Child asylum seekers classed as adults
Hundreds of lone children seeking asylum in the UK are being wrongly categorised as adults and handed new dates of birth by Border Force within minutes. Some are then being placed in adult detention centres, while others face deportation to Rwanda. The shocking new revelations were made by the I, after working with Care4Calais on the investigation. Case records and local authority data show that hundreds of children are being wrongly assessed as adults at the border and later confirmed to be children. Officials have been accused of changing dates of birth based solely on an initial visual assessment, often …
What is driving refugee deaths in Calais?
Another Sudanese refugee has been killed in Calais after being hit by a lorry he was trying to board. He was the third young Sudanese man to die this way since early May, and it is now impossible to ignore the British government’s influence on the atmosphere that is driving this increasingly horrific problem. The man, reportedly aged 26, died after trying to climb onto the lorry as it stopped at a roundabout at about 6.10am on Wednesday. He fell off, and was fatally struck. The lorry driver appeared not even to notice, and continued on his way. For someone …
Asylum seekers suffering in UK hotels
“A system that allows private contractors to profit while human beings, including children, are losing weight from being denied access to nutritious food, is a system that is broken,” our CEO Steve Smith told the Guardian today. “Malnutrition among asylum seekers in UK hotels is a public health issue and one that the government must urgently get on top of.” Smith was commenting after it emerged that increasing number of children and adults in asylum seeker hotel accommodation are being diagnosed with malnutrition. Cases of malnutrition among both children and adults have been confirmed in various different areas of England, …
Why we must not forget the Rwanda plan
One year ago today, five refugees sat in an airfield waiting to be forcibly deported to Rwanda. The government wanted them to be a kind of showpiece, the first refugees sent to Rwanda under the new scheme which had been announced that April. Under the brutal plan, any refugee who came to the UK but was deemed “inadmissible” by the government could be deported to Rwanda with no chance of ever returning to the UK. Since May 9 that year, we had been aware of 130 shocked and traumatised people being taken into detention. Our team worked closely with many …
Our Age Disputes team helps its 1000th young person!
Back in 2021, we began to notice more and more child refugees were contacting us to say the Home Office had classed them as adults. Many of them were understandably upset. At ages when they should have been in school and supported by Children’s Services, they were living in hotels surrounded by men far older than themselves. And all alone in a strange new country, they had no way of doing anything about it. So, in March 2022 we launched our dedicated Age Disputes team. The volunteers in our team work incredibly hard to provide support to the young people …
Another refugee tragically killed in Calais
Today another refugee was tragically killed in Calais. The 25-year-old Sudanese man died after falling under the wheels of a lorry after being hit by a lorry in the early hours of this morning, French newspapers report. According to other refugees interviewed at the scene, the man had run behind the vehicle as it left the parking lot, hoping to get into it somehow. When it came to a halt, he tried to climb between the trailer and the cab when it stopped. When it began to move again he slipped, and fell beneath the wheels as his friends watched …
Helping refugees affected by the Sudanese war
Today I learned a heart-breaking lesson about how important our phone charging services are. When we’re giving out food and clothing, we also provide big banks of charging points, and sometimes we give out charging packs too. This afternoon Adil, a 17-year-old refugee, asked to borrow my phone while his was charging. “I will show you a picture of my home,” he said. I thought he just wanted to show me where he was from. In fact he found Facebook and showed me a photograph a ransacked and damaged house. It was his actual home in Sudan. Staring at the …
New immigration figures raise questions about government rhetoric
This morning the government released new figures showing refugees crossing the Channel in small boats accounted for just 3.8 per cent of immigration to the UK. That’s a tiny figure. So why do they talk of a “migrant crisis”? Today, the government will fan the flames of hate and division by saying all immigration is unwelcome. But immigration is not a problem for the UK. It helps to grow the economy. It enriches all of us. And it offers protection to people who have experienced some of the worst things imaginable. But they will pay particular attention to the boat …
Here’s how to make housing refugees easier
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, wants a new law freeing landlords from rules guaranteeing basic standards in homes for asylum seekers. The won’t have to provide gas and safety certificates, and rules concerning minimum room sizes will be lifted. Ministers are looking to place refugees in these substandard and dangerous properties because, they say, there are too many refugees in hotels. The government needs to move them into houses, they say – regardless, it seems, of those houses’ quality. But why are refugees in hotels in the first place? The Home Office is responsible for providing accommodation to asylum seekers …
Faith leaders speak out for Afghan pilot
Suella Braverman has been formally accused of breaching the UK barristers’ code with “racist sentiments and discriminatory narratives” about asylum seekers, reports The Guardian. Lawyers and faith organisations have lodged a complaint with the Bar Standards Board, which has a duty to examine the conduct of qualified barristers. Although Braverman has not practised as a barrister since becoming an MP in 2015, she is still subject to its rules. The letter cites Braverman’s warning that 100 million asylum seekers would come to the UK were it not for her planned immigration crackdown and that people crossing the Channel have values …