Tag: immigrants

Key Changes in UK Asylum Seekers’ Rights


Refugees and asylum seekers remain a hot political issue

July 2026

With attention shifting to Andy Burnham and whether he will be the new prime minister in a matter of days, and the resignation of Nigel Farage from parliament resulting in a new by-election in his constituency, other topics like immigration have dropped – albeit temporarily – from the news. The latest effort by the Government to get a grip on the immigrant/asylum seeker issue, the Asylum and Immigration Bill, is now published, with the first debate to take place on July 13th.  Much of this post will be related to the Bill.

As mentioned previously, the most contentious parts of the Bill are the amendment of the waiting period for prospective residents from 5 years with a promise of acceptance to 2½ years, to be reviewed every six months.  Family reunions are also being more restricted, and the Home Secretary has mooted making immigrants pay up to £10,000 once they are in work.  Meanwhile, the “one-in-one–out” scheme agreed with the French authorities for boat arrivals, is to be ended in October; about 900 exchanges have been made so far.

On a related topic, the Home Office state that successful claimants must move on from temporary accommodation within 42 days: as the backlog of cases falls, this has added to the number of migrants seeking accommodation quickly, and the IPPR say that this is increasing the number of homeless migrants (up to a quarter of rough sleepers are now non-UK nationals).

A new appeals body proposed by the Bill, the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority, would not require all panellists to be legally qualified.  The Law Society has opposed the measure, and it has been said that the idea, originally tried in Australia, was not a success.

Also in the Bill, the contentious Article 8 (right to family life) defence against deportation is addressed.  Little change to existing rules are proposed, but the impact is reckoned to be that 11,700 claimants per annum will be rejected. Nevertheless, 55% of those declined permission to stay will likely remain, due to technical issues.  The Home Office reckon that overall 34,000 asylum seekers have been granted leave to remain under Article 8.

Separately, the Home Secretary has announced a new scheme to allow local communities and educational bodies to sponsor refugees to settle in their area. A refugee work route is also expected to open next year.  These are concessions to the  critique by the Refugee Council that the reason refugees make irregular journeys – including via small boat – is due to the lack of legal routes available.  Prof. Sarah Singer notes that community sponsorship already exists, and that putting the responsibility on local communities might be seen as the Home Office avoiding responsibility.

Performance politics

Amnesty International’s response to the Bill was summarised by Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director:

“The introduction of yet more immigration legislation in the final days of Keir Starmer’s premiership, just before summer recess, will be a bitter disappointment for anyone hoping for a genuinely new direction from government. The Bill, and a series of recent immigration announcements, continue down a path laid by successive governments: reducing legal constraints on Home Office decision-making while making the immigration and asylum system increasingly punitive for migrants and refugees.

“Several proposals are deeply alarming: from attempts to weaken protections for families and sideline long-established human rights obligations, to plans for a Home Office-controlled appeals system without legally qualified judges, and proposals to warehouse people seeking safety in mass barrack-style accommodation centres, deny them the right to work, and then present them with a bill for it.

“Access to justice and the rule of law are not inconveniences to be worked around. Protections against torture, family separation and arbitrary state power are values this country has upheld for generations.  Yet this government appears willing to cast them aside in pursuit of political headlines.

“This is politics as performance, not problem-solving.  Abandoning principles that should never be negotiable, including by seeking to weaken the protections guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, is weakness, not leadership.

“Whoever the new Prime Minister is, if they truly want a reset, then dignity, fairness and hope must be for everyone.  Britain needs a new politics that rejects scapegoating and appeasement and returns to the values of justice, humanity and equal dignity.”

The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee has a new report on the proposed changes, which repeats the criticisms of other bodies and fears that impacts may be harmful.

The new Independent Commissioner for Immigration and Border Inspection has criticised the asylum team at the Home Office for poor initial decision- making and a consequent long appeals backlog.  The backlog of asylum appeals is now up to 87,000.  Twice as many appeals are coming in as going out.  New appeals are not likely to be resolved for 3 years.

