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Category: UK news

  • Indonesian fruit picker landed in debt bondage challenges Home Office

    Exclusive: Test case likely against UK’s seasonal worker scheme as charity alleges breach of right to be protected from labour exploitation

    When Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.

    He had left Indonesia less than four months earlier, in July 2022. He was 18 and ready for six months of hard work on a British farm to save for a science degree. “I thought the UK was the best place to work because I could save up a little money and help my parents,” he said.

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

  • Rwanda flights: Britain reminded of obligation to obey ECHR orders

    Court chief’s warning comes as government faces claims Rwandan homes for asylum seekers have been sold

    The UK would break international law if it ignored emergency orders from the European court of human rights to stop asylum seekers being flown to Rwanda, the head of the court has said.

    Síofra O’Leary, the ECHR president, told a press conference there was a “clear obligation” for member states to take account of rule 39 orders, interim injunctions issued by the Strasbourg-based court.

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

  • Home Office U-turns on policy to restrict help for trafficking victims

    Rights groups hail change to Braverman policy that denied support to people with criminal convictions

    The Home Office has performed a U-turn on a policy to deprive some modern slavery victims of protection from traffickers.

    Human rights campaigners and lawyers representing trafficking victims have welcomed the government’s change of heart, which they say reinstates vital protections to vulnerable people.

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

  • The human cost of blocking injunctions on Rwanda | Letters

    Dr Alice Donald and Prof Philip Leach on cases where ‘pyjama injunctions’ have ensured British prisoners of war were not executed. Plus letters from Michael Meadowcroft, Jol Miskin and John Weightman

    In a story about the Rwanda bill, you refer to Rishi Sunak toughening up his rhetoric on “pyjama injunctions” (Sunak faces Tory meltdown as deputy chairs back Rwanda bill rebellionReport, 15 January), meaning interim measures issued by the European court of human rights in exceptional circumstances. We should be careful about buying into this characterisation, as it trivialises the court’s urgent and legally binding injunctions, which are issued – sometimes out of hours – to avert an imminent risk of irreparable harm, such as death or torture.

    Both the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill give ministers discretion to disregard interim measures in cases relating to the removal of a person from the UK. Rightwing Tory MPs would like to go further and block interim measures entirely.

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

  • Exiled Rwandan who survived murder attempt condemns UK deportation plan

    Opposition politician Frank Ntwali says country is unsafe and Sunak’s pursuance of policy ‘quite bizarre’

    A Rwandan opposition politician who narrowly survived an assassination attempt has condemned the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Kigali.

    Frank Ntwali, the chair of the exiled Rwanda National Congress (RNC) movement, said the country was unsafe and that Rishi Sunak’s persistence with the policy was “quite bizarre”.

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

  • Foreign Office lawyers ‘unable to conclude if Israeli bombing was lawful’

    Documents reveal humanitarian law investigation was far more intensive than David Cameron suggested

    UK Foreign Office legal advisers were unable to conclude that Israel was in compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) in its bombardment of Gaza, court documents reveal.

    After reviewing specific potential breaches of IHL cited in a report by Amnesty International, the Foreign Office initially concluded it had “serious concerns” about breaches.

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

  • Rwanda bill: legislation passes third reading as rightwing rebellion recedes – UK politics live

    The third reading of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill passed by 320 votes to 276, a majority of 44

    Rishi Sunak starts with the usual spiel about his engagements, and how he has got meetings with colleagues.

    Rishi Sunak is taking PMQs in 10 minutes.

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

  • Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resign over Rwanda bill – as it happened

    Jane Stevenson joins Conservative party’s deputy chairs in resigning on a bruising night for Rishi Sunak

    More than 60 Tory MPs have signed at least one of the various rebel amendments to the Rwanda bill tabled by hardliners. But very few of them have said publicly that, if the amendments are not passed, they will definitely vote against the bill at third reading. Suella Braverman and Miriam Cates are among the diehards in this category. But Simon Clarke, in his ConservativeHome, only says, that, if the bill is not changed, he will not vote for the bill at third reading, implying he would abstain.

    In an interview with Sky News, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who has tabled the rebel amendments attracting most support, said he was “prepared” to vote against the bill at third reading. He said:

    I am prepared to vote against the bill … because this bill doesn’t work, and I do believe that a better bill is possible.

    So the government has a choice. It can either accept my amendments … or it can bring back a new and improved bill, and it could do that within a matter of days because we know the shape of that bill.

