Still Human Still Here: Third Reading of the Bill: Third Reading and Report of the Immigration Bill has been set for Thursday 30 January. There should be around 4 hours for debate, but it is likely that amendments linked to Bulgaria and Romania will dominate proceedings.
The National Audit Office issued a report on 10 January 2014 on the COMPASS contracts and the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers. It noted that “Although overall performances are now improving, two of the providers, G4S and Serco, are still failing to meet some of their key performance targets, notably relating to the standards of property and the time taken to acquire properties for asylum seekers.”
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Guardian:Mentally unfit refugees unfairly targeted by Home Office
The Home Office is covertly targeting the most vulnerable asylum seekers – those considered mentally unfit, or victims of torture – for deportation as part of the government’s hardline stance on immigration, according to lawyers and charity workers.
Lawyers claim that asylum seekers are being forced to leave the UK without having a proper psychological or health assessment, both obligations under human rights legislation and UK immigration rules.
A spokesman for Asylum Link Merseyside said the government had started selecting the most vulnerable cases for removal. He said: “This is a concerted attempt to deport those with mental illness: it ties in with attempts to whittle down the backlog of such cases as quickly as possible. It’s horrible.”
Read the full report here: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/25/mentally-unfit-refugees-home-office-charity