radiofree.asia 
radiofree.asia 
radiofree.asia 

Category: UK news

  • UN refugee body criticises ‘errors’ in asylum report backed by Braverman

    Organisation questions use of ‘illegal’ to describe asylum seekers in report calling for radical crackdown

    A report partially endorsed by the UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, calling for a radical crackdown on those seeking asylum has been criticised by a UN body for “factual and legal errors”.

    Braverman wrote the foreword to the report by the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies that says “if necessary” Britain should change human rights laws and withdraw from the European convention on human rights in order to tackle Channel crossings by small boat.

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

  • Hong Kong withholds British lawyer’s visa, delaying Jimmy Lai trial

    Hong Kong’s immigration department withheld Timothy Owen KC’s application for an extension of his work visa on Thursday

    Hong Kong has temporarily blocked a top British human rights lawyer from representing jailed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, in a trial stymied by delays and calls for an intervention from Beijing.

    British King’s Counsel Timothy Owen was set to represent Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, who has been in jail on protest-related offences since his high-profile arrest in 2020.

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

  • Democracy is at risk. We can’t let oligarchs exploit British courts to silence their critics | David Davis

    The super-rich are menacing those who seek to scrutinise with Slapps: expensive, lengthy and often bogus lawsuits

    • Report: Senior media figures call for law to stop oligarchs silencing UK journalists

    Free speech is the fundamental basis upon which democratic life is built. Many of our other precious freedoms stem from it. In the UK, we naturally take it very seriously. But it is now under threat, from oligarchs and crooks who are abusing our world-renowned legal system in order to silence their critics.

    There is an epidemic of so-called lawfare cases in the UK. The world’s super-rich are hitting journalists, writers, whistleblowers and anyone else who scrutinises them with Slapps – strategic lawsuits against public participation. These are defamation accusations, often with a spurious basis (if they have any basis at all), brought with the intention of terrifying those who question them.

    David Davis is the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden

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

  • Owen Paterson’s lawyers admit irony of his seeking ECHR’s help

    Representatives of Eurosceptic insist he had been left with no option but to appeal to European court of human rights

    Lawyers for Owen Paterson have admitted the irony of the former MP bringing a case against the UK government at the European court of human rights, despite having previously called on Britain to “break free” of the court entirely.

    Representatives for Paterson, a prominent Eurosceptic Conservative who resigned last year in the midst of a lobbying scandal, issued a statement on Monday insisting he had been left with no option but to appeal to a court whose authority he had previously questioned.

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

  • Could the Qatar World Cup be a turning point for ethics in sport? | Letters

    Dr Mike Diboll on our complicity in human rights abuses, Karl Eklund on apartheid South Africa, Antony Barlow on the UK’s own failings, and Stan Labovitch on why he won’t boycott watching the World Cup

    Nesrine Malik is correct: Putin’s Russia does “hunt” its exiled dissidents (It’s not just Qatar hoping we now ‘put politics aside’. It’s the hypocritical west, too, 21 November). Saudi Arabia does so too, for example Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Yet Saudi Arabia still gets to host a Formula One grand prix, so-called Clash on the Dunes boxing matches, and international golfing. The 2012 Bahrain grand prix went ahead amid torture and the shooting dead of unarmed protesters. Malik is also right to stress that our governments arm the Gulf states, provide them with surveillance technology, PR, political and diplomatic cover, and – in a situation where sovereign wealth is often hard to distinguish from private hyper-wealth – safe havens for blood money.

    In return for turning a blind eye to grotesque human rights abuses and institutional homophobia and misogyny, “we” get cheap hydrocarbons, “inward investment” that melds our economy with those of the Gulf states, a regional “security” stance and, in the case of Bahrain, a Royal Navy base. Gulf sportswashing has a wider context, and it is a sad reflection on us that human rights abuses only occasionally come to the fore during sporting events, and media debate is so often mired in anti-Arab racism.

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

  • Police should have helped Shamima Begum return to UK, court told

    Tribunal hears there were grounds to suspect the then 15-year-old had been groomed as a child bride

    Police should have helped Shamima Begum return to Britain after she joined Islamic State in Syria because there were grounds to suspect she had been groomed as a child bride, a court has heard.

    Samantha Knights KC told a tribunal that the police had an obligation to investigate whether Begum, who was 15 when she left the UK, was a victim of human trafficking, and then help her return if she was.

