boat people

Supreme court sinks shameful Rwanda scheme

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/supreme-court-sinks-shameful-rwanda-scheme

Toufique Hossain, director of public law and immigration at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, (centre) with his legal team outside the Supreme Court in London. Picture date: Wednesday November 15, 2023.

PITILESS Tory plans to deport refugees to Rwanda were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court today, plunging Rishi Sunak’s government deeper into chaos.

The court determined that Rwanda was not a safe destination for asylum-seekers and that there was a high risk of them being returned to their country of origin to be tortured or worse, thus torpedoing what is a flagship Tory policy.

The defiant Prime Minister pledged to fight on to stop destitute refugees crossing the Channel, responding to the judgement by asserting that “illegal migration destroys lives and costs British taxpayers millions of pounds a year. We need to end it and we will do whatever it takes to do so.”

He later claimed that the judges had agreed that the “principle of removing asylum-seekers to a safe third country is lawful” and told MPs he was ready to “revisit” UK laws to block migration if necessary and to seek a fresh treaty with Rwanda.

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Labour ducked the moral issues raised by the policy, with leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper focusing instead on the waste of money and time involved in the failed Rwanda policy.

The judges’ decision was, however, welcomed by a wide range of human rights campaigners.

Amnesty International’s Sacha Deshmukh said: “The government must now draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the UK’s political history.

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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/supreme-court-sinks-shameful-rwanda-scheme

Continue ReadingSupreme court sinks shameful Rwanda scheme

Conditions at Manston centre for asylum seekers ‘unacceptable’

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/23/conditions-at-manston-centre-for-asylum-seekers-unacceptable

Watchdog’s report also has ‘serious concerns’ about conditions at Western Jet Foil and Kent Intake Unit

Image quoting Suella 'Sue'Ellen' Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.
Image quoting Suella ‘Sue’Ellen’ Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.

Conditions at a processing centre for asylum seekers who arrive on the Kent coast in small boats have been called unacceptable in a report from a watchdog that monitors the centre.

Representatives from the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) made a total of 85 visits in 2022 to three Home Office processing centres for small boat arrivals – Manston, Western Jet Foil and Kent Intake Unit – for its 2022 annual report into short-term holding facilities on the Kent coast. All three centres hit the headlines last year due to a variety of scandals and serious incidents.

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The report adds: “At Manston detained individuals were accommodated in marquees which we would describe as at best basic, at worst unsanitary and unacceptable.”

Western Jet Foil in Dover was subjected to a firebombing attack last November by Andrew Leak, 66, who police said was motivated by extreme rightwing terrorist ideology.

Kent Intake Unit, also in Dover, where lone child asylum seekers and families are processed after arriving on small boats, became embroiled in a row in July of this year after the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, was reported to have asked for cheerful cartoon murals for children to be painted over because they were “too welcoming”.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/23/conditions-at-manston-centre-for-asylum-seekers-unacceptable

Continue ReadingConditions at Manston centre for asylum seekers ‘unacceptable’

Eye-watering cost of sending each migrant to Rwanda revealed

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/06/eye-watering-cost-of-sending-each-migrant-to-rwanda-revealed/

If the government wants to break even on the Rwanda scheme, it would need to deter about 37% of people from crossing the Channel

Image of Sue-Ellen 'Suella' Braverman

It will cost the government £169,000 per person to send illegal migrants to countries such as Rwanda, according to new analysis.

An economic impact assessment of the controversial scheme published yesterday, also revealed that the government’s asylum system could cost £32 million a day by the end of 2026 if recent trends continue without the reduction of hotel usage.

And the analysis also estimates that if the government wants to break even on the Rwanda scheme, it would need to deter about 37% of people from crossing the Channel. The government has already given Rwanda £120million in initial investment even though no one has made the journey there.

The £169,000 cost can be broken down into the following. A £105,000 per person payment to third countries such as Rwanda, the Home Office £18,000, costs for flying and escorting would be £22,000, costs for detention would be £7,000 and costs to the Ministry of Justice would be £1,000.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/06/eye-watering-cost-of-sending-each-migrant-to-rwanda-revealed/

Continue ReadingEye-watering cost of sending each migrant to Rwanda revealed

Saluting Gary Lineker: challenge state racism. Don’t conform to it

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/saluting-gary-lineker-challenge-state-racism-dont-conform-it

THE BBC has reportedly rebuked Gary Lineker for describing the government’s anti-refugee rhetoric as “language not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”

The famous footballer and presenter’s tweet has enraged Tory MPs, some of whom have called for him to be sacked. But he is not the first to have called out the grim historical precedent.

It was child Holocaust survivor Joan Salter who confronted Home Secretary Suella Braverman earlier this year, pointing to exactly the same parallels between Nazi demonisation of Jews and the language she uses when attacking refugees.

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This Tory administration is extremist. Braverman admits she thinks it more likely than not her plans breach the European Convention on Human Rights, which we as a country are obliged to respect: she doesn’t care.

But the countering voice for a more compassionate, principled approach is absent from Westminster. Labour scaremongers over boat crossings as well to claim the Tories have lost control.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/saluting-gary-lineker-challenge-state-racism-dont-conform-it

Continue ReadingSaluting Gary Lineker: challenge state racism. Don’t conform to it