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

  • The Guardian view on the Northern Ireland legacy law dispute: Britain is in the wrong | Editorial

    Under a less shortsighted UK government, London and Dublin would have worked together to solve an enduring Troubles problem

    Britain has long suffered from a failure to pay proper attention to Ireland. So the news that Ireland is to bring an inter-state case against the UK under the European human rights convention may have caught some on the hop. There can be no excuse for that. This state-against-state clash, only the second that the UK has faced from Ireland, has been coming for at least a year and a half. What is more, Ireland is in the right and the UK in the wrong.

    Boris Johnson’s government launched the original Northern Ireland Troubles (legacy and reconciliation) bill in 2022. After some changes, it eventually became law in September this year. Its aim, in Mr Johnson’s overstated words, was “to draw a line under the Troubles”. The new act has not drawn any such line. Instead, it has been opposed every step of the way by almost everyone except the Conservative party and some UK veterans’ organisations. Most important of all, it is opposed by all the main Northern Ireland political parties, from Sinn Féin to the Democratic Unionists.

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

  • Ireland to launch human rights case against UK over Troubles legacy act

    Irish government to sue over British attempt to stop prosecutions for Troubles-era crimes

    The Irish government is to sue the UK government over its attempt to halt inquests, civil cases and criminal prosecutions for Troubles-era crimes.

    Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday that Dublin would launch an inter-state case against the UK’s so-called legacy legislation under the European convention on human rights.

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

  • Revealed: data from UK anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent being shared with ports and airports

    Personal details from voluntary programme sent secretly without consent with government departments and border agencies, document shows

    Details of thousands of individuals referred to the government’s controversial anti-radicalisation Prevent programme are being shared far more widely than was previously known, with data secretly sent to airports, ports and immigration services, as well as officials at the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

    Critics believe the widespread sharing of data could be unlawful, with sensitive personal details of those referred to Prevent being moved between databases without the knowledge or consent of the individuals concerned.

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

  • Bibby Stockholm barge must be closed immediately | Letter

    The barge is no place to accommodate people who have fled violence, persecution and torture, say campaigners and MPs

    Following the suspected suicide of a person seeking asylum on the Bibby Stockholm on Tuesday, we are calling for the immediate closure of the barge (Growing despair of asylum seekers on Bibby Stockholm over living conditions, 13 December).

    For those on board, the Bibby Stockholm feels like a prison. It is cramped, restrictive and segregated. The barge is no place to accommodate people who have fled violence, persecution and torture, many of whom are traumatised and isolated. They are unable to get the help and specialist support they need. Their mental health has deteriorated and some have felt suicidal.

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

  • Asylum seekers housed at ex-RAF base tried to kill themselves, finds study

    Report calls for immediate closure of Wethersfield as conditions causing irreparable harm to residents

    Asylum seekers housed in the UK’s largest mass accommodation site have attempted to kill themselves and set themselves on fire because of conditions “no different from Libya”, according to a report.

    The controversial Wethersfield site, on a remote military airbase near Braintree in Essex, is in the constituency of the home secretary, James Cleverly, who said earlier this year in a social media post that the site was not “appropriate”.

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

  • Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over homelessness and the UK economy at PMQs – as it happened

    The prime minister faced PMQs for the final time before the Christmas recess

    Rishi Sunak is about to take PMQs. It will be the last of 2023.

    Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

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

  • MPs back Rwanda bill in boost to Rishi Sunak despite rebellion by rightwing MPs – as it happened

    Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill passes its first Commons vote but only after rebellion by a collection of rightwing Tory MPs

    Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has said the government should not try to ignore the jurisdiction of the European court of human rights. In an interview for a podcast called the Judges, he said:

    If you have subjected yourself to a court, and it was our voluntary decision to do so, then you have to take the rough with the smooth and if they’ve decided [the court] have this jurisdiction then you ought to follow it.

    You can’t expect others to respect the law if you say you won’t respect the law of someone else.

    You ought to actually be able, within a set period of time, say a fortnight, to investigate, decide, give him one right of appeal – why you should have more than one right of appeal I simply don’t understand – and remove them.” But, he concedes, it costs money.

    Britain is a practical nation – always has been. People can’t afford Christmas. If they call an ambulance this winter – they don’t know if it will come. 6,000 crimes go unpunished – every day. Common sense is rolling your sleeves up and solving these problems practically, not indulging in some kind of political performance art.

    This goes for stopping the boats as well. It’s not about wave machines, or armoured jet skis, or schemes like Rwanda you know will never work.

