Asylum

Removal site in Dunkirk will hold people of 10 nationalities trying to reach UK in small boats under new deal with FrenchUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK will pay for 200 French officers to detain and deport people seeking asylum from some of the world’s most oppressive and war-ravaged regimes under a new UK-France deal to try to reduce Channel crossings.In what is being billed as the first time the French government has agreed to target those heading to the UK in small boats, a removal site in Dunkirk will be used to hold people from 10 countries: Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and Yemen. The Home Office said they were the top 10 nationalities who crossed the Channel by small boat last year. Continue reading...

Australia’s Corporate Travel Management is ‘negotiating commercial arrangements’ to refund the moneyThe Australian company that ran the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge has admitted it overcharged the British government by £118m.Corporate Travel Management (CTM) said its auditor had found evidence of “erroneous billing” of its UK clients, increasing its estimate of how much it owes the government by £40m. Continue reading...

Judge in case of two families housed for years in single hotel rooms says they should have been moved within three monthsThe Home Office could face legal action from hundreds of asylum-seeking families stuck in single rooms in hotels after a judge criticised the “extraordinarily stressful” conditions in which they are expected to live.In a ruling, the deputy high court judge Alan Bates questioned why two families had been forced to live in single rooms for more than three years. He said they should have been moved to alternative accommodation within three months. Continue reading...

Refugee Council criticises Labour’s decision, saying military sites are unsuitable and ‘more expensive than hotels’Hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from government-funded hotels while others have been sent to live in army barracks, the Home Office has announced.Eleven “asylum hotels” in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been closed, as first reported by the Guardian, and more will close “in the coming weeks”. About 350 claimants have been moved to the Crowborough military camp in east Sussex, described by a spokesperson as “basic accommodation”. Continue reading...

Inspection reveals use of force after protest by detainees being deported under ‘one in, one out’ schemeAsylum seekers who protested against being forcibly removed to France under the Home Office’s controversial “one in, one out” scheme, were transported out of the UK in waist and leg restraints, an inspection report has revealed.The report by HM chief inspector of prisons, Charlie Taylor, inspected a flight to France that took place on 20-21 January this year and on which it found no force was used. Continue reading...

Exclusive: closures are part of pledge by Labour to end all use of hotels for asylum seekers by end of this parliamentThe Home Office is to announce the closure of 11 asylum hotels this week as part of its pledge to close all hotels by the end of this parliament.The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has been controversial since it became widespread at the start of the Covid pandemic. Anti-migrant protesters have staged demonstrations outside the hotels, claiming asylum seekers are living a life of luxury in the hotels. Continue reading...

Figures gathered from children’s services and health trusts show 31 deaths were suicides, including six in under-18sMore than 50 young asylum seekers in the UK have died in the past decade, the majority by suicide, according to data compiled for the first time.Of 54 deaths of children and young people who claimed asylum between 2015 and 2024 in the care system, 31 were due to suicide, with seven homicides and eight fatal accidents. Only six deaths were due to health issues with two causes of death unknown, and 44 of the 54 have occurred since 2020. Continue reading...