A personal reflection by Grace Buckley
Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees – SFAR for short – a bit of a mouthful perhaps but a straightforward title for a network of faith communities seeking to act in support of refugees in Scotland. It tries to do what it says on the tin.
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The Refugee Survival Trust has launched a special festive appeal for their bus pass programme.
As you'll be aware, something as simple as access to public transport can be the reason that a refugee or asylum seeker is able to attend important meetings, go to the food bank, or even to meet friends. Being mobile is crucial to the asylum application process and to integration into life in Scotland. These bus passes are especially important in winter, when Scotland's notorious weather is at its worst!
Please consider donating a £6 bus pass.
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Pensioner presents every MP with collection of refugee stories
The Guardian newspaper features Michaela Fryson who has given 650 copies of the anthology A Country of Refuge to UK politicians in a bid to soften the hostile tone of public debate
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In our blog, Patricia Ferguson, Outreach Manager for SCIAF, looks at the refugee situation in Lebanon
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New initiative from Pax Christi
Pax Christi International recently convened a team of 10 young people from all over the world, to train to become peace journalists and report about the lives of refugees and asylum seekers. The training and discussions took place exclusively online. Following their training, each team member interviewed a person in their hometown or area who had to flee their home country.
Details on the Pax Christi website.
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New report from W-ASH, Asylum Seeker Housing Project.
The research confirms that living conditions for asylum seekers from 2015 to 2016 have not improved but worsened.
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On hearing of the proposed replacement centre for Dungavel it struck me that the description of it as a "short term holding facillity" indicated an intention to get asylum seekers out of Scotland quickly. If this is the intention it is indeed very worrying and perhaps detrimental to them being given a proper chance to have the necessary legal representation and protection. I add my voice therefore to those who question this proposed new holding centre and it's probable detrimental effects on asylum seekers who have sought refuge in Scotland.
With all good wishes
+ Joseph Toal
Photo shows Justice and Peace activists at their regular Dungavel solidarity gathering.
Photo courtesy Carol Clark
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Seeking Sanctuary has published a briefing on the Home Office Guidance on young people. The government has retrospectively changed to criteria for processing their claims. More than half of them will not even see a start to consideration of their situations. For more information and how to take action, see the Seeking Sanctuary website.
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A statement from the European Justice and Peace Commissions
Europe is at a crossroads: Will it show leadership based on its commitment to the values of human rights and solidarity, or will it choose to exclude refugees from access to dignified and safe life, giving way to nationalist and populist agendas? The Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions (“Justice and Peace Europe”) is calling upon the European institutions, EU Member States and other European countries to take responsibility in granting refugees access to asylum and a decent standard of living.
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With two months still to go, deaths of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean so far this year have hit a record high, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR detailed today. Expressing alarm at the situation, UNHCR reported that 3,740 lives had been lost so far in 2016, just short of the 3,771 reported for the whole of 2015. (UNHRC 25/10/16)
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The Home Office has refused to respond to official requests from the French authorities to accept unaccompanied child refugees stranded in Calais who are eligible to come to Britain, the British Red Cross has said. With the planned demolition of Calais’s refugee camp only weeks away, the Red Cross says the Home Office is turning down “take charge” requests by the French on often pedantic grounds. (Mark Townsend, Guardian)
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Work recently began on a wall in Calais, funded by the UK government, to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from crossing the Channel to Britain. Nearly simultaneously, the government announced that it would increase immigration tribunal fees by over 500%, erecting a different type of barrier—to access to justice. It was claimed that doing so would bring in an estimated £34 million in income annually and preserve the functioning of the tribunals. (Justine Stefanelli, UK Human Rights Blog)
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Britain is one of the worst countries in Europe at integrating asylum seekers into the labour market, unnecessarily increasing their dependency on the welfare system, a report has found. (Patrick Kingsley, Guardian,)
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Ten situations deteriorated in August 16 according to the latest CrisisWatch report. Deteriorated Situations: CAR, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Mali, Korean Peninsula, Kashmir, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Syria, Libya
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Closure of Dungavel centre and lack of planning mean people will be taken away from support networks, campaigners say. Vulnerable asylum seekers are at risk of being “funnelled” out of Scotland and away from family, friends and legal representation under detention plans that are being challenged by politicians and campaigners. (Libby Brooks, The Guardian, 29 Sept)
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In early September, the new Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill announced the closure of Dungavel, the only detention centre in Scotland. The centre will be replaced in late 2017 by a short-term holding facility at Glasgow Airport, where migrants will be held for a few days just before removal. (Jerome Phelps, Justice Gap,)
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It has been announced that the Home Office is re-evaluating the national ‘dispersal’ scheme after calls from local councils that it is not operating fairly enough. If successful, it should result in refugees being dispersed more evenly across different areas of Britain.
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Statement by Justice and Peace on the closure of Dungavel Removal Centre
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The Red Cross has been drafted in to act as a middleman between the Home Office and vulnerable asylum seekers being housed in 'horrific' conditions in Glasgow. Many are too scared to speak out about their accommodation, described as the worst in the UK. So the British Red Cross has now had to step in as a go-between, MPs have been told. (Kate Devlin, Herald, Scotland)
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Greek police routinely lock up unaccompanied children in small, overcrowded, and unhygienic cells for weeks and months, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The 27-page report, 'Why Are You Keeping Me Here?’: Unaccompanied Children Detained in Greece,' documents arbitrary and prolonged detention of children in violation of international and Greek law.
