Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill – Hansard – UK Parliament
Last week the government updated the “good character” guidance which immigration staff use to assess whether people applying for citizenship should have their application approved or denied.
The main change is the addition of the following sentence:
“Any person applying for citizenship from 10 February 2025, who previously entered the UK illegally will normally be refused.”
The updated guidance adds that people “arriving without a required valid entry clearance or electronic travel authorisation, having made a dangerous journey will normally be refused citizenship”. Travelling by small boat or being concealed in a vehicle are cited as examples of a dangerous journey.
Before this change, refugees who had arrived ‘irregularly’ would need to wait 10 years before being considered for naturalisation. A citizenship application currently costs £1630 and there is no right appeal.
Continue reading “Government urged to reverse decision to close off citizenship to people arriving irregularly”Well over 100 charities and faith leaders have come together in an urgent call against the Government’s decision to effectively ban tens of thousands of refugees from ever becoming British citizens.
Orchestrated by the Refugee Council, the letter to the Home Secretary has been signed by 148 signatories from across the refugee, migrant and children’s sectors, but also faith leaders including rabbis, church leaders and the heads of various trade organisations.
Continue reading “Over 100 charities and faith leaders unite against refugee citizenship ban”Left to die!
UK Special Forces command rejected resettlement applications from more than 2,000 Afghan commandos who had shown credible evidence of service in units that fought alongside the SAS and SBS, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed for the first time.
UK Special Forces officers appear to have rejected every application from a former Afghan commando referred to them for sponsorship, despite the Afghan units having fought with the British on life-threatening missions against the Taliban.
Continue reading “Special Forces blocked 2,000 credible asylum claims from Afghan commandos, MoD confirms”Dear Friend, Greetings from the World Office of the Friends World Committee for Consultation. Grace and peace to you.
This is a sad time for FWCC with the recent passing of our clerk, Simon Lamb (Ireland Yearly Meeting). Esther Mombo (Highland Yearly Meeting) will now ably serve as clerk for the remainder of 2025.
This is also an anxious time for the world. Still I hold faith that the Light shines in the dark, and the darkness has not overcome it. This will be the case for as long as we each seek God’s will for our lives, and seek to unite with it.
This year World Quaker Day (5 October) will have the theme “Love Your Neighbour”, taking as its guiding scripture Galatians 5:14: “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”.
Continue reading “2025 Letter to Meetings from Friends World Committee for Consultation – FWCC”Ginny Baumann from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network explores how to build better links between climate and migrant justice campaigns.
Across our Yearly Meeting, the issues of climate justice and migrant rights are live concerns. Although they are often carried forward by different groups of Friends, they are somehow held invisibly together within our Quaker meetings. But in our wider communities, efforts to tackle these two issues aren’t often unified, and it means that climate campaigning can sometimes feed into unintended harm on migrant issues.
Continue reading “At the crossroads of climate justice and migrant rights”The Home Office published updated guidance yesterday that seems to prevent anyone from being granted citizenship if they arrived in the UK through a dangerous journey. You can see more in this guidanceOpens in a new window and the reference, on page 51, to those arriving by small boat.
In response to this news, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said:
“This change flies in the face of reason. The British public want refugees who have been given safety in our country to integrate into and contribute to their new communities, so it makes no sense for the Government to erect more barriers.
Continue reading “Refugees prevented from being granted citizenship”
There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the potential to block a large number of refugees from naturalising as British citizens, effective immediately. This is described in the changes section as a “clarification” rather than a change, although the fact that it is to be applied to applications made from 10 February 2025 seems to undermine this somewhat.
This has been added to page 50:
Any person applying for citizenship from 10 February 2025, who previously entered the UK illegally will normally be refused, regardless of the time that has passed since the illegal entry took place.
Any person applying for citizenship before 10 February 2025 where illegal entry is a factor, will continue to have their application reviewed to determine whether that immigration breach should be disregarded for the purpose of the character assessment.
Continue reading “Good character guidance amended to block refugees from naturalisation”
Over the years, the Together With Refugees coalition has come together to show the love on Valentine’s Day.
The Government has just introduced new legislation on asylum. That’s why this Valentine’s Day is an important moment for us to show our strength and support for refugees.
There’s three ways your organisation or group can be part of this joint effort:
Contact or meet with your MP
Engage your community
Make a statement on social media
From handwritten cards and getting crafty with orange hearts to meetings with MPs and taking over social media feeds, we can demonstrate that our communities are calling for a fair new plan for refugees.
