Month: September 2025

Updated 29 September 2025: BBC: Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK

Migrants will have to prove they are contributing to society to earn the right to remain in the UK, the home secretary has said.

In her speech to the Labour conference, Shabana Mahmood outlined a series of new conditions migrants have to meet to qualify for indefinite leave to remain.

Under the proposals, legal migrants will have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community to be granted permanent settlement status.

Labour says the policy draws a clear dividing line between the government and Reform UK, which says it would abolish indefinite leave to remain.

Continue reading “Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK”

This heartless system

23 September 2025: BBC: Behind the doors of asylum hotels – what I found when I went inside

As I eat a meal cooked on the floor of a shower, I realise nothing has prepared me for what life is like for the residents of an asylum hotel.

[…]

The Home Office says it is identifying more suitable relocation sites for asylum seekers, such as disused buildings and former military facilities.

In the meantime, “we expect all providers to uphold the highest standards in preserving the safety, security, and wellbeing of those in their care”, said a spokesperson.

Since talking to me at the asylum hotel, Kadir and his family have been told they are to be moved on once more – to two hotels in different cities. Kadir and his baby daughter have been offered accommodation in one hotel, and Mira, Shayan and Roman in another, nearly 200 miles away.

But they are refusing to go. Kadir has already been told he has lost his weekly benefit and there is a chance the family will be deemed to have made themselves intentionally homeless.

The future for the family – like many other asylum seekers – remains anything but certain.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy8ee2w73jo

1 September 2025: Independent: Yvette Cooper’s Plans to Fix the Asylum System Won’t Work

After a summer of spiralling migrant numbers and protests outside asylum hotels, the home secretary has returned to the Commons with tougher new restrictions – but Labour looks like it’s playing catch-up to Reform, says Emily Sheffield

On the government’s first day back in the Commons – after a summer marked by dire headlines about asylum hotels and an ever-rising number of arrivals in small boats – Yvette Cooper was probably hoping that her plans to fix “our broken asylum system” would draw a line under things. Fat chance, home secretary.

Continue reading “Yvette Cooper’s Plans to Fix the Asylum System Won’t Work”

27 August 2026: Freemovement: Briefing: the sorry state of the UK asylum system

In this briefing we will take a look at what is really going on with the main features of the contemporary asylum system: arrivals, the backlog, detention, removal and resettlement. The focus is on what caused the backlog and what consequences will flow from the large number of decisions being made. The information is drawn mainly from the quarterly immigration statistics and transparency data for the year ended June 2025, the most recent available at the time of writing.

The picture the data presents is of a system that has been overwhelmed. Not by new arrivals but by mismanagement.

Read more: https://freemovement.org.uk/briefing-the-sorry-state-of-the-uk-asylum-system

28 August 2025: Thank you Bishop Steven: Diocese of Oxford, who speaks for many of us when he writes

Dear Mr Farage

I was sorry not to meet you on your visit to Oxford this week to announce your party’s new policy on migration.

As Bishop of Oxford, I know that Oxford is one of the kindest and most welcoming cities in the country and one of the greatest cultural crossroads in the world. I’m honoured to be one of the patrons of Asylum Welcome which offers information, advice and practical support to asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants living in Oxfordshire.

Our city seemed a strange choice for your press conference. Perhaps you had in mind that you were near the site of Campsfield House, opposite the airport in Kidlington. Campsfield House was an Immigration Removal Centre operated by Group 4 which closed in 2018. I remember vividly going to visit and meeting those detained in my early years as Bishop. The government plans to re-build and re-open the site as part of its long-term plans.

I agree with some of what you said in the press conference. Immigration questions and border security are vital. The flow of migrants across the Channel in small boats is perilous and heartbreaking to watch. There are real challenges to community cohesion if these issues are not addressed.

But I disagree (profoundly) with your proposed policy in the following ways:

Continue reading “An open letter to Nigel Farage”