Asylum: the peers’ revolt

Their Lordships speak out: deportations to Iran must end

Britain must radically change its immigration policy and end immediately the deportation of failed asylum-seekers who fear persecution in Iran, a group of leading peers will tell the Government today.

The call for a moratorium on asylum removals is a direct response to the plight of Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian teenager facing execution if he returns to Iran, whose case has been taken up by The Independent.

UK Asylum statistics October/November/December 2008

Removals down 25%, asylum applications up 19% on the same period in 2007

Detention:

There were 2,095  Persons recorded as being in detention in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers as at 29 December 2007.

Of these: 1,455 had claimed asylum at some stage 69%

1,435 were held at Immigration Service Removal Centres, and 20 at Immigration Short Term Holding Facilities.  

Home Office grants 19,000 asylum seekers permission to remain

More than 19,000 asylum seekers, some of whose cases date back more than 10 years, have finally been told they can stay in the country, the Home Office said last night.

They are among the first tranche of 52,000 cases that have been looked at as part of a Home Office “legacy” drive to clear a backlog of between 400,000 and 450,000 files.

The disclosure was made as the Home Office embarrassingly announced that urgent immigration background checks on all its private security guards had been ordered after an illegal migrant was identified last Friday working at the department’s Marsham Street headquarters in London.

Call for immigrant amnesty in UK

Half a million illegal immigrants should be given the right to stay in Britain, a think tank has said. The Institute of Public Policy Research says such an amnesty would bring in £1bn in extra taxes, and save costs of £4.7bn needed to deport people.

It is urging Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to adopt the move, saying a large scale deportation would never happen.

the legacy questionnaire

Dear All,

Please find a link below to the Refugee Council’s briefing on the legacy questionnaires that has been produced, it’s quite sel explanatory.

As regards to what the Refugee COuncil can do in the region, we have established a referral system to solicitors so that anybody who receives a questionnaire will have legal aid to fill it up.

Please ask anybody you know to come to the office on 1 Dewsbury Road to be referred to a solicitor and get further information on these questionnaires.

Again, please bare in mind that this IS NOT AN AMNESTY EXCERCISE.

Thank you, please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ECFA4FFD-FCBD-47DC-BC82-C2B3CD373639/0/CaseResolutionJul07.pdf

If an asylum seeker you know receives a questionnaire from the UK Borders and Immigration Agency they MUST seek legal advice before completing it.

 We need to alert you to two sets of letters from the Home Office. One lot has already started dropping through people’s doors. This is the legacy questionnaire, and is part of the drive to deal with the backlog of pre Nam cases. It appears that families are being particularly targeted. If anyone you know receives such a questionnaire they MUST get legal advice before completing it, as it in effect becomes a constituent part of their asylum claim. If people do not have solicitors then get them to turn up at the Refugee Legal Centre (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) or Immigration Advisory Service  (Wednesday and Thursday) as early as they can of a morning , ideally to be seen at the drop in service.(The suggestion is 8.30 am.)

Who Is the World’s Worst Dictator?

There are more than 70 countries ruled by dictators who exercise arbitrary authority over their citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. These tyrants suppress the freedoms of speech and religion, and the right to a fair trial. Some also commit torture, execute opponents and starve their own people.

 PARADE’s annual list is drawn in part on reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the U.S. State Department. Notably, there are two leaders who did not make this year’s list: Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan, No. 8 last year, died in December; and Fidel Castro, No. 15, relinquished power in Cuba to his brother Raul on July 31. Among the newcomers are Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Vladimir Putin of Russia. Some who moved up in rank are Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei, Hu Jintao of China, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But by no means does this indicate that those whom they passed showed improvements.