Category: News

Ekklesia: Home Office’s institutional problems require urgent reform

DEEP-ROOTED institutional and cultural problems undermine the UK Home Office’s performance and approach to crime, immigration, and asylum seekers – and are neglected by ministers at their peril, warns a new Institute for Government (IFG) report.

The report, Home truths: Cultural and institutional problems at the Home Office says that Suella Braverman is wrong to have watered down the Home Office’s commitment to reforms set out in Wendy Williams’ Windrush scandal lessons learned review.

The new IfG report calls on:

• The home secretary to publicly re-commit to the Windrush reforms in full – five years on from the Windrush scandal – with a new departmental improvement plan, to mark June’s 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush’s arrival in the UK.
• Rishi Sunak to commission a long-term review of the government’s home affairs systems and services which identifies the best structure and governance through which to manage migration, integration, border, crime and security policy.

The new IfG paper assesses the Home Office’s size, budget and morale – with the Home Office’s staff engagement the second lowest of any core Whitehall department – and examines policy problems, from small boats to Windrush schemes. It also explores the cultural and institutional problems which repeatedly undermine the department’s performance.

[Just a reminder that it is within international law to seek asylum]

17 May 2023: Guardian: Asylum seekers in England and Wales to lose basic protections in move to cut hotel use

Exclusive: ministers plan to exempt asylum seekers’ landlords from rules including minimum room sizes

Ministers are removing basic housing protections from asylum seekers under new rules designed to move tens of thousands out of hotels and into the private rented sector.

The changes would exempt landlords from regulations governing everything from electrical safety to minimum room sizes, leading campaigners to warn that the government is preparing to cram people into small spaces in an effort to alleviate the crisis in asylum seeker accommodation.

9 May 2023: Parliament: Illegal Migration Bill: EDM (Early Day Motion) 1147

Motion text: That this House believes the proposals in the Illegal Migration Bill contravene international law, including the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; considers that the Bill will effectively close the UK’s asylum system and undermine the ability of trafficking victims to access protection; regrets the rushed timetable for the Bill’s passage through the House, including the lack of a bill committee, and the short committee stage; regrets the failure of the Government to allow proper scrutiny of its policies, including by failing to publish its impact assessment; notes that there was no mention of any proposals resembling those found in the Bill in the general election manifesto of any party represented in the House; and in light of the grave consequences of the Bill and the failure of scrutiny by this House, calls on Members of the House of Lords to vote against the Bill.

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/60876

4 April 2023: ICIBI: Please note the ICIBI’s intended inspection regime for the coming year: 2023-24

This includes Rwanda ‘Country of Origin’ information that guides the Home Office staff in decision-making, trafficking, contingency accommodation, treatment of people arriving by small boats, age assessments, and adults at risk in detention

Updates will appear below.

Fair Immigration Movement- FIRM: Stand Up! Speak Out! Solidarity Knows No Borders Training Series: A Toolkit to Resist the Hostile Environment

Online from March – June 2023

Stand Up! Speak Out! is a training series developed by members of Solidarity Knows No Borders (SKNB)—a community of migrant justice organisations working in solidarity for dignity and justice.

The training series comprises of over 20 online seminars from March until June 2023 aimed at equipping public sector workers with the practical tools and knowledge to show up in solidarity with migrants and refugees.

Whether you are a doctor, teacher, social worker, advocate or anyone else working in public services- you are welcome.

Together we will share information, knowledge and strategies to resist the hostile environment. A better world is possible!

View the full programme: https://firmcharter.org.uk/stand-up-speak-out

The Government is trying to reduce access to Courts so as to minimise the Court’s impact on on its hostile environment. These are some important examples of why people continue to need access to the Courts, and the Courts need to retain their power to examine decisions made.

Updated 30 March 2023: HIGH COURT RULES MIGRANTS’ DATA RIGHTS MUST BE PROTECTED

A High Court judge has agreed with Open Rights Group and the3million that the immigration exemption in the UK Data Protection Act 2018 is incompatible with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It is the second time that ORG and the3million have taken the government to court over the immigration exemption, which allows the Home Office and private companies to refuse requests by individuals for access to personal data held about them on the grounds that it might “prejudice the maintenance of effective immigration control”. This denial can cause life-changing harms by preventing migrants from being able to challenge mistakes in the data that is held about them, and therefore being unable to effectively challenge immigration decisions. For example, an asylum-seeker who has been refused by the Home Office needs access to their personal data to effectively lodge an appeal. Application of the immigration exemption, and the withdrawal of that access, could result in genuine asylum-seekers being deported back to countries where they face a real risk of persecution and serious harm.

