Category: Most Recent

This is a cruel system. Read Agnes Tanoh’s account:

But I’m dedicated to trying to get people to have compassion for those in detention. I want everyone to understand that these people have left everything; that they’ve been forced to leave everything they’ve ever known – just like I was.

And I will always stand against putting asylum seekers in detention. Anywhere people are saying, ‘Stop detention!’: I will be there saying it right along with them.

17 June 2025: Metro: I followed every rule as an asylum seeker – I was still detained

Once again, I was woken at 4am in my room at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

I was put in the back of a van and driven for around six hours to an airport, where I was told I’d be deported.

It’s difficult to describe the stress of that journey – the terror of thinking I was about to be sent back to a country I’d fled; a country I loved, but where I’d surely be put in prison, or killed, if I was to return.

I had to wait around at the airport for hours. During which time, my fear grew. At the end of the day, around 10pm, the officials who’d taken me to the airport said: ‘OK, you’re not going today, after all’. And I was taken all the way back to Yarl’s Wood.

Continue reading “I followed every rule as an asylum seeker – I was still detained”

An asylum seeking from Rwanda, on receiving household goods:

“I came with nothing and no money and I am blessed for God has provided.”

This came from ‘Growing Hope – Daily Readings’ from an Iona Community book.

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A friend also from Rwanda said:

‘So long as I have a toilet and a cup of tea I am blessed’

May 2025: QARN: Model Letter/email to MPs – Requesting an end to barring individuals who reached the UK through irregular means from ever being granted British citizenship

This is a suggested letter that people and/Meetings may like to send to their MP

Please adapt the message, as you feel led.

Dear ……………..MP,

I am writing to express grave concern regarding the recently updated guidelines that prevent individuals who arrived in the UK by irregular routes from ever being granted British citizenship. The Refugee Convention to which the UK is a signatory recognises that people seeking asylum may need to arrive through irregular routes, and this is especially the case when countries like our own do not provide safe and regular options for people who need protection.

Continue reading “QARN: Model Letter/email to MPs re: British Citizenship”

May 2025: Restoring Control over the Immigration System

White Paper:  This is the White paper: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6821aec3f16c0654b19060ac/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper.pdf

PM’s speech: This is what the Government said about it:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-remarks-at-immigration-white-paper-press-conference-12-may-2025

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Responses from Migrant Voice, Right to Remain, BID below :

Continue reading “White paper re: Immigration system”

21 April 2025: Guardian (thank you once more Diane Taylor) Ten assaults a day on asylum seekers in Home Office care, figures reveal

Exclusive: There were 380 safeguarding referrals of victims of hate crimes from January 2023 to August 2024

The Home Office is recording an average of 10 assaults a day on asylum seekers in its care, according to internal government data, amid harsh government rhetoric on those crossing the Channel.

Continue reading “Ten assaults a day on asylum seekers in Home Office care, figures reveal”

5 April 2025: We were joined at our meeting today by our speaker Moud Goba from the amazing organisation Micro Rainbow, and some members of Quaker Rainbow.

Vision​: Micro Rainbow’s vision is to create a world where lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people are safe, free from discrimination, persecution and have equal opportunities in life, including in accessing employment, training, financial services and housing.

Mission: Micro Rainbow’s mission is to create opportunities for LGBTQI people to fulfil their potential in life and create innovative models for social change that are sustainable, scalable and replicable.

Continue reading “Micro Rainbow”

Update 20 March 2025: Inspection report published: An inspection of the Home Office’s management of fee waiver applications (August 2024 – November 2024)

This inspection examined the Home Office’s management of fee waiver applications for certain types of immigration and citizenship applications.

The ability to apply for a fee waiver is an important safeguard for those people who are seeking to make a human rights-based application to enter or remain in the UK, and for children seeking to register as a British Citizen, but who are unable to afford the fees. I was already aware of concerns about the scale of the Home Office fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), and stakeholders drew my attention to additional costs, such as solicitors’ fees and biometric enrolment, which have meant that many applicants have incurred large debts and that their lives, including their health and wellbeing, have been adversely impacted.   

This inspection was conducted against that backdrop. It focused on the resourcing of the three Home Office teams responsible for handling fee waiver applications; on training, workflow, and the prioritisation of fee waiver casework; and on the quality, timeliness and consistency of decision making, including the quality assurance of decisions. 

The ICIBI last looked at fee waivers in 2019, since when the ‘test’ the Home Office applies to a fee waiver application has changed from whether the applicant is or would become destitute to whether they can afford to pay the required amounts. This inspection therefore looked at the guidance available to caseworkers when determining ‘affordability’ to see if was clear and also examined whether ‘affordability’ was being assessed consistently.

Inspectors found problems with both the guidance and practice, and my report, which was sent to the Home Secretary on 21 January 2025, contains eight recommendations covering: better workforce planning; regular sharing of information and best practice; more robust quality assurance; more clearly defined management responsibilities and expectations; a review of data retention practices; ensuring significant changes to fee waiver policies and practice are compliant with the Home Office’s Public Sector Equality Duty; the introduction of Service Level Agreements for the processing of fee waiver applications; and development of an engagement strategy for external stakeholders. 

Continue reading “Recent updates from ICIBI”

6 March 2025: Rethinking Security: Bridge to Nowhere: UK security strategy in the ruins of Atlantis

As Western security alliances fragment, Richard Reeve charts the implications for the UK’s most fundamental strategic assumptions, and makes the case for ‘thinking beyond the unthinkable’ in the government’s next National Security Strategy.

While Ukraine has acutely felt its vulnerability since 2014, only in the last month has the precarity of Europe’s position become startlingly clear. Having already laid claim to Canada, Greenland and Gaza, this past month Trump and Vance have attacked and undermined European democracies, dubbed Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’, and grasped at his country’s mineral wealth while unilaterally seeking to end the Russia-Ukraine war on Moscow’s terms. With Trump burying America’s closest alliances beneath his clear contempt for multilateralism, international law, and liberalism in all its forms, by 23 February Germany’s incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz was pledging “to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA”.

Continue reading “Bridge to Nowhere: UK security strategy in the ruins of Atlantis”