What can you do

February 1, 2023April 4, 2023

Channel Crossings

That which is morally wrong cannot be politically right

Updated 1 February 2023: Gov.uk: Leadership of small boats operations returns to the Home Office

The Small Boats Operational Command (SBOC) will bring together the government’s response to small boats with 730 additional staff.

Telegraph: Stop migrant boats or face defeat, Suella Braverman tells Tories

Home Secretary tells The Telegraph the party’s reputation for competence is ‘on the line’ and crossings must be tackled to win election

January 29, 2023April 4, 2023

Disappearing children

29 January 2023: The Observer view on Britain’s shameful failings on child refugees

Observer editorial

Abused, kidnapped and lost – the government should hang its head in shame over its lack of care towards vulnerable minors

Unaccompanied children fleeing war, torture and chaos are surely one of the most vulnerable demographics in the world. Yet an Observer investigation has exposed how once these children reach the UK they can be treated with an appalling lack of care, to the extent that large numbers are being kidnapped in plain sight by criminal gangs. Today, we publish allegations by a whistleblower that the staff in one hotel accommodating some of these already traumatised children have subjected them to repeated emotional abuse.

Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, has met some of the children being housed in a hotel in his constituency. He has described their vulnerability: one 15-year-old from Iran who had lost both of his parents travelled to the UK with a friend but was separated from him because he tested positive for Covid and was so anxious “his face was pinched and his legs were buckling”. The majority of unaccompanied children arriving in Britain come from countries with terrible records of conflict and human rights abuses: Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Many will be in immediate danger from the criminal gangs to whom they owe money for smuggling them into the country.

January 17, 2023January 17, 2023

The Arrivers: Why Language Matters in Migration Policy

17 January 2023: A Freedom from Torture supporter confronts Suella Bravermann on her inflammatory rhetoric, FFT publicises the video, and the Home Office tries to get them to take it down.

https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/holocaust-survivor-confronted-suella-braverman-to-say-your-hateful-language-has-consequences

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

Reunite Afghan people trapped in Afghanistan with their families in the UK.

Please can you write to your MP to help reunite Afghan people trapped in Afghanistan with their families in the UK.

https://www.safepassage.org.uk/email-your-mp-afghan-families

Here is a sample letter:

Dear * MP

I am writing to you because I am extremely concerned that Afghan families that were torn apart during the evacuation of Kabul remain separated, nearly eighteen months after Operation Pitting.

As my MP, I would like you to show your support for these families that were promised help by the UK Government at the time. Please will you ask the Home Secretary and Prime Minister to honour this country’s commitments to those families?

We all saw how children and parents, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers were separated in the total chaos of the evacuation, as they tried desperately to board flights in the summer of 2021. At the time, the UK Government promised that the people who were airlifted to safety would be resettled with their loved ones – correctly recognising that families belong together. However, nearly a year and a half on, families are still separated because the Home Office has not yet put in place a process for their reunification under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme.

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023

Human rights principles, monitoring, safety, and security

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has organised a regional training course on Human rights principles, monitoring, safety, and security for human rights defenders working at international borders in the Northern Mediterranean region.

The 5-day training will cover the topics of human rights principles at international borders, human rights monitoring and advocacy strategies, screening and interviewing, detention and return, personal safety and security of human rights defenders including criminalization of human rights defenders, and digital safety and security. The training takes place on 06 – 10 March 2023 in Greece, and the applicants need to be based in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Türkiye or Spain. Applicants will be chosen in a competitive selection procedure and the costs of training materials, travel and full board accommodation will be covered by ODIHR.

If interested, please find the full call for applications here and complete the online application by 19 January 2023.

January 6, 2023

APPG on detention

Updated 6 January 2023: The Brook House Inquiry: Read the full report.

The evidence received by the Inquiry makes clear, in the view of Medical Justice, that the Home Office is not capable of providing a humane system of immigration detention which respects fundamental rights and is consistent with the health, safety and dignity of those held within it. Troublingly, the recent events at Manston Short-Term Holding Facility provide further stark evidence of this lack of respect and inhumanity. Rather than expanding the use of detention, it should be reduced and phased out.

If administrative detention is to continue at all, its use should be truly an exception rather than routine, and subject to strict statutory criteria and a time limit. This view was widely expressed across all parties giving evidence to the Inquiry13. Like HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMIP), Medical Justice agrees that Brook House – and other prison-like facilities – should never have been used to detain people for administrative purposes. Such places certainly should not now continue to be used to hold persons detained under immigration powers.

December 16, 2022April 4, 2023

Concerns about the use of army barracks, hotels, offshoring etc etc.

This post relates to reports of atrocities around the army camp accommodation and hotels, and other Home Office plans to accommodate people in new sites, and has become so long that it is now continued here: https://qarn.org.uk/concerns-about-the-use-of-army-barracks-hotels-offshoring-etc-etc-continued/

Update 16 December 2022: from RAPAR:

PRESS RELEASE from @raparuk 16th Dec. 2022: Whistleblower speaks out about safeguarding, racism and scabies at Serco’s asylum “hotel” in Warrington

https://buff.ly/3hygtgQ

and:

Please help raise money for Shay Babagar and @RAPARUK to build on Shay’s 35-day hunger strike to challenge Serco’s treatment of ‘hotel’ residents seeking asylum.
Justgiving: https://buff.ly/3BDx5dO

Campaign flyer: https://buff.ly/3j4CG6D
About campaign: https://buff.ly/3VYnZ3B

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022

Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK

UK Parliament: Inquiry Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK

Wednesday 16 November 2022, Start times: 2.45pm (private) 3.00pm (public) Formal meeting (oral evidence session): Human Rights of Asylum Seekers in the UK Committee Human Rights (Joint Committee)

At 3.00pm: Laura Dubinsky Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers

Rachel Bingham Clinical Advisor at Medical Justice

Rudy Shulkind Policy and Parliamentary Manager at Bail for Immigration Detainees

At 4.00pm: Charlie TaylorHM Chief Inspector of Prisons at HM Inspectorate of Prisons

Information about watching this can be found here: https://committees.parliament.uk/event/15701

October 12, 2022November 2, 2022

Lift the Ban coalition gathering 2022

A chance for Lift the Ban campaigners to come together as a coalition to celebrate our progress and plan our next steps.

About this Event: We are holding a national Lift the Ban coalition gathering!

Date: Wednesday 2nd November

Location: Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London, N7 6PA

Timings: 11:30 – 17:00 (lunch provided)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lift-the-ban-coalition-gathering-2022-tickets-429600004177

This is a chance to come together and celebrate all the progress we have made in the past few years. We will also discuss and plan our next steps towards lifting the ban on working for people seeking asylum.

We welcome both new and seasoned Lift the Ban campaigners from all over the UK.

October 7, 2022October 7, 2022

We all benefit from refugee empowerment

Anila Noor: Refugees want a real say in decisions shaping their lives: here’s how that could happen…

The phrase “meaningful participation of refugees” has become an important buzz phrase in the humanitarian sector.

In this blog, Anila Noor draws on a recent paper to set out what refugee-led organisations are looking for in the run-up to next year’s crucial Global Refugee Forum – and top of the list is enough seats at the table: she says 25% of participants at the forum should be refugees.

Other key recommendations include calls for more support for refugee empowerment and for organisations such as the Global Refugee-led network; and for NGOs to do some “deep soul-searching” to ensure diversity in staffing to include displaced people.

Read the blog and the associated paper.