Migration Observatory have a report on the long-term jobs market for immigrants.  As of 2023, 13% of those granted leave 5 years earlier were earning £20k+.  Home Office have figures for 16-24 year-olds between 2015-2023, 24% had work within a year, 48% within two.

A new move is reported for improving the settlement of new arrivals, an asylum dispersal pilot scheme, reputedly being offered for the Autumn. 200 local authorities have expressed interest, but none have heard anything more. £500 million has reputedly been allocated, but no information on funding has been revealed.

Beyond the UK, UNHCR note a trend in global refugees.  The number of forcibly displaced people was down in 2025, the first drop in a decade.  They warn, however, of the dangers of returning home for many exiles..

Sea rescue has been reported as an issue.  The law on rescuing victims comes under 4 separate international laws, making responsibilities and enforceability difficult.  It is believed that between 2014 and 2020 some 83,000 deaths occurred among sea bound refugees.

AH

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Global Refugee Crisis: Current Statistics and Trends


Round up of the refugee situation around the world

April 2026

With the focus on the Channel crossings and refugees in hotels, there is a danger of overlooking the massive refugee issues around the world which are on a scale far larger than we experience in the UK. There are 117 million people who have been displaced due to violence, conflict, persecution or violation of human rights. There are over 42 million refugees according to the UNHCR. These people are often in countries unable to afford to look after them. The Middle East conflict continues to increase the number of refugees, notably from Southern Lebanon.  It is reckoned that in 4 weeks a million Lebanese have been displaced, around one in 5 of the population.

A migration summit in Cairo to review trends prior to a global review to take place in New York has been overshadowed by the war; Egypt is home to a large number of refugees. The meeting, held in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, brought together African ministers and stakeholders under the framework of the International Organization for Migration and the Global Compact for Migration, ahead of a global review forum in New York.

Small boats

Small boats continue to be in the news.  In the Mediterranean 180 migrants were lost in the last week, mostly coming

from Libya.  The UNHCR’s Institute of Migration estimate that nearly 1,000 lives have been lost in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year.

The EU continues to struggle with new arrivals.  The border between Croatia (in EU) and Bosnia (outside) has seen particularly violent clashes.

Backlash in UK

In the UK the backlash against the Government’s tightening of regulations on refugee status, asylum seekers support and family reunions continues.  The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is under attack from her backbenchers, who may have enough support to raise their protest in the Commons.  The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has said of the Home Office that it ‘has not fully thought through the implications of the changes.’  Other bodies have pointed to crises in the system; Migrants Organise have noted a growing problem of access to justice for claimants, citing a collapse in legal aid provision and an increasing number of unrepresented claimants.  The use of AI by the Home Office in its assessments may be unlawful.

With the local elections in view, the Scottish Greens are proposing to allow asylum seekers the right to work, the first party in the UK to do so.

The 1 in 1 out arrangement with France is said to be on the point of ending; many migrants, after being returned to France, have taken to lorries, as they did in the pre-small boats era.

The Congo has joined those countries prepared to take on asylum seekers deported from the UK.  Details are not yet known.

In the United States the Supreme Court is likely to allow the administration to resume blocking asylum seekers physically from entering the country; much discussion has ensued on the meaning of ‘to arrive at/in’.  The process (‘metering’) was stopped by Biden.

On the campaigning front, the Refugee Week organisers are planning a week of ‘A Million Acts of Hope’ from 13th to 20th May.  Details to follow.

As a footnote, the first of the Afrikaner ‘refugees’ to be welcomed into the USA has now returned home.

AH

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Impact of Middle East Conflicts on Refugees in Turkey


War in Middle East and its effects

March 2026

Although war reporting generates a lot of commentary on the deaths of those caught up in the conflicts, the effects on refugees and those displaced receives much less attention. With the new war(s) in the Middle East, refugees are again in the news. So far, most displaced people have been moved within the countries of Iran and Lebanon, but Turkey in particular is being readied for an influx of refugees.  The European Union Agency for Asylum thinks here will possibly be large numbers of displaced persons as a result of the conflict, many of them heading for Turkey. The Institute for Migration estimates that as of now there are 19 million internally displaced in the region; the UNHCR have calculated in the last few days that 667,000 Lebanese have registered as displaced.

