Author: QuakerQARN

15 March 2024: Open Democracy: Heavily pregnant refugee to be evicted and sent 250 miles away from family

Ayana is booked to have a baby in London in two weeks. Tower Hamlets Council is sending her to live in Middlesbrough

Aheavily pregnant refugee is set to be evicted and moved to the other side of the country just two weeks before her due date.

Ayana* is due to give birth in early April. All her prenatal appointments have been in Tower Hamlets in east London and her birth is also booked at the nearby Royal London Hospital. But next week she will be uprooted by the council and sent 250 miles away to Middlesbrough, where she has no friends or family – or medical records.

Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL), the housing rights group supporting Ayana, believes she could successfully appeal the decision and has – at the last minute – found a lawyer willing to take on her case.

Read more: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/pregnant-refugee-tower-hamlets-council-middlesbrough

15 March 2024: PICUM: Working together to end immigration detention: A collection of noteworthy practices

Executive Summary
This briefing presents noteworthy practices at the national and European Union (EU) level related to safeguarding the rights of people in immigration detention and ultimately ending detention for migration purposes, by focusing on a wide range of actors spanning from civil society to national governments. It focuses on three advocacy objectives:

1. raising the visibility of detention and its harms,
2. ending the detention of children in the context of migration, and
3. implementing community-based solutions that can ultimately prevent and contribute to ending detention.
   

The first chapter of the briefing explores civil society efforts aimed at unveiling what happens in immigration detention centres as well as the harmful impact of immigration detention itself. Ensuring that people in detention speak to the outside world and giving NGOs access to detention centres have been identified as the most important tools in this
regard. It is also contended that further research, as well as litigation and advocacy, related to the right to communicate is needed. NGOs in the Netherlands and the UK have set up hotline systems to establish contact with individuals in detention, most of whom do not have access to their mobile phones. In Italy, strategic litigation has challenged the state’s denial to grant NGOs access to detention facilities. Both activities – phone communication and civil society visits – can be seen as part of a wider advocacy strategy advocacy to end immigrant detention, as exemplified by the work of civil society coalitions and organisations in Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom, among others.

12 March 2024: Sustain: People seeking asylum in London face malnutrition, but there is scope for local action

New report finds food insecurity and malnutrition are commonplace for people seeking asylum in London, and outlines key areas for local action.

New report, Food experiences of people seeking asylum in London: areas for local action, published today by Sustain, finds serious issues with food access for people seeking asylum in London. Key areas for local action are outlined, with recommendations of how councils can work with local actors to improve the situation.

Serious concerns were raised about food provided in catered accommodation, with evidence of poor food safety and lack of provision for people with medical conditions and allergies, in some cases leading to hospitalisation. Key issues were raised around unsafe infant feeding with parents lacking access to equipment to sterilise and store bottles, and food being inappropriate for children, who were losing significant amounts of weight. People want to have choice over what they eat and be able to cook their own meals. This was particularly important to mothers, who were deeply impacted by not being able to provide for their children, who were becoming malnourished.

Sustain worked with Jesuit Refugee Service UK and Life Seekers Aid to conduct the research between October 2023 and February 2024. This included focus groups with people with lived experience of the asylum system, interviews with local authorities, healthcare providers and voluntary and community sector organisations, and a workshop with local authorities.

International Women’s Day: International Women’s Day 2024 campaign theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion.

When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.

Collectively, let’s forge a more inclusive world for women. Read more about a definition of what it means to inspire inclusion here.

6 March 2024: Politico: Looking tough on migration is eroding human rights

Curtailing migrant rights may help score quick political gains, but electoral success doesn’t give governments carte blanche to place themselves above the law.

Europe’s insistence on looking tough on migration is endangering rule of law across the Continent.

Pursuing ever more stringent asylum and migration policies, European countries are not only perpetuating human rights violations against asylum seekers and migrants; they are also dismantling collective human rights safeguards, as well as eroding wider legal and democratic checks and balances that protect all our rights.

The upcoming adoption of the United Kingdom’s Safety of Rwanda Bill, currently working its way through the House of Lords, is perhaps the starkest illustration of this dangerous trajectory.

6 March 2024: Guardian: Von der Leyen’s EU group plans Rwanda-style asylum schemes

Centre-right European People’s party says it wants to create deportation deals with non-EU countries to head off rise of far right

The European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, has given her support to controversial migration reforms that would involve deporting people to third countries for asylum processing and the imposition of a quota system for those receiving protection in EU countries.