22 March 2023: Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration: The Chief Inspector’s annual report for the business year 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 has been laid in Parliament.

Publishing his annual report, David Neal said:

Commenting on the publication of his annual report for 2021-22, David Neal said:

The UK Borders Act 2007 requires the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration to make a report to the Home Secretary each year on the performance of immigration, asylum, nationality, and customs functions. This annual report provides a valuable opportunity for me to reflect on the findings of my inspections and to draw out wider themes and issues.

In my annual report for 2021-22, I highlighted three areas of particular concern. First, I comment on the need for the Home Office to develop greater resilience in the face of ‘crisis’ so that the extent to which unforeseen challenges disrupt the department’s routine operations is minimised. Secondly, I note that several of my inspections pointed to a need for the Home Office to adopt a greater focus on vulnerability, particularly when its safeguarding responsibilities are in tension with its immigration control objectives. Finally, I point to the perennial problem of the poor quality of the data on which the Home Office relies to carry out its borders and immigration functions, an issue that arises in almost every ICIBI inspection.

Continue reading “ICIBI annual report for 2021-22 published”

The UK Borders Act 2007 requires the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration to make a report to the Home Secretary each year on the performance of immigration, asylum, nationality, and customs functions. This annual report provides a valuable opportunity for me to reflect on the findings of my inspections and to draw out wider themes and issues.

In my annual report for 2021-22, I highlighted three areas of particular concern. First, I comment on the need for the Home Office to develop greater resilience in the face of ‘crisis’ so that the extent to which unforeseen challenges disrupt the department’s routine operations is minimised. Secondly, I note that several of my inspections pointed to a need for the Home Office to adopt a greater focus on vulnerability, particularly when its safeguarding responsibilities are in tension with its immigration control objectives. Finally, I point to the perennial problem of the poor quality of the data on which the Home Office relies to carry out its borders and immigration functions, an issue that arises in almost every ICIBI inspection.

Continue reading “ICIBI annual report for 2021-22 published”

12 March 2023: As the British economy crashes the government looks for people to blame and refugees pay the price.

Last November PCS and Care4Calais launched a proposal for a Safe Passage for Refugees. Since then, they asked for a meeting with the Home Office to discuss it, but they never received any reply.

Differently to the government’s plans, this proposal would drastically reduce the number of people forced to make the dangerous journey in small boats, break the people smugglers’ business model, and address the UK humanitarian obligations treating refugees with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

Updated 29 March 2023: Guardian: Sixty-six children still missing after vanishing from Brighton asylum hotel

Senior family judge hears charity’s urgent bid to have ‘world’s most vulnerable children’ declared wards of court

Lawyers for the home secretary have disclosed to a family court that 66 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children remain missing from just one local authority – Brighton and Hove – after disappearing from a hotel.

The number was revealed at an urgent hearing to address the fact that no agency has parental responsibility for the missing youngsters.

More than two months ago, a minister confirmed that 200 children – many of whom had arrived in the UK on small boats without a parent or guardian – disappeared after being placed in hotels run by contractors employed by the Home Office.

The figure included 76 youngsters who had vanished from a hotel in Brighton amid fears they had been targeted by criminal gangs.

2nd March 2023 Praxis: REPORT: EXPERIENCES ON THE 10-YEAR ROUTE TO SETTLEMENT

Around 170,000 people are estimated to be on a ‘10-year route to settlement’ – a way for some people with strong ties to the UK to be able to stay here permanently. On this route, individuals face a number of challenges – length of time before being eligible to stay permanently, the high cost of visa fees (around £13,000 over the 10-year period for one adult), the requirement for repeat applications every 2-and-a-half-years, complex applications with few options for legal advice, and restrictions in accessing welfare through the default ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition.

In new research conducted by Praxis and partners the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), we take stock of the impacts of the 10-year route to settlement on people’s lives. Our findings are drawn from a survey of over 300 people who are either on the 10-year route to settlement, or have been on the route, as well as in-depth interviews with people on the route.

Our research find a series of potential pitfalls and wrong turns arising from the design of the route that lead to poverty and insecurity for many. This is an immigration route often used by women, parents and caregivers, and people from a Black and South Asian background. Usually, people on the 10-year route are long-term residents – 60 % of those we surveyed had been in the UK for more than a decade. Many are working in low-paid jobs and have severely stretched household finances. The high costs, repeated renewals, complexity and NRPF place considerable pressure on people for a prolonged period of their lives and hold people back from achieving all they could for themselves and their families, their communities and the economy.