Home Secretary’s refugee plans

At home, the big story is the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood’s plan to reduce the length of protected stay of refugees from 5 years to half of that, during which time they will only have temporary refugee status.  This will be subject to review every 30 months for up to 20 years. During this period claimants may be deported if, in the opinion of the Home Office, their country of origin has become deemed “safe”.  A large number of Labour backbenchers are opposing the move, and the Law Society has observed that it might not comply with international law. Other objections have been that the plan will be costly (£872 million over a decade, according to the Refugee Council) and impractical. On 5th March, the Home Secretary revoked the legal duty to provide destitute asylum seekers with support and accommodation while their claims are processed, often for months or years.  The Home Office have been influenced by the so-called “Danish model”, which takes a hard line on immigration.

Among the latest statistics to be released, the Home Office received up to 23,000 referrals of alleged human trafficking in 2025 (the main sources were Eritrea and Vietnam).  The backlog of cases has reduced, but there has been an increase in the number of reconsiderations.  In 2025 about 100,000 claims for asylum were made in the UK. Of these, 41% were from small boat arrivals, 11% other irregular means, while 40% already had some form of leave before claiming.  The level of grants continues to drop, at 42% in 2025 (it used to be over 80%).  Syria has suffered particularly with levels of asylum grants down year-on-year from 88% to 9%.  Claims from Eritrea and Somalia are mostly accepted.

The ban on family reunions instigated last autumn is being challenged in the courts by Safe Passage International.  A High Court ruling is expected later this year.

Small boats in the Channel are now starting from further north, in Belgium, according to a BBC report.

The UN Missing Migrants Project, which records the number of deaths among attempted migrants globally, has designated three routes as particularly dangerous: from North Africa to the Central Mediterranean (esp. Libya); from Afghanistan to Iran (this was before the current conflict), and from West Africa to the Canaries (they note that migrants are coming from further south than they used to, with more risks attached).

Those politicians who seem keen on war and wanted the UK to adopt a more interventionist stance with the Israeli and US actions, seem not to be quite so aware of the knock-on effects. Many of those same politicians are to be heard railing against refugees. Wars generate refugees. A proportion end up at Calais.

AH

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Importance of Human Rights: UK Support for the ECHR


November 2025

Nigel Farage’s proposal for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights was defeated on 29 October by 154 votes to 96, a majority of 58. The vote was largely symbolic: a ten-minute bill without government backing is often used simply to air an issue. The Liberal Democrats led the opposition to the bill, a number of Conservatives joined Reform UK in supporting it and many Labour backbenchers chose not to abstain but voted against it, fearing that were it to pass even symbolically, it would send a negative message to European allies.

The position of the Government remains that while it may pursue some changes to the interpretation of the Convention it would under no circumstances seek to abolish it.

75th  Anniversary 

A statement of support for the ECHR was signed by almost 300 organisations to mark the 75th anniversary of the Convention. Organised by Liberty, the statement highlighted the many ways the Convention has helped ordinary people from victims of sexual violence to LGBT+ service personnel, public interest journalists to mental health patients and victims of grave miscarriages of justice, as with the Hillsborough and Windrush cases.

It calls on the government to make the positive case for the UK’s human rights protections and claims that the way the Convention has been scapegoated in recent years has had devastating real world consequences. 

Meanwhile a survey for Amnesty by the widely respected agency Savanta concluded that more than 8 in 10 UK adults say that human rights protections are as important – or more important – today than when the ECHR was created after the Second World War. When asked which rights matter most to them, UK adults chose: the right to a fair trial (42%); the right to life (41%); the right to privacy, family life and respect for your home (40%).   

Support for staying in the ECHR is almost twice as high as support for leaving.  48% want the UK to remain part of the ECHR.  Only 26% want to leave.  

