Human Rights

The Labour Party needs to go further with their right to work proposals for asylum seekers. They are not going far enough and employment will remain inaccessible for most asylum seekers if the jobs are restricted to the shortage occupation list. Generally, asylum seekers are not allowed to work unless they apply for permission. They can ask […]

Statement in Full: “MRN and JCWI believe that no one should be treated degradingly or have their lives put at risk because of where they happened to be born. That’s why we stand firmly against the policies set out in the Prime Minister’s immigration statement. Amongst the many inhumane measures he announced, we are particularly […]

The PM’s announcement yesterday contained no plans for an asylum visa system, no plans to protect the most vulnerable, no plans to save lives. Tragically, the very next day, we’re faced with further loss of life. This was predictable and preventable. No amount of security, pledges, rhetoric, promises, cooperation, hostility, is going to stop people […]

The government published its strategy statement on Legal Migration and Border Control, outlining its vision for the British border and legal migration system in the next three years. They plan to implement the strategy through the New Plan for Immigration, which came into force earlier this year and made significant amendments to the immigration system. Some main changes […]

As many as 13,000 people are thought to be held in modern slavery in the UK today, with up to 25% believed to be minors. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 sets out the framework for their protection. Under that Act, certain public authorities such as police and local authorities have a duty to notify the Secretary of […]

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees form the basic framework of international refugee law today, setting out who qualifies for refugee protection and who does not. But where does this framework for protection come from? In its most basic form, the regime […]

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the UK Home Office has announced numerous policy changes to deal with the stream of refugees fleeing Ukraine towards Europe. This stream of ever-changing information can be confusing and overwhelming. We try to sum up the different policy proposals in this post, with the caveat that they […]

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, over 1 million people have fled Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade the country on 24 February 2022. Where are they going, and what is the UK doing for them? Ukraine has a total population of about 44 million people. The vast majority […]

In a statement to the House of Commons this week, the government confirmed that they will not lift the ban that prevents asylum seekers from working whilst they await their application outcome in the UK. Since October 2018, over 250 charities, businesses, faith groups, think thanks and trade unions came together to campaign against the UK Government’s […]

What happened? Over the summer, thousands of migrants (estimates range from 5000 to 10000) arrived at the external borders of the EU through Belarus, near the Latvian, Polish and Lithuanian borders. They originated mostly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. In recent weeks, the amount of people appearing at the Polish-Belarusian border significantly increased. International […]

A Syrian family has brought legal action against Frontex, the European Union (EU) organisation charged with management and control of the Union’s external borders, for beach of their fundamental human rights. This is the first time that such a claim is brought to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The family, which includes […]

The UK Nationality and Borders Bill puts Afghans fleeing the Taliban at risk of being criminalized, warned UN representative for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor. Ms Pagliuchi-Lor said: “There is something ironic in the way we are so concerned about them [the Afghan refugees] while they are there, but we are ready not to […]

According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is defined as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and unable or, owing to such fear, […]

As the UK government rushes to pass its new Nationality and Borders Bill (which includes measures to penalise certain entry routes to the UK in breach of the 1951 Refugee Convention), refugees and asylum seekers are pushed further to the margins of British society. By keeping migrants and asylum seekers physically as far removed from the public as […]