Month: September 2025

The Chilling Impact of UK Policing on Civil Liberties


Update on current issues in the UK

September 2025

Much of our coverage of human rights issues on this site features overseas countries and indeed there is a lot to write about. The latest edition of the Amnesty magazine (Autumn 2025, Issue 226) has a feature on the rise and arguably increasing number of authoritarian leaders for whom human rights are things to be suppressed by all means possible. The list includes Javier Milei of Argentina; Narendra Modi with his draconian anti-terrorism law used to target activists, journalists, students, protesters and others.

Vladimir Putin needs no introduction nor does Xi Jinping who enacts repressive laws, persecutes Uyghurs and the repression of Tibetan culture continue unabated. Others include Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi who is busy wooing anyone who’ll listen while engaged in suppression of any dissent and who has executed record numbers in 2024. Victor Orban who has increasingly targeted civil society while remaining a member of the EU. Netanyahu in Israel is well known and presiding over genocide in Gaza and intensifying violence and apartheid in the West Bank. He bans foreign journalists and the UN from entering Gaza.

‘Chilling effect’

But there are worries in the UK with more and more laws being passed to inhibit protests and empower the police to arrest or interdict such protests and those attending them. Palestine Action has been much in the news and the organisation was declared a terrorist group by the previous Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. A high court judge has ruled that the co-founder of PA can bring an unprecedented legal challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision. Mr Justice Chamberlain said the proscription order against the group risked ‘considerable harm to the public interest’ because of the ‘chilling effect’ on legitimate political speech.

At the recent rally on 6th September in London organised by Defend our Juries, police arrested nearly 900 people many of whom were carrying Palestine Action placards. A 3 day hearing starts in November and it will be the first time an appeal is allowed against a ‘terrorist’ organisation. The court has given permission for both Amnesty and Liberty to intervene in the hearing.

Human Rights Watch: World Report

HRW’s World Report amplifies the above comments in its section on the UK. Laws criminalising protest undermine democratic rights they note. They remain on the statute book and the Labour government shows no sign of repealing them. The 2023 Public Order Act, the 2020 Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act also remain on the statute book both of which increased police powers and act to limit free speech.

There are comments about the increasing disparity in wealth in the UK. On immigration and asylum it notes the failure to provide safe routes and how politicians and some media outlets have contributed to a hostile environment towards ethnic and racial minorities.

Policing

Since 2002, the police have had an increasing presence in schools under the Safer Schools Partnership programme. Liberty has found no evidence that this police presence has made them safer and that there is no reliable evidence that such presence reduces crime or violence. One problem is that police are mandated to report crime in schools even it may be inappropriate in the circumstances. Lack of funding for mental health leads police to step into roles unrelated to policing it notes One of their recommendations is that police a more supportive roles in PSHE activities. See the report for more details.

It cannot be argued that the UK is anywhere near the situation in some of the countries briefly mentioned above. Journalists are not murdered as in Russia, opposition politicians are not imprisoned for no reason which happens in Saudi, there are no second class citizens as in Israel. However, the slow drip of legislation and increasing police powers, widening use of facial recognition even in peaceful protests, a legal system largely the preserve of the very rich and elements of our media all too happy to laud clampdowns and arrests of those they don’t like are matters of increasing concern. We shall continue to highlight these issues in our posts.

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Forthcoming meetings etc


September 2025

This is a short list of things we have planned for the coming months. If you were thinking of joining us, one of these would be a good opportunity to come and make yourself known. Joining the group is free.

  • World Day Against the Death Penalty is on 10 October. The group has focused on Oklahoma this year as part of Amnesty’s campaign of asking groups to focus on a particular state in the Union. There will be a separate post about this shortly. For anyone who wants to be involved with stopping the use of this penalty which is the ultimate cruel punishment and where mistakes cannot be rectified, let us know.
  • Our annual carol singing takes place on 23 December.
  • The next group meeting is on 9th October at 2pm in Victoria Road.
  • We have a coffee morning booked for February next year in St Thomas’s church, Salisbury. Details nearer the time.
  • Members of the group attend the weekly vigil for peace in the Middle East outside the Library each Saturday starting at 5pm for half an hour.

