Month: April 2017

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Gatwick Detention Welfare Group are running Refugee Tales 2017

Refugee Tales project is walking from Runnymede to Westminster between 1st – 5th July.  Walkers journey in solidarity with refugees, staying in churches and community buildings and sharing their stories, food and friendship along the way. Each evening there is a free public event, which uses Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as a model, with prestigious authors telling the stories of asylum seekers and those who work with them, combined with great music and compared by a well-known host.  

Continue reading “Gatwick Detention Welfare Group are running Refugee Tales 2017”

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Refugees Welcome? Executive Summary April 2017

“In the network we have people who are engineers, community leaders, teachers, people with important skills who can contribute to this country. When we’re talking about refugees that achieve great things for this country – like Mo Farah – not everybody is Mo Farah, but everybody has something to give to this country.”

Kolbassia, Survivors Speak Out network1 Continue reading “Refugees Welcome? Executive Summary April 2017”

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Refugee Week 2017 at Friends’ House, Euston Road, London

Dear Friends, 

Refugee Week is taking place from 20-25 June. It is an open platform for organisations to organise events amplifying the voices of people seeking sanctuary. Many meetings will be organising events for this, from talks to all-age semi-programmed Meetings for Worship. If your meeting is organising an event in Refugee Week please let me know so I can help promote it. Continue reading “Refugee Week 2017 at Friends’ House, Euston Road, London”

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Involved with a signing support group?

Right to Remain is looking to gather information about the current situation of reporting and how support groups operate across the UK:

  • Are you involved with a signing support group, or do you accompany people to their reporting event?
  • Is reporting conducted in your community, or has it relocated recently?
  • If you are required to report, do you face a lengthy, costly, and/or difficult journey?
  • Do you have any support, or would you like someone to accompany you at your reporting event?

Get in touch by commenting on our blog post here or by emailing lisa@righttoremain.org.uk

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New Fast-Track Immigration Appeal Rules Proposed

A new fast-track system to speed up immigration and asylum appeals for those in detention has been drawn up. The new rules, which if accepted would apply to failed asylum seekers and ex-offenders, could speed up about 2,000 cases every year as the time between an initial decision and conclusion of an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal would be capped at between 25 and 28 working days. The previous fast-track system was suspended in 2015 after the Court of Appeal accepted that it was unlawful due to the speed of the process and insufficient safeguards for those making appeals. Continue reading “New Fast-Track Immigration Appeal Rules Proposed”

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Doctors of the World Launch #StopSharing Patient Data Campaign

Doctors of the World Launch #StopSharing Patient Data Campaign – Help Spread the Word

Doctors of the World has just launched its #StopSharing campaign calling on the UK government to stop using NHS patients’ personal information to track down migrants. The deal struck in January between the Home Office and NHS Digital gives the Home Office easier access to migrant patients’ information, such as addresses, and allows them to track down, arrest and deport undocumented migrants. Patient confidentiality is essential for NHS staff to be able to do their job – and yet they have not been consulted about this deal, with concerns raised by medical organisations ignored. Continue reading “Doctors of the World Launch #StopSharing Patient Data Campaign”

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Children in Detention: Report on the Cedars

March 2017: C E D A R S Pre-Departure Accommodation Independent Monitoring Board 2016 Annual Report

2.3 Population Profile during 2016

The number of families accommodated at Cedars during 2016 was lower than in 2015, although this was for nine and a half months only. 14 families were accommodated during the reporting period.

The families represented nine different nationalities of which the top three were Albanian, Chinese and Nigerian. The top two religions were Islam and Christianity. Of the 14 families, two were removed from the UK, 12 were released into the community, of which five were released due to disruption or non-compliance. Three of these were released from Cedars and two at the departure point. Assessment, Care in Residence and Teamwork (ACRT) procedures were initiated six times, and there were no recorded incidents of actual self-harm. Continue reading “Children in Detention: Report on the Cedars”

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‘It’s a shambles’: data shows most asylum seekers put in poorest parts of Britain

More than five times as many destitute asylum seekers live in the poorest third of the country as in the richest third, according to a Guardian analysis, which has prompted leading politicians to call for a complete overhaul of the dispersal system.MPs have labelled the way asylum seekers are distributed around Britain “appalling”, “dreadfully designed” and “a deeply unfair shambles” because of the way it disproportionately houses people in poor, Labour-voting areas in the north of England and Wales, as well as Glasgow.

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Migrant detention in the European Union: a thriving business Outsourcing and privatisation of migrant detention

June 2016: Conclusion: Under the guise of “mass” migration134, the EU and its Member States are continuously strengthening their systems to deprive migrant populations of their liberty. Emblematic of European policy for the exclusion of foreign nationals, migrant detention facilities offer fertile ground for human rights violations. The acts of resistance and rebellion by detainees are a sign of the injustice and despair caused to those who find themselves trapped inside. Continue reading “Migrant detention in the European Union: a thriving business Outsourcing and privatisation of migrant detention”