Gap-year students deciding asylum claims

Guardian: Immigration lawyers condemn Home Office practice of recruiting undergraduates to make potentially life-or-death judgments

Gap-year students are being recruited by the Home Office to make potentially life or death decisions on asylum claims, the Observer has learned. The students receive only five weeksā€™ training before they begin interviewing asylum seekers and making decisions about whether they can stay in the UK or should be sent back to their home countries. Read more …Ā http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/27/gap-year-students-deciding-asylum-claims

Committee report slams ā€˜appallingā€™ prejudice against asylum seekers

Questions about asylum seekers having their doors painted red remain unanswered

Today the Home Affairs Committee has published a report on the work of the Immigration Directorate, raising a number of serious concerns about the way authoritiesĀ handle asylum claims, and how asylum seekers are treated in the UK.

The committee hasĀ condemned the ā€˜appallingā€™ episodes of prejudice in which asylum seekers in Middlesbrough apparently had their front doors painted red, and asylum seekers in Cardiff were issued coloured wristbands which they had to wear in exchange for meals. Continue reading “Committee report slams ā€˜appallingā€™ prejudice against asylum seekers”

Detention Without Walls

Detention Without Walls is a self-portrait of people caught in the cracks, between borders, without status.

Short film:Ā 

Put together from interviews, poems, photos and material collected through a participatory research project, our ļ¬lm follows the moving story from immigration detention to life after detention, described as ā€œdetention without wallsā€. Abandoned at train stations, separated from family and friends, unable to work or travel, fearful of return but determined to stay in the UK, the ļ¬lm explores how ideas of crime, citizenship and community combine in ways that multiply rather than remove the differences between us. Continue reading “Detention Without Walls”

Harmondsworth, by the new Inspector, Peter Clarke

The latest inspection report on Harmondsworth, by the new Inspector, Peter Clarke, is out today.Ā  It is encouraging he also calls for a time limit on detention, following Nick Hardwick.
http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/02/Harmondsworth-web-2015.pdf
Here’s our Detention Forum statement, with a link to the report.

Continue reading “Harmondsworth, by the new Inspector, Peter Clarke”