People believe rights should be universal, permanent, and protected from political interference:   87% agree that rights and laws must apply equally to everyone, 85% agree we need a legal safety net to hold the Government accountable in cases like the infected blood scandal and Grenfell and 78% agree rights should be permanent, not something the Government of the day can reduce. 

Respondents were shown a list of major UK scandals or institutional failings and asked which made them feel the importance of strong legal protections and accountability. The top five were: 

Grenfell Tower – 46%; Hillsborough disaster and cover up – 42%;   Infected blood scandal & the COVID inquiry – 37%; The murder of Sarah Everard – 36%;   Windrush scandal – 29%.   

ECHR and Immigration

In response to critics attributing the real problems of the UK’s immigration system to the ECHR, the Good Law Project set out some basic facts about the Convention, namely that it does not provide a right for people to enter or remain in a country of which they are not a national; that the Court rarely rules against the UK on immigration issues at all  – since 1980 only on 13 of the 29 cases concerning either deportation or extradition. And while the Human Rights Act of 1998 incorporating ECHR rights into UK law makes it unnecessary to go to Strasbourg, successful claims to stay in the UK are rare. Last year out of a total inward immigration of 948,000 only 3,790 cases related to the Human Rights Act were won at immigration tribunals.

Protect the Protest: Palestine Action and Judicial Review

Amnesty and Liberty will be making the case to lift the ban on the proscribed activist group Palestine Action in the Judicial Review scheduled for 25 – 27 November.

Defend Our Juries are urging the police not to bow to pressure from the Government but to allow the

peaceful protests organised throughout November at the continuing crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. They say that police are struggling to enforce the law in the face of peaceful protesters, many of them elderly. Some police forces are refusing outright to make arrests. International and national human rights groups, politicians and United Nations representatives have condemned both the ban and the subsequent attacks on civil liberties. Unions are declaring that they will not recognise the ban, with over 2,100 now arrested under ‘terror charges’ related to this peaceful sign-holding campaign.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty’s Director, criticised the Home Secretary for statements “that create a chilling effect by dissuading people from exercising their fundamental right to peaceful protest. At any time, any interference with freedom of expression must be strictly necessary, proportionate and in full accordance with the law.” 

In a further incident of Transnational repression Sheffield Hallam University terminated a staff member’s project about Uyghur forced labour after Chinese security officers interrogated a staff member in Beijing and a Chinese company named in the report filed a defamation lawsuit in the UK. The university retracted the ban but only after  Professor Laura Murphy, specialising in human rights and modern slavery, began legal action against it for violating her academic freedom.

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Refugee report – October


October 2024

The problem of boat crossings has largely dropped out of the news recently with the conflict in the Middle East soaking up media attention. The Conservative party’s leadership election is also a focus of interest particularly as the two remaining candidates have hard line opinions on immigration.

As the new government prepares to reveal its Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (largely designed to replace the jettisoned Illegal Migration Act), it is worth looking at the current situation with the small boats. Under the IMA, all applications are deemed inadmissible. This has left us with a backlog of 33,000 claimants in limbo (mainly Afghans and Syrians). Before the IMA, 90% of claims had been accepted. This might not be the case in the future as the Home Secretary also wants enhanced return procedures.

The high levels of pending cases has been exacerbated by the lower levels of acceptance (down to about 60% of cases) with a resulting big increase in the number of appeals. In passing, the Independent notes that the oldest asylum claim at the Home Office was made nearly 17 years ago. Also, Switzerland has improved its processing, which used to take up to 4 years, but is now about 100 days, which may be a pointer for a way forward.

The charity Safe Passage sees signs of improvement  (e.g. now allowing children to join relatives who are not parents) but meanwhile the total number of arrivals this year is over 25,000 – slightly more than last year but fewer than 2022. The government is keen to align with European procedures on irregular arrivals, but within Europe itself cracks are showing. This week 17 EU countries pushed for more effective return procedures for rejected applicants under the new Asylum and Migration Pact. At present the actual return rate for those to be sent back is only around 30%. An amended return process is presently stuck in the European Parliament.