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

  • Britain to repatriate woman and five children from Syrian camps

    However, human rights group says UK lagging behind other western nations in repatriating families who lived under IS

    Britain has agreed to repatriate a woman and five children from camps in Syria, the second time the UK has allowed an adult to return since the end of the ground war against Islamic State more than four years ago.

    The release was announced by the Kurdish administration that controls north-east Syria – but a human rights group and a former minister accused the UK of lagging behind other western nations in allowing families who lived under IS to return.

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

  • Tories warn Rishi Sunak that his Rwanda plan ‘will never be law’

    As Tuesday’s crucial vote looms, MPs from both wings of the party say PM has tied his future to a bill that cannot succeed

    • Read more: The UK’s deal with Rwanda must stay within the rule of law

    Senior Tories from across the party are warning that Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda plan will never become law in its current form, ahead of the most critical vote of his premiership.

    Liberal Tories confirmed last night that, despite their desire to back the PM against the right, “serious concerns” remain about the plan and more reassurances will be required. Meanwhile, a self-styled “star chamber” of legal figures examining the proposals for the Tory right is understood to have found problems that are “extremely difficult to resolve”.

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

  • Tory right deliver legal rebuke to Sunak’s Rwanda plan

    ERG lawyers conclude plans will not forestall court challenges, echoing concerns of goverment’s own legal team

    Rishi Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow over his Rwanda legislation as a legal assessment for the Tory right has concluded that the prime minister’s plans are not fit for purpose.

    Bill Cash, who chairs the “star chamber” of lawyers for the European Research Group, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that “at present” the legislation is not “sufficiently watertight to meet the government’s policy objectives” such as circumventing individual legal challenges by people seeking to remain in the UK.

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

  • Holyrood passes revised bill on children’s rights after UK challenge

    Scotland to become first devolved nation to incorporate UNCRC into domestic law – unless Westminster intervenes again

    Campaigners, politicians and young people who led grassroots efforts to put international children’s rights standards at the heart of Scottish law are celebrating the passing of a landmark Holyrood bill.

    The Scottish parliament voted unanimously on Thursday afternoon for Scotland to become the first devolved nation to incorporate the UN charter on the rights of the child (UNCRC) into domestic law.

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

  • UK government faces legal challenge over arms exports to Israel

    Al-Haq and Global Legal Action Network argue sales of British weapons could breach international law

    The high court has been urged to intervene and suspend UK arms sales to Israel in a legal challenge launched on Wednesday.

    The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) have applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel’s action in Gaza, which has killed more than 16,000 people – mostly civilians – since 7 October, according to Gaza’s health authorities. Israel’s invasion of Gaza followed Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which it killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

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

  • Sunak’s bill aims to block UK human rights law to save Rwanda scheme

    Emergency legislation stops short of leaving European convention on human rights and will infuriate Tory hard right

    Rishi Sunak aims to block UK human rights laws in an effort to revive the government’s faltering plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda.

    An emergency bill published on Wednesday will assert that ministers have the power to ignore judgments that come from Strasbourg while stopping short of leaving or “disapplying” the European convention on human rights.

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

  • Tories face ‘electoral oblivion’ unless Rwanda flights go ahead, says Braverman

    Former home secretary urges PM to block all human rights laws used to halt deportation flights

    The Conservative party faces “electoral oblivion in a matter of months” unless ministers block all human rights laws used to halt deportation flights to Rwanda, Suella Braverman has told MPs.

    In a personal statement to the Commons, the former home secretary urged Rishi Sunak to build at pace “nightingale” detention centres and stop all legal challenges using domestic and international laws.

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

  • Rishi Sunak accused of giving Rwanda millions ‘for nothing in return’

    PMQs clash comes as Suella Braverman expected to heavily criticise government’s immigration plans

    Rishi Sunak’s government has been accused by Keir Starmer of giving Rwanda “hundreds of millions of pounds for nothing in return” following the signing of a deportation treaty.

    In a clash at prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader mocked the treaty, signed on Tuesday, saying the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame had seen the prime minister coming “a mile off”.

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

  • Tory MPs lobby to change legislation as splits emerge over Rwanda policy

    Centrist Tories want PM to stick by UK’s human rights obligations while those on the right want new bill to override them

    Tory MPs are at loggerheads as competing factions engage in last-minute lobbying efforts to try to change Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda legislation before it is published in the coming days.

    The prime minister is due to announce a new bill as soon as this week, which Downing Street says will deal with concerns raised last month by the supreme court over the government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to east Africa. It follows the signing of a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday by the home secretary, James Cleverly, in Kigali.