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  • Owen Paterson taking UK to human rights court after lobbying scandal

    Former MP, who once argued UK should break free from Strasbourg court, is challenging finding he repeatedly broke rules

    Owen Paterson, the former MP at the centre of a lobbying scandal that engulfed Boris Johnson’s government, is taking the UK to the European court of human rights to challenge the finding that he repeatedly broke the rules on paid advocacy.

    Paterson, a leading Brexiter who also once argued the UK should “break free” from the ECHR, filed his case on the grounds that his right to respect for private life was infringed under article 8 of the European convention on human rights.

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

  • Shamima Begum may have been a victim of child trafficking, court told

    Lawyers for 23-year-old who left UK to join Islamic State in 2015 challenge ‘hasty’ decision to revoke citizenship

    Shamima Begum, who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State (IS) in Syria, was likely to have been the victim of child trafficking and sexual exploitation, a court has heard.

    Lawyers acting for the 23-year-old began a new appeal on Monday against the removal of her British citizenship at a hearing of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac).

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

  • International troops quit Mali as violence and Moscow’s influence grow

    Germany latest to end peacekeeping mission as operations prove unable to stop Islamic extremist insurgency

    Thousands of international troops are withdrawing from Mali amid surging violence, growing Russian influence and an acute humanitarian crisis.

    On Wednesday Germany became the latest country to end its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the unstable west African country. Earlier this week, British officials said that 300 British soldiers sent in 2020 to join the United Nations force would be returning earlier than planned.

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  • Dozens of child asylum seekers placed in Home Office hotel for adults

    Concerns raised after children classified wrongly as adults were assigned to a hotel where a serious stabbing took place last month

    At least 40 child asylum seekers were placed in a Home Office hotel designated for adults where one of them was a victim of a serious stabbing last month, the Guardian has learned.

    Lawyers and NGOs have repeatedly raised concerns about children being assessed wrongly as adults by the Home Office after arriving in the UK on small boats.

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

  • UK must act over poverty, housing and equal rights, says UN body

    Human rights council makes more than 300 recommendations, with many coming from less well-off countries

    The UK must tackle rising poverty, the UN human rights council has said in a report that includes demands from less well-off countries for the British government to act.

    Amid worsening financial prospects for millions, the member states of the UN body also demanded action on housing to prevent homelessness, better food security for young children, and equal rights for people with disabilities.

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

  • Sister of Alaa Abd el-Fattah accused in Egypt of ‘spreading false news’

    Complaint, which prosecutor has yet to accept, raises risk of Sanaa Seif’s detention during Cop27

    The sister of the jailed hunger striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been informed that a pro-government lawyer has filed a case against her with the Egyptian public prosecutor accusing her of espionage and “spreading false news”.

    The news comes a day after Sanaa Seif spoke at an event at the Cop27 climate summit being held in Egypt, which was widely reported on. The case accuses her of “conspiring with foreign agencies against the Egyptian state, foreign agitation, and incitement against the Egyptian state and its institutions, and deliberately spreading false news.”

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

  • Charities demand inquiry into Heathrow immigration centre conditions

    Home secretary urged to investigate after detainees’ protests over their treatment during power outage

    • UK politics live – latest news updates

    Detention charities have called on Suella Braverman to launch an urgent independent investigation into the disturbances at a Heathrow immigration removal centre over the weekend after a power cut.

    In a letter sent to the home secretary and senior Home Office officials on Tuesday the charities Bail For Immigration Detainees and Medical Justice said the investigation should be launched without delay to find out exactly what had happened at Harmondsworth detention centre and to ascertain the conditions the detainees encountered when deprived of electricity, heating, running water and toilet facilities during the power cut.

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

  • Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s family fear he may be being force-fed in Egyptian prison

    Sister says they need ‘proof of life’ amid concern for activist’s wellbeing and worries UK government not doing enough

    The family of jailed British-Egyptian hunger-striker Alaa Abd el-Fattah have voiced fears that Egyptian officials may be torturing him behind closed doors through force-feeding.

    On the sidelines of the Cop27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, reportedly told French president, Emmanuel Macron, that he was “committed” to ensuring the democracy activist’s health “is preserved,” and that “the next few weeks and months will bring results”.