Following the Ukraine war, the percentage of the world’s refugees in Europe has increased to over 20%. New research this week suggests that the numbers of irregular migrants in Europe is not increasing substantially (still at around 1% of the population for most countries). The MIrreM project calculate that between 2.6 and 3.2 million irregular migrants are living in the 12 countries they researched, with 594,000 to 745,000 in the UK. Figures are not completely reliable owing to many arrivals staying under the radar.

While we concern ourselves with the relatively small number of refugees arriving on the south coast, it is worth looking at the worldwide situation. With war zones in the Middle East, Sudan and Myanmar, not to mention Ukraine, the number of displaced persons has mushroomed in the last year. Ten million Sudanese have been displaced, 2 million to another country, 4.5 million Yemenis are internally displaced, while in Gaza 90% of the population and in Lebanon 1 million out of 5 ½ have had to move under Israeli attack, in some cases many times. In the larger Palestine, plus Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, there are 58 recognised camps housing 1.5 million refugees (1 in 3 of all Palestinians, some dating back to 1948. The UN authorities in the area (UNRWA and UNIFIL) have pointed out that many of the displaced inhabitants may well choose to head for Europe, adding to the pressure on countries there.

In Myanmar, not only  those under threat from the military, but also many Rohingya have left the country, about 1.3 million, mostly to Bangladesh.

AH

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Rwanda bill passes


Government succeeds in getting the Rwanda bill passed

April 2024

After what has seemed like a lifetime, the government has finally succeeded today, 23 April 2024, in getting its bill through both houses of parliament. The first flights are due to take off in 10 – 12 weeks that is in July. The airfield is as yet unknown but there is a possibility they will use Boscombe Down near Salisbury again as it is a military airfield surrounded by a high fence. There are some rumours to that effect.

Questions now are whether legal challenges will stand in the way. The government has declared Rwanda to be a safe country despite the evidence to the contrary. We do not know what the reaction of the European court will be. A robust challenge by them will renew calls by some politicians for us to depart from its jurisdiction.

This feels like a pivotal moment. Months have been spent on this problem and no doubt considerable civil service time has been spent on it as well. The cost has been considerable and the government has been reluctant to reveal the figures. An estimate is £370m with another £120m to come. There will be further sums for each asylum seeker despatched. There will be other administration and transport costs as well. The cost per person are difficult to estimate because it does depend on the numbers sent since some costs are fixed. As we move into what might be termed the ‘delivery’ phase of this project, issues of whether civil servants will be comfortable with the work they have to do and the response of the ECtHR are awaited.

The main purpose of the policy is to act as a deterrent. It is hoped – expected even – that news of the departures to Rwanda will deter those seeking to cross the Channel and seriously damage the business model of the smugglers. Whether this happens remains to be seen but with no end to wars and political instability in the world and the ease with which boats and outboard motors can be acquired from Turkey, suggests that this is a low risk, high reward activity unlikely to be deterred by a small percentage being sent to Rwanda.

Both local MPs, John Glen and Danny Kruger, voted for the bill.

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Refugee report


April 2024

This month, the report starts with the EU. The Freedom United charity note that so far this year more than 200 people have died trying to leave Libya, many shot by the Libyan Coast Guard. The EU continues to help fund the LCG, and the Institute of Migration say that 600,000 people are trapped in Libya seeking to get to Europe. Needless to say, there are many allegations of breaking international law in this crisis.

Also beyond the UK, the latest news from Rwanda is that, following the lack of progress in deportations, 70% of the properties allocated to receive deportees have now been sold to local buyers. On this topic, the Rwanda Bill returns next week for more ping pong – it could yet go for the Royal Assent within a few weeks. Judges are being given “special training” to ensure speedy delivery of those to be deported to Rwanda, according to the Daily Express. The airline Air Tanker is reported to be in discussions with the government about providing the transport, although they withdrew from previous similar discussions. RwandAir has already declined for fear of reputational damage.

The Prime Minister has claimed that 24,000 irregular migrants were deported last year. Full Fact have checked this and argue that only about 25% were enforced returns, the rest being voluntary. The number of arrivals in small boats this year stands at 4,644 at the end of March – bad weather has reduced the number in the last few days, but the figure is still higher than last year.

