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Mohammad Ganjkhanlou cannot take his bike onboard and says he ‘will not have the chance to rebuild’ his racing careerA gold medal-winning elite cyclist who is seeking asylum in the UK fears his career will be derailed because he has been told by the Home Office he must move to the Bibby Stockholm barge and cannot take his bike on board.Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, 26, an...

Glossy promotional leaflet handed out to asylum seekers detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policyAsylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: “I’m being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?”The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime minister’s £500m policy and it emerged that dozens...

Dozens of demonstrators in Peckham surround coach before it can take people to barge in DorsetA coach sent to collect asylum seekers and take them to the Bibby Stockholm barge has been surrounded by protesters in south London.Dozens of demonstrators in Peckham have blocked a coach before it was able to pick up passengers by surrounding it on all sides. Continue reading...

Refugee Council sounds warning after children wrongly issued with notices of intent by Home OfficeUK politics – latest updatesLone child asylum seekers are at risk of being sent to Rwanda because the Home Office has wrongly classified some as adults, it has been claimed.The Refugee Council, which works with these children, has warned of the risk after more than a dozen of the children...

Minister says ‘officers are used to this’, as figures suggest Home Office is in contact with only 38% of people it wants to removeThe Home Office is “used to” losing contact with asylum seekers, a UK government minister has said, after official figures suggested thousands of people it hoped to deport to Rwanda had stopped reporting.The impact assessment on the Home Office’s website on...

Exclusive: Action by organisation supporting migrants argues new rules are discriminatoryAn organisation that supports migrant workers has launched a legal challenge against the government’s new policy to bar care workers from bringing children and partners to the UK, warning that it is “tearing families apart”.According to Migrants at Work, care workers have to choose between family life with their children and partners or getting...

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a recordA refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Officials will be taught how to carry out deportations, including how to handle people who physically resistThe Home Office has hired an aircraft hangar and aeroplane body to train security staff on how to deport people, as the UK government increases the number of people it forcibly removes each year.Officials confirmed on Friday the department had increased its capacity to train officials to carry...