Displaying items by tag: Immigration

There are ten immigration removal centres in the UK, housing roughly 2-3,000 people at any one time. A survey of seven of the centres by law firms and charities showed almost 56% of the detainees were defined as ‘adults at risk’. Such individuals are only supposed to be detained in extreme cases, suggesting that Home Office guidelines on detention have been breached. The survey also found that a third had dependent children in the UK, 84% had not been told when they would be deported, and almost half the detainees had not committed a crime. The majority had lived in the UK for five years or more, and some had been in the country for over 20 years. Pray for the home secretary, Sajid Javid, to change our immigration system to something that has compassion on the vulnerable and end indefinite detention.

Fifty years ago corner shops advertised rooms to let with the warning, ‘No coloureds, no Irish, no pets’. The early Windrush migrants from the Caribbean faced enormous prejudice as they played a vital part in rebuilding Britain after the Blitz. The Home Office later destroyed their landing passes and other documents. Now, fifty years later, they have been issued with deportation orders. They believe they are still facing prejudice. Recently their situation was highlighted in the media, which led to parliamentary debates. Boris Johnson said there needed to be an immigration amnesty for longstanding Commonwealth immigrants to prevent others from getting caught up in the same situation. They should not have to produce overly onerous amounts of evidence to prove that they have been living here for years. Pray for attitudes to change, and that we will now value our Commonwealth brothers and sisters properly.

The commanding victory of populist parties in the national election will reverberate beyond Austria. Sebastian Kurz, when foreign minister, closed routes through the Balkans for immigrants, and his party spearheaded laws banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces. His political rise follows the far right gaining influence in Germany last month. Nationalist and anti-immigrant forces across the EU are feeling emboldened by the vote, which could bring the Islamophobic Freedom Party to power in a coalition government in Vienna. The People's Party want to fine migrants who refuse to attend integration and language classes, but the Freedom Party calls for dropping such classes completely. It has also pledged to deny migrants access to welfare payments altogether. If the two parties became coalition partners, Austrian politics would take a seismic shift to the right.

More than 56,000 attempts were made to get into Kent from France in 2016. That is an average of 153 attempts a day and is the second highest in seven years, despite dropping by 25,000 compared to 2015. The Home Office said the decrease was a ‘success’. Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke said it was shocking: ‘The figures underline the true scale of the challenge we face, and why we need more investment at our border.’ Pray for the Home Office, Border Force, and their French counterparts as they maintain border security and keep legitimate passengers and trade moving.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued two memos spelling out how they will implement the executive orders on immigration that President Trump signed in his first week in office. The specifics and the scope stunned even seasoned immigrant and refugee advocates. The memos call for hiring fifteen thousand new immigration and border patrol agents, renewing efforts for state and local police to implement immigration enforcement duties, and expanding a procedure known as expedited removal. There could be mass heartless deportations. Another change would end long-standing protections for individuals in or near sensitive locations like hospitals, schools and places of worship. Some churches and even some cities have joined the Sanctuary Movement, and refuse to use their own resources to aid federal authorities in deportation cases.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is ‘saddened and shocked’ by the Government’s decision to take only 350 unaccompanied refugee children. He said last week, ‘We believed that the Government was committed to welcoming up to 3,000 children. To end the scheme now, when such a small proportion have actually entered the country, is regrettable.’ The immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, has stated that after consultation with local authorities, the UK will take just 350 children, including more than 200 already transferred from France. The Labour MP Yvette Cooper described the move as ‘shameful’, while the Conservative MP Helen Whateley said that Kent was already looking after more than a thousand unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. MPs have challenged the Government’s assertion that local authorities cannot take more children, and suggested that other groups (including faith organisations) could help. Archbishop Welby urged the Government to reconsider, saying, ‘We must resist and turn back the worrying trends of seeing the movement of desperate people as more of a threat to identity and security than an opportunity to do our duty. We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable.’

In a confident and hard-hitting speech on Tuesday, Theresa May spoke of a ‘bold’ approach to the UK’s Brexit negotiations. She said that the UK will leave the European single market, retake control of immigration, strike its own trade deals, and refuse to be bound by rulings from the European Court of Justice. She also confirmed that MPs will put the final deal to a vote in both Houses of Parliament. In reaction to her speech, which one commentator described as ‘some of the most important words she will ever utter’, the value of the pound jumped sharply as traders were reassured that a firm strategy is now in place. However, others were much more critical, with a number of European leaders accusing the PM of attempting to ‘blackmail’ the EU. Also, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that a second Scottish referendum on independence is now ‘all but inevitable’; her government has repeatedly stressed its desire to stay in the EU single market. See