Charities and law firms have sent a letter to the Home Secretary seeking a Ukraine-style visa scheme for Palestinians who have family in the UK. The Home Office has also refused to decide on whether to drop the need for biometric data for reuniting family

arrivals from Gaza, although obtaining such data is virtually impossible in the crisis; the Upper Tribunal ruled against the Home Office in two test cases.

In their annual report, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner note that the number of immigration advisers at the Home Office is growing, but not fast enough to keep up (and large numbers are leaving).

Finally, back to Europe, where the European Parliament has passed the Pact on Migration and Asylum today (Wednesday 10 April) against votes from the extreme right and extreme left. The 10 provisions of the pact cover issues like relocating from over-immigrated countries, financial allocation, fast-track routes and exchange of data.

A group of 22 NGOs has issued a statement arguing that “while the adoption … is likely to lead to a detrimental degradation of people’s access to protection in Europe, the new Union Resettlement Framework (URF) adopted alongside the Pact offers a glimmer of hope.

“The URF signals the EU’s political support for global resettlement efforts and has the potential to be a step towards advancing solidarity, capacity-building and responsibility sharing. It must now be operationalised effectively to ensure that more people reach safety and find long-term solutions,” the groups, which include the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam, said.

Andrew Hemming

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Refugee report


Many of the boat people are from Afghanistan

August 2023

The tragic events in the English Channel this week have served to draw attention to the fact that most of the asylum seekers affected by the disaster were from Afghanistan. This might invite the question: “But I thought that Afghans were the one group for whom official arrangements to come here had been made?” Indeed, there are two official processes by which Afghans can come to this country to escape persecution. One is the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, designed to help those who had been involved with the UK administration pre-Taliban, and several thousand have arrived through this route. Asylum seekers arriving now may have worked with the British and been left behind or not, but clearly most feel threatened by any connection they may have had with the old regime. The Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) was designed for such cases.

So how has the ACRS been performing? A new report by the Refugee Council gives a gloomy assessment. The plan was to take 5,000 refugees in the first year and 20,000 in total. So far, 54 Afghans have arrived under ACRS; many are waiting in Pakistan for arrangements to be made to bring them over. Accommodation in the UK is not available however and, as the report notes, those 9,000 Afghans currently being accommodated in hotels here will be ejected at the end of the month to find their own places or become homeless.

Afghans arriving via the Channel will be sent back

Hence the large number of Afghans arriving on small boats. In the last year 8,429 have come by this route, of whom 96 have been given leave to stay. Of course, under the new Illegal Migration Act, none will be given that right and will in theory be returned to Afghanistan or a third country like Rwanda.

The report goes on to note that no method has been established to help reunite the families of asylum seekers with those who are here, despite assurances  from the government.

The Guardian has published an article by the Council’s chief executive, Enver Solomon, which gives more detail.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this, the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘World at One’ devoted a lengthy package to this item.

AH

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Rwanda: the morality question


How moral is the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda?

July 2023

The wish by the government to deport asylum seekers and refugees to Rwanda has consumed considerable political capital and is a topic rarely out of the news. It is the flip side of the problem of people arriving by small boats across the Channel which causes so much fury in sections of the media. The extreme difficulty in applying for asylum from outside the UK is only occasionally mentioned. Legal routes have all but been closed off forcing those seeking asylum to engage in perilous journeys. According to ex prime minister Boris Johnson however, writing for the Daily Mail in his new job, said there are ‘numerous safe and legal routes for people to come to Britain’. His argument is that once word gets round the ‘camp fires’ of northern France that there is a chance of being sent to Rwanda, the business model of the smugglers will be broken (We must take radical action to get Rwanda done!) 30 June*.

This raises a moral question which is that the idea of deportation and treating them badly is to use people as a matter of policy. It is using deportation as a kind of punishment for a class of people no matter what the legitimacy of their claim might be. It is also logically unsound since it will be the refugees who will suffer and end up in Rwanda, not the people smugglers. The likelihood of the policy deterring the smugglers has been challenged recently in an impact assessment report which notes that the Home Office had little evidence to show that it might work. Academics say that it is issue of culture, kinship and language which are important factors and changing the rules has little effect.

