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Lords also press ministers to allow independent Rwanda monitoring as deportation bill returns to CommonsUK politics – latest updatesRishi Sunak’s government is considering concessions on the Rwanda deportation bill to allow exemptions for Afghans who served alongside UK forces, parliamentary sources say.Ministers are also being pressed to give ground to an amendment to the legislation so that the east African country could be ruled...

Families of those who helped British forces could be deported from Pakistan despite promise to resettle them in UKAfghan families who helped UK forces and then fled to neighbouring Pakistan are in danger of being deported back to the Taliban due to Home Office delays in bringing them to the UK.In the chaotic evacuation period in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in August 2021 some...

Meeting to discuss PM’s key policy overshadowed by reports of lack of housing for deportees or airline to remove them from UKRishi Sunak has welcomed the Rwandan president to Downing Street amid signs that ministers are struggling to find an airline or housing in Kigali to carry out their flagship deportation plan.The meeting on Tuesday was overshadowed by the former home secretary Suella Braverman’s...

Trhas Tesfay, who fled war in Ethiopia, says she suffers hunger headaches as she cannot eat Home Office hotel mealsOne of Ethiopia’s elite female cyclists will be pedalling at the front of one of London’s biggest bike races next month while living in an asylum seeker hotel on less than £10 a week.Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22, rode a bicycle for the first time when...

Five years after scheme’s launch, one victim’s daughter describes how father died before receiving payoutCompensation payments for people affected by the Windrush scandal should be speeded up and increased, victims and campaigners have said.The Windrush compensation scheme was launched by the Home Office five years ago this week after widespread outrage over the scandal, in which thousands of British people were wrongly classed as...

Exclusive: Charities say Home Office should allow 56 days after near 1,000% rise in rough sleeping among accommodation leaversLeading homelessness and refugee charities have called on the government to double the number of days that newly recognised refugees are given to find a home before being evicted from asylum hotels, after a near 1,000% rise in rough sleeping among Home Office accommodation leavers since...

Boat carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years old, along with girl’s pregnant mother, father and three siblings, sankA seven-year-old girl has died in a canal close to Dunkirk after a makeshift boat carrying 16 people from northern France to the UK capsized, the prefecture in France’s Nord department said.The boat, which was carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years...

Disclosure, calculated on basis of 300 deportations, called ‘staggering’ by chair of home affairs committeeRishi Sunak’s flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost taxpayers £1.8m for each of the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali, Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has disclosed.The overall cost of the scheme stands at more than half a billion pounds, according to the figures released...

University leaders accuse ministers of wanting to ‘diminish our success’ as figures show a plunge in visas issued to overseas studentsImmigration restrictions imposed on international students threaten to damage the UK economy, according to university leaders, with the number enrolling from overseas falling by a third.Universities UK (UUK), which represents mainstream universities and colleges, said the government’s new curbs, coupled with steep visa fee...

David Neal, who was fired for allegedly disclosing immigration failings at City Airport to the media, has urged James Cleverly to replace him to ensure proper scrutiny in Home OfficeThe UK’s sacked borders watchdog has urged James Cleverly to shake up the Home Office or risk further major security breaches amid warnings that key immigration policies including plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda...

Officials say 179 people trying to cross Channel were rescued after four French-led operationsOne person has died and two others are missing in the Channel after an incident involving a small boat, French rescue services have said.According to the Préfecture maritime Manche et mer du Nord, four French-led rescue operations took place in the Channel on Wednesday, coordinated by the regional operational surveillance and...

In today’s newsletter: Why David Neal lost his job, and what he had to say about the faltering immigration system• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. When then-home secretary Priti Patel appointed David Neal as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration in 2021, the Commons home affairs committee refused to endorse the decision. They were worried that the...

Government defends decision that opposition politicians say could put vulnerable people at riskA scheme allowing Ukrainians to join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed, in what opposition politicians described as a cruel and “below the radar” move days before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full invasion.The Ukraine family scheme is being shut but government officials said a separate Homes...

Successor unlikely to be appointed for six months – covering period when PM hopes flights will take offThe UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration has called it “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced.In a break with the treatment of his predecessors, David Neal has been told he will not serve a second term as...

Sajid Javid had wanted review process for international students who believed their visas had been wrongly cancelled‘It destroyed my life’: the students accused of cheating in English testsWhat is the Home Office English test scandal?Ministers were poised five years ago to offer a route to a reprieve for thousands of international students who may have been wrongly accused of cheating, but the plan was...

Damning report by MPs warns policy places UK’s reputation for rule of law and human rights ‘in jeopardy’The UK government’s controversial Rwanda legislation that deems the African country as a safe place to deport people to is fundamentally incompatible with Britain’s human rights obligations and places it in breach of international law, according to a damning parliamentary report.MPs and peers from the cross-party joint...

Rishi Sunak said legacy cases had been cleared, but torture victims and others fleeing persecution feel forgottenWhen Saba* converted to Christianity, she knew she could no longer stay in Iran. As a disabled woman and a victim of religious persecution, to remain would “mean being killed”, she told the Observer, her voice cracking with emotion. She fled in secret, claiming asylum in the UK...

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei receives compensation from government after being stopped at GatwickThe home secretary, James Cleverly, has apologised and arranged for compensation to be paid to a human rights activist after officials unlawfully detained him at Gatwick airport on his return to the UK from a UN meeting in Switzerland.Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist and advocacy director of the London-based...

People may be exposed to abuses such as torture and degrading treatment in Rwanda, says watchdogEurope’s leading anti-torture watchdog has called on the government to process asylum claims in the UK rather than sending people to Rwanda because of the risk they may be exposed to human rights abuses there.In a report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of...

PM says he was ‘taken by surprise’ when Piers Morgan challenged him over likelihood of deportation flightsRishi Sunak has rowed back on a £1,000 bet with the broadcaster Piers Morgan on whether deportation flights to Rwanda would take off before the general election, claiming he is “not a betting person”.The prime minister said on Tuesday he had been “taken by surprise” when Morgan had...

PM also criticised for saying ‘the facts speak for themselves’ when asked if Keir Starmer was a terrorist sympathiserRishi Sunak has been called “out of touch” after taking a £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan on whether deportation flights to Rwanda will take off before the general election.Morgan said to the prime minister on TalkTV: “I’ll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity you don’t...

France and UK also agree to deploy more drones and sea barriers to stop small boats crossing ChannelUK security experts will help France to protect the Paris Olympics in a sign of closer cooperation, the Home Office has said.Both governments also plan to deploy more drones and sea barriers to prevent small boats carrying asylum seekers from crossing the Channel. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Home Office accused of causing undue suffering as it admits mistake and says correspondence should be disregardedAsylum seekers have been left “in despair” after receiving letters sent in error by the Home Office telling them they faced removal to Rwanda, the Guardian has learned.Labour accused the government of being in disarray after Home Office sources admitting to sending the letters out by mistake....

Opposition politician Frank Ntwali says country is unsafe and Sunak’s pursuance of policy ‘quite bizarre’A Rwandan opposition politician who narrowly survived an assassination attempt has condemned the UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Kigali.Frank Ntwali, chair of the exiled Rwanda National Congress (RNC) movement, said the country was unsafe and that Rishi Sunak’s persistence with the policy was “quite bizarre”. Continue reading...