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

  • Why no concern at prisoners being paid just 50p an hour to work? | Brief letters

    Jails in China and Britain | Katherine Rundell | Gentleman and the Garrick | Dear pandas | Low hum | No FA Cup levelling up

    Reading another article about Chinese prisoners possibly making products for sale in the UK (Chinese prisoner’s ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat, 1 December), I wonder why there is no concern that British prisoners are forced to work for UK companies for about 50p an hour? This work provides no training for release and serves only to enrich private prison contractors.
    David Adams
    Darlington, County Durham

    • How appropriate that on the day you note that Katherine Rundell, the author of The Golden Mole, has won the Waterstones book award with Impossible Creatures (Report, 30 November), we also learn of a golden mole reappearing after being feared extinct (Report, 30 November).
    Jim Golcher
    Greens Norton, Northamptonshire

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

  • UK has high rate of teenagers missing meals due to poverty, OECD says – as it happpened

    This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage here

    The UK has suffered a sharp decline in its performance in the latest round of influential international academic tests, wiping out recent progress, as the widespread disruption caused by Covid continued to take its toll on education, the Guardian reports.

    Yesterday, when he was being interviewed at the Resolution Foundation conference, Keir Starmer was asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, if he could say in what way his policies were different from the Conservatives’. Starmer was able to provide a half-decent answer, but he did not entirely dispel her suggestion that in many areas the policy overlap is getting more and more pronounced.

    Today’s announcement is an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy, as net migration has trebled to a record high under the Tories since they promised to reduce it at the last election.

    Labour has said repeatedly that net migration should come down and called for action to scrap the unfair 20% wage discount, raise salary thresholds based on economic evidence, bring in new training requirements linked to the immigration system, as well as a proper workforce plan for social care. Immigration is important but the system needs to be controlled and managed. But whilst the Conservatives have finally been forced to abandon the unfair wage discount that they introduced, they are still completely failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages.

    What that means is, if you’ve got a shortage occupation, not just health and social care workers – that might be also engineers, might also include now bricklayers – employers will still be able to recruit at less than the threshold. And yet the government is still doing nothing to tackle those skills.

    We think the Migration Advisory Committee should look at this very swiftly before it is introduced, particularly at the impact this is going to have on British citizens who fall in love across borders.

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

  • Sunak’s Rwanda asylum plan: three options after supreme court rejection

    UK prime minister is preparing a response aimed at overcoming barriers to his key immigration policy

    After the UK’s highest court last month rejected the government’s plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, Rishi Sunak is preparing a response aimed at overcoming the barriers to his key immigration policy.

    The supreme court ruling undermines one of the prime minister’s key pledges to “stop the boats” making illegal crossings across the Channel. He has been facing increasing pressure from the right of the Conservative party who want him to in effect ditch the UK’s human rights framework.

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

  • Chinese prisoner’s ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat

    Derbyshire woman who bought item said she felt uneasy at find that raises concerns over possible prison labour

    An ID card that appears to belong to a Chinese prisoner was found inside the lining of a coat from the British brand Regatta, raising concerns that the clothing was manufactured using prison labour.

    The waterproof women’s coat was bought online by a woman in Derbyshire in the Black Friday sale. When it arrived on 22 November, she could feel a hard rectangular item in the right sleeve, which restricted the movement of her elbow.

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

  • Rwandan courts will not protect refugees’ rights, say daughters of genocide hero

    Family of Paul Rusesabagina, who campaigned to have him freed from jail, say country’s justice system is a ‘tool to oppress people’

    The Rwandan legal system is incapable of protecting refugees sent from the UK, according to the daughters of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda.

    Carine and Anaïse Kanimba campaigned for more than two years to secure the release of their father, who was freed from a Kigali jail after three years of incarceration earlier this year, and they have detailed first-hand knowledge of the true nature of the Rwandan legal system.

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

  • Rwanda is a proxy in the war for the Tory soul. It’s a war Rishi Sunak is losing | Rafael Behr

    A brave leader would admit he is cornered and set out a new direction to his party and the public. He’s not that guy

    Rishi Sunak will not “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the Channel. He still promotes that general ambition, but with synthetic enthusiasm that contains more exasperation than confidence.

    Even if the scheme for removing asylum claimants to Rwanda were up and running, the deterrent effect on people launching dinghies from Calais is doubtful. Facilities in Kigali can handle only a few hundred cases at most. UK government policy envisages deporting thousands. But that’s academic anyway, because the supreme court has ruled that Rwanda cannot be considered a “safe third country”, so sending refugees there would be unlawful.

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