Stopping the boats – assuming that to be possible – does not stop the problem. War, persecution, climate and poverty are among the factors which force people to leave their homes and embark on long, perilous journeys to seek asylum.

It has been pointed out that Rwanda is not the best of countries as far as human rights are concerned. There is little freedom of expression. Journalists are harassed and intimidated and opposition leaders find it hard to make headway. Bloggers and lawyers are intimidated and sometimes unlawfully detained. What has not been commented on however is that the deportation policy crucially depends on Rwanda being a safe place for us to send refugees and it will be extremely difficult for the UK government to stop the deportations if evidence of mistreatment by police or security forces in Rwanda subsequently emerges. It will also be difficult and embarrassing for the government to criticise President Kagame for any infringements of evidence of bad treatment. Having invested so much political capital in the policy, to admit the country is not in fact safe will be extremely awkward.

Refugees will find it hard to settle in the country as did those who went their as part of the – now abandoned – Israeli scheme. Perhaps the enthusiasm for the schemes owes something to several Australians who act in advisory roles in Downing Street. The Australians sent their asylum seekers to islands in the Pacific in a much criticised scheme.

Public attitudes toward refugees seems slowly to be changing and a recent IPSOS poll showed the UK to have one of the most positive attitudes towards immigrants at 56%. The numbers wanting our borders closed totally has declined. 54% wanted immigrants to stay. This despite the relentless rhetoric in the tabloid press.

Government attitudes seem to have hardened by contrast and ‘stopping the boats’ is one of the prime minister’s five pledges. In the i newspaper on Saturday (2 July) there was speculation that the government is considering leaving the European Court of Human Rights to enable it to overcome the courts’ objections to the deportations.

In all the commentary, the political jousting in the Commons and the seemingly relentless articles in the media, the moral argument seems seldom to emerge. The boat people are treated as though they are almost criminal and there is even an attempt to besmirch the RNLI for rescuing them in the Channel: RNLI a Migrant taxi service claims the Daily Mail (1 July*). Deportation is to be used as an instrument of deterrence.

Some indeed might be economic migrants and not ‘real’ asylum seekers. But a large proportion are desperate people fleeing desperate circumstances and need our help. We have a moral and legal obligation to hear their appeals. It is a great shame that the voices of intolerance have such salience in our media and in some members of the government.

*Articles accessed 3 July

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Rwanda flights ‘unlawful’


High Court rules flights to Rwanda unlawful

June 2023

The High Court has today (29 June) ruled by a majority, that the planned flights to Rwanda are not legal. This has been a key element of the government’s policy and the first flights due to go out in June last year from Boscombe Down near Salisbury, were halted at the last minute following a ruling by the European Court deciding it breached article 3 rights against torture and bad treatment.

The case hinged on whether it is safe for asylum seekers and others to be sent to this African country. Both UNHCR and Amnesty International have expressed doubts and concerns about what life is like and the safety of those sent there. In its 22/23 report Amnesty had concerns about the asylum process procedure, the risks of detention and deportation, discrimination against members of the LGBTIQ+ community and inadequate legal representation.

Plane waiting at Boscombe Down airfield in June 2022 but which left empty. Photo: Salisbury Amnesty

There is limited freedom of expression, bloggers and journalists are harassed, persecuted, intimidated and sometimes unlawfully detained. Although the country has made promises to improve as part of the deal with the Home Office, serious doubts remain about how genuine these might be.

A report last week noted that the costs of sending individuals to Rwanda were excessive at around £170,000 per person and they also doubted the deterrent effects of the policy – a key element behind why the government wishes to do it. Altogether, the government’s policies on immigration and asylum are looking threadbare. They plan to appeal the decision. Both the prime minister and Suella Braverman have been critical of it.

Sources: BBC; UNHCR; Daily Mail, Guardian

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