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QARN next meetings

Next QARN meeting: 16 October 2021

QARN’s quarterly meetings usually run from 11am – 4pm but while we are on Zoom we keep them shorter.

Plans for where and how we hold our Meetings depend on the progress of measures being put in place in relation to Coronavirus. We currently meet using Zoom https://zoom.us/ and Quakers are welcome. We plan to start at 10.30am to manage the technical aspects of a Zoom meeting, falling quiet at around 10.45am, and beginning business at 11am. The meeting link will  be available to those who receive our emails, but for other people, please contact us via info@qarn.org.uk giving your name, and the Quaker Meeting to which you are attached. Thank you.

Our next planned meeting dates: Saturdays: 16 October 2021, and 22 January 2022 – on Zoom while the pandemic roams. All those interested who are attached to Quaker meetings are welcome – if you are not on our mailing list please email:  info:qarn.org.uk for the Zoom link

If you are not already receiving our emails on the QARN network and want to join the network, or just this Meeting, please email info@qarn.org.uk  including your name and the Quaker Meeting you are attached to. There is no cost involved.

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Secret deal to remove Zimbabweans from UK

StatusNow4All network members are picking up intelligence about people being summarily snatched when reporting or at home. We are seeking further information.

This post is being continually updated here: https://statusnow4all.org/secret-deal-to-remove-zimbabweans-from-uk/

The deportation flight left, and many people who were scheduled to be on the flight did not go for example due to Covid, or paperwork errors. For these people the struggle to remain in UK continues. The Courts have enables others to remain in UK due to acceptance that they have a personal risk on return. The resistance to the principle of returning people to Zimbabwe needs to be heard loudly.

22 July 2021: Legal bids mean UK deportation flight to Zimbabwe takes off just one-third full

Multiple challenges, as well as Covid self-isolation, result in only 14 of people being on board, it is believed

A controversial Home Office deportation charter flight to Zimbabwe took off at about 10.30pm on Wednesday evening with only around one-third of the passengers on board that officials had hoped to remove.

Continue reading “Secret deal to remove Zimbabweans from UK”
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Suggested letter to MPs – New Plan for Immigration

Dear  Friends

If you have not already signed one of the many template letters opposing the Bill, which are being circulated by the Refugee Council, Detention Action and others,  you might like to crib from this letter which I have sent to my MP.

It identifies our Quaker position and refers to the New Plan for Immigration which took up so much of our time earlier this year.   It does not cover everything of concern.

Continue reading “Suggested letter to MPs – New Plan for Immigration”
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Marking 70 years of the UN Refugee Convention

Below is the registration link for the Central England Area Meeting Peace Committee to mark 70 years of the UN Refugee Convention, Wednesday 28th July 19.00 – 21.00.

Is the UK still compliant with the letter and the spirit of the 1951 UN Refugee treaty?

About this event: CEQ Peace Committee invite you to this event to mark the 70th Anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention (also known as ‘the Geneva Convention of 1951’) and explore its relevance today.

We will ask whether the UK is still compliant with the letter and the spirit of the treaty, with speakers:

Continue reading “Marking 70 years of the UN Refugee Convention”
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Epistle from ‘Envisioning a world that is open to all: let us see what love can do’ Conference at Woodbrooke, Birmingham, UK   27-29 September 2019

Ffriends,

From a gathering of 60+ people[i], including Quakers and non-Quakers, people who have experienced the weight of the immigration system, artists, poets, musicians and singers. Continue reading “Epistle from ‘Envisioning a world that is open to all: let us see what love can do’ Conference at Woodbrooke, Birmingham, UK   27-29 September 2019”

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QARN Leaflets: Download them here, including ‘Excessive Fees’

We have the following leaflets here: About QARN_Detention_Language_Hostile environment_Removals Deportations_Excessive fees

QARN has put together leaflets that you can download from this page by clicking on the links below. Please feel free to download and print off your own copies. There is also a form below, for ordering printed copies of our leaflets – which are free:

12 April 2020:  The newest leaflet from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) supports our campaign about the recent increases to the fees for those seeking refuge in this country.   Along with other groups and faith bodies QARN seeks to inspire others to express outrage at this injustice.