Keep an eye out here or on Facebook or Bluesky for updates @salisburyai.

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Global Refugee Crisis: Key Statistics and Insights


Latest report on the refugee and asylum situation

September 2025

This month has been overshadowed by arguments around flags.  Leaving aside the question of accommodation for asylum seekers, I wanted to provide a summary of the worldwide situation.

123 million refugees worldwide

At the end of 2024 there were estimated to be 123.2 million “refugees”, of whom 42.7 million have refugee status, 73.5 million are internally displaced within their own country and 8.4 million are seeking asylum. (4.4 million are officially stateless).  That amounts to 1 in 67 of the world’s population in flight. The largest numbers by country were from Syria (see more below) 13 million, Sudan 12 million, and Ukraine 10 million.  Interestingly, the numbers returning home during the year were 20,000 Syrians, 73,000 Ukrainians but only 3,700 Sudanese (hardly surprising).  Of 8 million Congolese in exile, only 122 returned home during the year.

On the return question, the UK’s deal to return one for one asylum seekers to France has started and the UK government is seeking a similar arrangement with Germany.  Since the aim is to reduce the backlog of pending applications, it is worth noting that the appeals backlog is currently around 70,000 (90,000 last year).  The main reason for the failure to reduce the numbers dramatically is the decline in the acceptance rate.  Whereas in 2023/4, 58% of applications were accepted in 2024/5 this was down to 48%, resulting in more appeals and more processing time.  Also the quality of the assessments has been criticised as leading to more overturning of decisions.  Among Afghan asylum seekers 96% were granted leave last year and only 40% this year (though only 8 families were actually returned in 2024/5).  This pattern is general – of 96,910 refusals between 2020 and 2024, only 24,508 people were actually returned.

New Home Secretary

With a new Home Secretary we must expect more legislation on small boats.  The number of people crossing this year is, of course, up on last year’s figure by 27%, mostly due to prolonged fine weather.

The reshuffle has meant that Home Office ministers Angela Eagle and Seema Malhotra have been moved to other departments, signalling probable change in policy under the new minister.

Section 80B of the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 has been amended to take account of Brexit and the lapse of the old Dublin rules about seeking asylum in the first safe country arrived at. The rules on “inadmissibility” have been tightened to make it possible for any perceived connection to a third county grounds for deporting applicants to that (“safe”) country.

Still in the UK, the previous Home Secretary temporarily suspended applications for family reunion.  It remains to be seen if the right will be restored.

The Council of Europe has issued a report warning member countries against outsourcing application processing to third countries.

The MOD has admitted 49 data breaches in the handling of Afghan applications; this will have a very damaging effect on giving information about Afghans who served the pro-Western government to the current leadership. Following the leak, the then government set up the Afghanistan Response Route secretly to aid 7,000 Afghans to come here.  It was ended in June without any detail of its success or otherwise.

Outside of Europe the USA has now done deals to deport “illegal” immigrants to Rwanda, South Sudan, Eswatini and Uganda.  The latter country has 2 million refugees from the DRC within its borders. President Trump has suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program – President Biden set it up with a cap on the number of arrivals of 125,000.  Trump has decided on allowing 40,000 immigrants, of whom he wants 30,000 to be Afrikaners from South Africa.

…But finally, some good news.  Following the overthrow of Assad, the UNHCR report that 2 million Syrians have returned home, 600,000 of them from abroad.

AH

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September 2025 Death Penalty Report: Key Insights


Full report for mid August to mid September

September 2025

We are pleased to attach the latest death penalty report for the above period thanks for the work put in by group member Lesley in compiling it. Contains extensive information from the US where the appetite for executions seems to be increasing in some states. Florida for example is the leading state at the moment. We have to caution as ever that China executes more of its citizens than the rest of the world combined but information is a state secret.

Sharifa Mohamadi sentenced to death in Iran for her human rights work.

Report August – September (Word)Download
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