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Families succeed in legal challenges after Home Office refused to decide on reunion applications without biometric dataFamilies in Gaza have won a legal case against the Home Office after a judge ruled the department’s decisions were a “disproportionate interference” in their right to a family life.Two challenges were brought against the Home Office in February this year after it refused to decide on family...

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: Visas created hastily to solve labour shortages expose people to ‘hyper-precarity’ and exploitationVisas created hastily to solve labour shortages as a result of Brexit have put workers at greater risk of modern slavery and exploitation, research has found.Strict conditions on agricultural and care visas created after Britain left the EU expose workers to “hyper-precarity” and increase their vulnerability to exploitation, a study by...

Twenty organisations including Refugee Council say children being failed and abused by Home OfficeFoster families and social workers are demanding an independent inquiry after it emerged that Home Office-employed staff forced refugee children to play a game to guess who would be the next one to be placed in foster care.In a letter published today in the Guardian, the British Association of Social Workers,...

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...

James Cleverly considering longer notice periods for large demos in England and Wales, says policing ministerUK politics live – latest updatesThe home secretary, James Cleverly, is considering further tightening the law around demonstrations, including a requirement for protesters to increase the amount of notice they give police before large demonstrations, a cabinet minister has said.Extending the notice period from the current six days to...

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...

Overseas students seek compensation from Home Office for unlawful detention and loss of earnings after it cancelled visasA group of overseas students who were wrongly accused of cheating in the English language tests they were required to take to renew their study visas have launched legal proceedings against the Home Office, seeking compensation for unlawful detention and loss of earnings.The government has made payments...

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...

Exclusive: Test case likely against UK’s seasonal worker scheme as charity alleges breach of right to be protected from labour exploitationWhen Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.He had left Indonesia less than four months earlier, in July...

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...

Exclusive: Leonard Farruku’s former roommate was offered no support after being relocated to another room without belongingsThe man who was found dead on the Bibby Stockholm barge after it was suspected he had killed himself lay undiscovered for up to 12 hours, his former roommate has claimed.Speaking publicly for the first time since Leonard Farruku, 27, an asylum seeker from Albania, was found dead...

Leonard Farruku’s family ‘facing a double tragedy with not being able to have his body back home’ in AlbaniaThe family of a man believed to have killed himself on the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, say they have had to turn to crowdfunding to bring him back to Albania for burial.Leonard Farruku, 27, was found unresponsive onboard the vessel commissioned by the...

Siyabonga Twala, who has a British son, was barred from returning to UK a year ago and remains in limbo in AnkaraA man who remains stuck in Turkey a year after he was barred from returning to the UK with his British son has applied for a judicial review of the Home Office’s handling of his case.Siyabonga Twala has been in limbo in Ankara...