Continue reading “QARN Leaflets: Download them here, including ‘Excessive Fees’”
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Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration – David Neal

New Inspections scheduled for 2021-22 include:

  • ‘An inspection of Border Force assurance’
  • ‘An inspection of Intelligence’
  • ‘An inspection of a small airport’
  • ‘An inspection of a small seaport’
  • ‘An inspection of the removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs)’

Published 23 July 2021

ICIBI Inspection Plan 2021-22
a. Completed inspections – reports awaiting publication:
 ‘An inspection of ePassport gates (June 2020-January 2021)’. Submitted 17
June 2021
 ‘Second annual inspection of “Adults at Risk in immigration detention” (July
2020-March 2021)’. Submitted 30 June 2021
 ‘A further inspection of the EU Settlement Scheme (3) (July 2020-March
2021)’. Submitted 15 July 2021
 ‘An inspection of asylum casework (August 2020-April 2021)’. Submitted 23
July 2021

Continue reading “Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration – David Neal”
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ICIBI inspection of the use of hotels and barracks as contingency asylum accommodation

Updated 23 July 2021: An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation:
HMIP report on Penally Camp and Napier Barracks (November 2020 – March 2021)

Details

The inspectors conducted visits to both sites, Penally Camp on 16 and 17 February and Napier Barracks on 17 and 18 February. The ICIBI also returned for a further visit to Napier Barracks on 4 March.

On 8 March 2021 the then Chief Inspector, David Bolt, published interim high-level findings. This report is the fuller final report that was sent to the Home Office. It reflects the department’s factual accuracy checks, and includes forewords from David Bolt, the previous Chief Inspector, and David Neal, the current Chief Inspector.

There is also a copy of a letter sent in March from David Bolt to the Director General of Asylum and Protection.

This link contains

Summary of findings for Napier Barracks and Penally Camp
Leadership and management
S1 Penally Camp and Napier Barracks were opened as contingency asylum accommodation in September 2020. The Home Office contracted Clearsprings Ready Homes (CRH) to manage the accommodation. CRH sub-contracted to other companies to provide services, and they in turn sub-contracted to other providers. Managers at both sites lacked the experience and skills to run large-scale communal accommodation.

Continue reading “ICIBI inspection of the use of hotels and barracks as contingency asylum accommodation”
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New Plan for Immigration

We will collate reports of the Nationality & Borders Bill which has come out of the recent ‘New Plan for Immigration’.

Updated 20 July 2021: This lays out Priti Patel’s view of what should come, as the debate on the Bill begins in Parliament: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-opening-speech-for-nationality-borders-bill

This was the debate in Parliament: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-07-19/debates/FC19E458-F75D-480D-A20D-CD1E7ADC937E/NationalityAndBordersBill

You can follow the passage of this Bill here: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3023

Updated 11 July 2021: Guardian: Home Office ‘acting unlawfully’ in rush to deport asylum seekers

Hundreds of people arriving in England in small boats are being immediately detained in immigration removal centres, raising fears of a new, secret Home Office policy to deport them without their asylum claims being properly considered.

Among the detainees are apparent trafficking and torture victims from countries including Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, who would normally be allowed asylum accommodation in the community while their claims are processed but instead are effectively imprisoned.

Children are also among those who have crossed the Channel and have been sent directly to immigration removal centres, with solicitors claiming the Home Office has classed minors as adults despite not age-assessing them in person.

Continue reading “New Plan for Immigration”
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How to access medical care as an asylum seeker

6 July 2021: Click on these links to access an excellent leaflet  “How to access medical care as an asylum seeker”.  It explains in clear and straightforward English: your rights, how to register with a GP, what happens if you move, access to mental health care and many other issues. It is brilliant. In fact we all should have a copy.

NHS-guide-for-asylum-seekers-v5Download

You will also finds translations into: Albanian, Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Tigrinya.

Continue reading “How to access medical care as an asylum seeker”
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Asylum queue nine times longer than 10 years ago

2 July 2021: BBC: The number of migrants waiting in the UK for their asylum claims to be processed was nine times higher by the end of last year than it was in 2010.

One is Patricia, 19, who fled war and abuse in Liberia and says her mental health has suffered during the two years she has waited for a decision.

There are currently 65,000 people in the queue, official figures obtained by the Refugee Council suggest. [Read the report here: https://media.refugeecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/01191305/Living-in-Limbo-A-decade-of-delays-in-the-UK-Asylum-system-July-2021.pdf]

The Home Office said it had a plan to “fix the broken asylum system”.

Continue reading “Asylum queue nine times longer than 10 years ago”
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Concerns about the use of army barracks etc.

This post is being updated with reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites:

You can write to your MP in support of the #CloseTheBarracks campaign.

This post is being updated with reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites:

Updated 1 July 2021: Independent Chief Inspector on Borders and Immigration – ICIBI:

Note, the new ICIBI – Dave Neal has published a list of reports completed etc. One of the ‘completed inspections awaiting publication’ is ‘An inspection of contingency asylum accommodation: HMIP report on Penally Camp and Napier Barracks (7 June 2021)’. Priti Patel can hold this for a while until she is ready to publish. Maybe we need to ask our MPs to ask questions about when it will be released:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/work-in-progress

Continue reading “Concerns about the use of army barracks etc.”