnt of at least one suicide attempt.

    Shea said:

    Governments should not ignore the shocking plight of these Afghans stranded in limbo in the UAE

    The US government in particular, which coordinated the 2021 evacuations and with whom many evacuees worked before the Taliban takeover, should immediately step up and intervene.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Youtube

    By Glen Black

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Event 3/16: Decolonizing Refugee Law

    On Thursday March 16, 2023, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM EST, Cornell Law School, Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights, and the Refugee Solidarity Network, will present a virtual panel on Decolonizing Refugee law. Register here. The legal protection…

    This post was originally published on Human Rights at Home Blog.

  • UN children’s agency ‘deeply concerned’ by planned UK asylum law

    .The United Nations’ children’s agency on Friday joined critics of a proposed British law aimed at stopping migrants arriving by small boats, saying it was “deeply concerned” about its impact on minors.

    Jon Sparkes, head of United Nations Children’s Fund in the UK, said the bill could deny children and families the chance to seek safety:

    For almost all children fleeing conflict and persecution there is no safe and legal route into the UK.

    The bill was presented on Tuesday by PM Rishi Sunak’s Tory government. It would ban people who have arrived in the country illegally from seeking asylum. Sparkes said:

    It is not clear how this bill will be compatible with existing UK government duties to act in the best interests of the child, and it is questionable whether the removal of a child to a third country, following a perilous journey to the UK, could ever be in their best interest.

    Defending children’s rights

    Sparkes called on the British government:

    to urgently clarify how it intends to ensure the safety and well-being of children with this bill, and how it will respect its obligations regarding the defence of children’s rights.

    45,000 migrants arrived in the UK last year by crossing the English Channel on small boats.

    According to official figures, 17% of people who took the Channel route to the UK since 2018 are children and minors. Sparks said:

    UNICEF UK maintains that the creation of safe and legal routes must be part of any compassionate and effective response to reducing the use of unsafe routes

    Britain has obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It must avoid putting people at risk of torture or other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment. The UK’s own 1998 Human Rights Act also offers asylum-seekers various protections.

    In a note to MPs at the beginning of the 66-page bill, home secretary Suella Braverman herself acknowledged that she was “unable” to assess that its provisions are compatible with the ECHR.

    Now, yet again, the Tories face censure for their inhumane policies towards desperate people – this time, children.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Alisdare Hickson, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CC BY 2.0.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse 

    By Joe Glenton