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  • An intervention from Rishi Sunak today is all that stands between my brother and death | Sanaa Seif

    My brother Alaa Abd el-Fattah is on hunger strike in an Egyptian prison and is now refusing water. The prime minister is his last hope

    At 10am on Sunday morning my brother Alaa drank his last sip of water in an Egyptian prison. He has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days and now, as world leaders arrive for Cop27, he has stopped drinking water.

    He’s been in prison for nine years. He’s not doing this now because he wants to die, but because it’s the only way he might get to live again. He’s been in prison for all but one year of his son’s life for his writings about democracy and technology, and his anti-authoritarian stance. The whole world is watching what happens in Sharm el-Sheikh, where I write this from, and he is staking his life on a belief that the world will today stand with him.

    Sanaa Seif is a film-maker, activist and sister of the imprisoned writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah

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

  • UN poverty envoy tells Britain it is ‘worst time’ to bring in austerity

    Exclusive: Olivier de Schutter says cuts could violate human rights laws, calling instead for higher taxes on rich

    The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that unleashing a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger and malnutrition.

    Olivier de Schutter, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, said he was “extremely troubled” by likely multibillion-pound spending cuts – including possible real-terms reductions in welfare payments to millions of the nation’s poorest families.

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

  • The Guardian view on China’s response to dissent: repression, at home and away

    There are growing concerns over Beijing’s attempts to restrict political expression overseas

    Xi Jinping’s leadership of China is now indefinite. No one doubts what his third term will bring: more rigid political controls. The party demands obedience at home. It asserts itself more confidently abroad. A senior official told reporters that Chinese diplomacy would maintain its “fighting spirit”.

    That remark came days after Manchester police said that they were investigating the assault of a Hong Kong activist who had been dragged into the Chinese consulate’s grounds when men from the building disrupted a protest on the street outside. Asked about footage of him pulling the man’s hair the consul general, Zheng Xiyuan, denied attacking anyone but also said it was his “duty”. Police have now said they are investigating the full circumstances, and footage shows another man, apparently from the consulate, also being assaulted. What is beyond question is that the protest was peaceful until the officials came out and tore down a poster, and that China’s chargé d’affaires in London has warned that “[providing] shelter to the Hong Kong independence elements will in the end only bring disaster to Britain”.

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

  • Birdsong is music to my ears again | Brief letters

    Bird encounters | Thérèse Coffey | Cop or Copout? | Open University | Boycotting Qatar

    Now I’m in my late 60s, I have started using a hearing aid, and on a recent autumnal walk was delighted to discover that the birds still sang at this time of year (Bird and birdsong encounters improve mental health, study finds, 27 October). I had become so used to hearing only the occasional twitter of a bird when almost within arm’s reach that this experience was like discovering the joy of being outdoors for the first time. I now wait for spring, when I hope to hear the cuckoo once again.
    Sue Hunter
    Brockenhurst, Hampshire

    • Thérèse Coffey has said Cop27 is “just a gathering of people”, so hardly worth the prime minister attending (Report, 28 October). Her arrogance and lack of moral concern are amazing. The only good thing about her move to the environment job is that she won’t be wrecking the NHS.
    Peter Brooker
    West Wickham, London

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

  • UK police use of live facial recognition unlawful and unethical, report finds

    Study says deployment of technology in public by Met and South Wales police failed to meet standards

    Police should be banned from using live facial recognition technology in all public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws, a study has concluded.

    LFR involves linking cameras to databases containing photos of people. Images from the cameras can then be checked against those photos to see if they match.

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

  • Migrant centre in Kent ‘catastrophically overcrowded’, unions say

    Manston processing site ‘gummed up’ as more than 100,000 asylum claims waiting to be decided, says select committee chair

    A migrant processing centre in Kent is “catastrophically overcrowded”, with people waiting for their asylum applications to be processed kept in inhumane conditions and guards not being trained properly, a union leader says.

    Criticism of the government’s handling of the facility is mounting, with the chair of a parliamentary select committee saying a “crisis” was brewing given the backlog of more than 100,000 cases.

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

  • Christmas TV ad boom goes cold over cost of living and Qatar concerns

    Advertisers trim budgets amid jitters over World Cup host’s human rights record and appearing ‘tone-deaf’ to austerity

    There will be no Christmas TV advertising boom this year as jitters over associating with the World Cup host Qatar’s human rights record and the cost of living crisis put paid to the annual battle of the big-budget extravaganzas that traditionally bombard the public over the festive season.

