"Britain has decided that the girl who fought the Taliban’s agenda, who learned English in secret, who turned down a forced marriage, who won her place, is an asylum risk.
Her name is Bahar. She is 18 years old. She did everything we asked of her."
9 in 10 refugee family reunion visas go to women and children. Yet, last year, the government suspended this vital route, leaving more women stuck in dangerous situations, vulnerable to exploitation, and away from their loved ones.
#Tomorrow
1/2 In a new pilot scheme, the Home Secretary will offer money to families who have been refused asylum to leave the country. Those who decline-including children-will risk losing their accommodation and face enforced removal. Families are given just seven days to decide.
The UN Refugee Agency has flagged several areas where the UK Home Office could improve the quality of asylum interviews inc. training, credibility assessments, interpretation standards + interview support tools.
The Home Office has accepted 7 of the 10 recommendations. www.unhcr.org/uk/publicati...
2/2 Yet, with the majority of people in detention ultimately released back into the community, and Channel crossing numbers rising, the question remains: what is the point of this government inflicting such harm?
1/2 Last year, this government expanded detention capacity and locked away more people in detention, exposing them to significant risk of harm. This includes people fleeing war, violence, and persecution who have just survived a treacherous sea journey under the UK-France deal.
📢“With almost no safe or humanitarian routes available, student visas are often one of the only lawful ways people can reach safety and continue their education.”
@minnierahman.bsky.social in @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social
www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-accu...
"Control without credibility"
My attempt at a history of the politics and economics of immigration to the UK since the Brexit referendum, and a look to the future
www.iza.org/publications...
We are hiring a Communications and Campaigns Officer.
If you find detention harmful and cruel;
If you stand in solidarity with migrants;
If you're committed to amplifying their voices in today's migration debates;
Apply now! You might be just who we need: www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/detenti...
What is the Danish immigration model, and does it work?
"This type of indirect deterrence policy is … basically punishing those who have already arrived in order to send a signal to prospective asylum seekers yet to come."
www.opendemocracy.net/en/what-is-d...
We have written to the four airlines carrying out deportations under the cruel and inhumane UK-France agreement, along with many other British and French groups - calling on these airlines to cease their complicity.
They are: Air France, Titan Airways, Albastar Airlines& Corendon Airlines
📣 Boost your tribunal skills!
Join JCWI’s Presenting Appeals at the First-tier Tribunal training.
🗓 19 March
⏰ 11:00–13:00
💼 For immigration & asylum advisers seeking practical guidance.
📍 Online reserve your spot today!
www.training.jcwi.org.uk
The Home Office wants to handcuff children during forced removals of families.
This level of violence & dehumanisation must never be normalised, our spokesperson Griff Ferris warns.
Stand up for your neighbours.
Organise locally.
Boycott border profiteers.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
We are devastated to see what is happening in the Middle East/West Asia and stand in solidarity with all those affected.
As violence escalates in the region, our government is rolling back rights for refugees and refusing to open safe routes for people.
Stripping support from people seeking safety while continuing to ban most people from working is outrageous.
People seeking asylum receive £1.40 a day in hotels, or £7 a day in houses. These poverty-inducing levels of support push people into exploitation and irregular work to survive.
The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood sure has put on a show…
But how much is really serious & how much is just a theatre of cruelty?
Here’s the TRUTH about this week’s asylum changes
youtu.be/w6Nr4ccjMlM?...
This article was amended on 5 March 2026. An earlier version said low-skilled workers would “receive immediate access to welfare and social housing” if Labour did not make them wait longer to apply for settlement. In fact, settlement status only gives people the eligibility to apply for welfare and social housing, it does not give them instant or automatic access to such benefits. This has been clarified. From breaking news to huge investigative proje
Guardian has now [after my complaint] corrected Mahmood's deliberate & incendiary false claim settlement gives immigrants "immediate access to welfare and social housing".
Good for Gdn but embarrassing/shameful that Home Secretary deliberately misled the public for political gain like this.
I think it is a major flaw of the Starmer/Mahmood government that, by a slogan presenting the 2019-24 Conservatives as "open borders" (numbers) they simply fail to understand the asylum/hotels failure (a botched *closed* to asylum experiment that failed to deter) so are repeating/reintroducing it
Sunder is correct here - the headline figure is quite misleading
Here are the profiles *over time*
Both care workers *and* dependents are fiscally positive for their first *20 years*.
Dependents are ultimately negative but only when old/sick/retired.
So if I’ve understood correctly, we’re going to carry on supporting illegal wars whilst also blaming people who flee the ensuing chaos and destruction
🧵This is the biggest attack on the rights of recognised refugees in recent memory & is reminiscent of the worst failed policies of the disastrous last govt.
People seeking safety need security in order to start over, but this govt seems to want to forget that there are people at the centre of this.
It was an absolute pleasure to appear on The Queer(y)ing Asylum Podcast recently to talk about my book Queering Refugee Law with Dr Diego García Rodríguez.
The episode is accessible now via Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/211r...
Your 3-minute guide to today’s asylum policy changes
📄NEW: Today, the Home Secretary has announced that from now on, refugees who apply for and are granted asylum in the UK will be given 2.5 years’ temporary refugee status.
While there are still many unanswered questions, we have shared what we know so far, and what we think about it in a blog post:
"The system tells us to shrink ouselves. To be less of who we are in order to belong."
Join the Mass Lobby for Migrant Rights on 11th March. Raise your voice. www.praxis.org.uk/mass-lobby-a...
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood shifts government language from addressing legitimate concerns to "legitimate grievances" and the legitimacy of "resentment" of asylum seekers & spending
She does contrast this with a view she will exclude as illegitimate, which is "hating everyone who is not white"
The discourse seems to have lost some time ago the point that coming without permission if you are a refugee is actually something we are committed under international law to accepting and responding positively to, not something Ministers ahould be rejecting and stoking resentment towards.
Refugees do not choose to come here - by definition, they were forced to flee.
Scrapping permanent status will trap refugees in a state of insecurity and fear. This is inhumane cruelty.
Doing so says some people deserve fewer rights - and that inequality is law.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Harsh asylum rules do not stop people fleeing war or abuse.
Temporary status only traps traumatised people in a constant state of uncertainty, denying people the stability they need to rebuild their lives.
This is the opposite of the protection our asylum system should provide.