    UK companies will still spend a record £9.5bn in the run-up to Christmas, known as the “golden quarter”, when many retailers make the lion’s share of their annual profits and sales, but the amount targeted at traditional TV, newspaper and radio outlets will decline this year.

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

  • Troubles ‘legacy’ bill risks breaching human rights law, UK warned

    Effective amnesty for those accused of killing or maiming people may not comply with ECHR, says committee

    Proposed UK government legislation to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s Troubles risks widespread breaches of human rights law, a parliamentary committee has found.

    The joint committee on human rights found that the so-called “legacy” bill had the intention of addressing “a complex situation with no easy solutions”.

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

  • Failure to investigate UK imports linked to forced Uyghur labour unlawful, court told

    World Uyghur Forum brings high court challenge against government agencies over Xinjiang cotton imports

    UK government agencies have broken the law by not investigating the importation of cotton products manufactured by forced Uyghur labourers in China, the high court has heard.

    The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is challenging the home secretary, HM Revenue and Customs and the National Crime Agency (NCA), claiming a failure or refusal to investigate imports from Xinjiang, allegedly home to 380 internment camps, was unlawful.

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

  • Peter Tatchell stopped in Qatar while staging LGBT+ rights protest

    Incident outside National Museum in Doha comes less than a month before start of men’s football World Cup

    The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been stopped by police in Qatar while staging a protest against the Gulf state’s criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people.

    Tatchell’s protest outside the National Museum of Qatar in the capital, Doha, comes less than a month before the start of the Fifa World Cup, which is expected to attract 1.2 million visitors from around the world.

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

  • Rishi Sunak urged to scrap ‘undemocratic’ proposals to axe 2,400 laws

    Charities and trade unions among those calling on new PM to shelve bill that would scrap EU-era legislation protecting workers’ rights and the environment

    Employers, trade unions, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Rishi Sunak to scrap Jacob Rees-Mogg’s legislation that would sweep away 2,400 laws derived from the EU.

    The retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday, which would scrap protections including the ban on animal testing for cosmetics, workers’ rights and environmental measures.

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

  • UK accused of putting Tamil refugees at risk in Indian Ocean

    MoD escorted refugees including children away from Diego Garcia without ensuring boats were seaworthy, lawyers say

    Lawyers have accused the UK of facilitating dangerous onward boat journeys by Tamil refugees who had arrived at the British-claimed territory of Diego Garcia in distress.

    Fishing boats that fled Sri Lanka were escorted to the Indian Ocean island after getting into difficulty but were later permitted to leave on the same vessels without basic safety equipment, putting passengers – including children – at “grave risk”, lawyers have claimed.

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  • Migrant students in Scotland win equal right to free tuition in landmark case

    Court of session rules criteria that meant Ola Jasmin missed out by 58 days breached her human rights

    Students from migrant families in Scotland will have the same right to free university tuition as their peers, after a landmark court judgment which legal experts say highlights the positive impact of human rights legislation.

    The court of session in Edinburgh found that Iraq-born Ola Jasim, who has lived in Scotland for nine years but missed out on the criteria for free tuition fees by 58 days, had her human rights breached.

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

  • ‘It’s a revolution’: Iranian women in UK believe protests will bring freedom

    Women who fled regime are working hard to expose abuses in Iran and say this time real change is possible

    Iranian and Kurdish women living in the UK believe the prospect of freedom for millions of women in their home country has never been greater following protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran for not wearing her headscarf correctly.

    Many of those who fled the Iranian regime because of its attacks on human and women’s rights are working hard behind the scenes to support women in their home country to expose the abuses in the hope of encouraging the international community to act to bring about regime change.

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

  • First British woman and her child repatriated to UK from Syrian camp

    Woman, said to have been trafficked, is only adult allowed back since end of Islamic State ground war

    A British woman and her child have been repatriated from a Syrian camp, the first time an adult has been allowed to come back to the UK from detention since the end of the ground war against Islamic State.

    The Foreign Office said that British policy to those held in Syria remained unchanged, and that it considered requests for help on “a case by case basis”, but campaigners said it was a significant first step.

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

  • Home Office reclassifies modern slavery as illegal immigration issue

    Exclusive: Charities working with victims say it should not be taken away from the safeguarding minister

    The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue, updated online ministerial profiles show.

    The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and that victims of the crime are no longer being prioritised.

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