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ASYLUM seekers face rapid removal from Scotland and restrictions on their right to appeal deportation under plans to replace the notorious Dungavel holding centre with a "short-term" unit near Glasgow Airport, campaigners warn. (Kate Devlin, Herald Scotland)
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The Home Office has announced that it is to close Scotland's Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in 2017 and that it will build a new short-term holding facility near Glasgow Airport. Gary Christie, Scottish Refugee Council's Head of Communications, said: "Indefinite detention for immigration purposes is a UK scandal. While we are pleased to hear that this will no longer take place in Scotland, an end to long-term immigration detention must happen across the whole of the UK.
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The years of campaigning to get Dungavel closed have finally paid off. Great news! We'll need to keep a close eye on its replacement holding centre near Glasgow Airport, though. Anything designed to make deportations quicker and easier has to be legally and morally dubious. Reading between the lines, it looks like a cost-saving exercise by the Home Office rather than anything designed to make their treatment of asylum seekers any less oppressive.
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Work is about to begin on 'a big, new wall' in Calais as the latest attempt to prevent refugees and migrants jumping aboard lorries heading for the Channel port, the UK’s immigration minister has confirmed. Robert Goodwill told MPs on Tuesday that the four-metre high wall was part of a £17m package of joint Anglo-French security measures to tighten precautions at the port. (Alan Travis and Angelique Chrisafis, Guaridan)
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Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House is aware of UN estimates that approximately 17,000 children in our world are forced to flee their homes everyday due to wars, in the process experiencing haphazard and dangerous refuge, often having to miss out on their schooling, social welfare and health needs;
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Nine Situations Deteriorated in August 16: Central African Republic, Gabon, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Syria, Yemen. Improved Situations: Philippines, Colombia
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A new guide to ensure refugees’ right to quality accommodation is upheld has been issued to housing professionals. Published by the Scottish Refugee Council with the support of the Scottish government and the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, the updated guide aims to ensure that all refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland are treated with dignity and fairness.
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Pope Francis has created a new Dicastery to better minister to the needs of the men and women the Church is called to serve. The new “Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development” was instituted in a Motu Proprio published on Wednesday in the Osservatore Romano. The dicastery will come into effect as from 1 January 2017 and will be especially “competent in issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalized, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture”. (Vatican Radio)
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Asylum applications in the UK from main applicants increased by 41% to 36,465 in the year ending June 2016, the highest number of applications since the year ending June 2004 (39,746). Numbers of asylum applications in the first two quarters of 2016 (8,228 in January to March and 7,810 in April to June) have been considerably lower than in the last two quarters of 2015 (10,231 in July to September and 10,196 in October to December), although still higher than the same quarters a year earlier.
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Please sign the UNHCR petition
Each day war forces thousands of families to flee their homes. People like you, people like me.
To escape the violence, they leave everything behind – everything except their hopes and dreams for a safer future. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency believes that all refugees deserve to live in safety. Add your name to the #WithRefugees petition to send a clear message to governments that they must act with solidarity and shared responsibility.
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Destitute asylum-seeking and migrant families are increasingly being told that their young children and babies can only be accommodated if they are taken into care, according to charities working to support them. (Karin Goodwin, The National)
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Labour MP Yvette Cooper has written to the home secretary about the plight of child refugees at risk in French camps. Around 20 of the estimated 88,000 unaccompanied child refugees in Europe have so far arrived in the UK, a tiny figure that has prompted harsh criticism. (Jessica Elgot the Guardian)
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A year after hundreds of thousands of refugees snaked their way across South Eastern Europe and onto global television screens, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of poignant visibility. Europe's migrant crisis is at the very least numerically worse than it was last year. More people are arriving and more are dying. But the twist is that, compared with last year, a lot of it is out of sight. (Reuters)
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SNP and Labour MPs have called on Theresa May to visit asylum seekers’ accommodation in Glasgow, following allegations vulnerable people are being housed in "horrific" conditions. In her six years as Home Secretary the Prime Minister did not inspect any of the properties used across the UK. Now members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee have urged her to make the journey before a multi-million pound contract is extended. (Kate Devlin, The Herald)
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A new report published by the Home Affairs Select Committee, on 27 July 2016, an influential group of MPs have backed the Refugee Council’s call for child refugees who have reached Britain by themselves to be allowed to reunite with their parents.
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Most asylum seekers arrive in the UK to escape their country of origin for fears of persecution, where the idea of state protection is unrealistic and or internal relocation is a possibility. Many have no intent or motive to come to the UK and only consider where they will be safe away from their perpetrators. They hope for a better future but instead, some spend their years in the UK stuck in an inefficient administrative process, in receipt of minimal support and suffering from emotional stress as a result of their traumas coupled with their inability to ever return to a life of normality. (Sangeetha Vairavamoorthy)
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Eight situations deteriorated in July 2106: South Sudan, Mali, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Armenia, Turkey, Syria.
July saw protracted conflicts intensify, attempts to resolve them derail and political crises erupt or deepen.
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A housing firm accused of providing asylum seekers with “horrific” accommodation has raked in nearly £200,000 profits. Orchard and Shipman, which has a £60million contract from Serco to provide accommodation on behalf of the Home Office, yesterday published accounts that revealed it made £192,911 in the 18 months from April 2014 to the end of September 2015. (Karin Goodwin, The National)
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The UK is shirking its responsibility to care for thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, dismissing them as “somebody else’s problem”, a report has concluded. Unaccompanied migrant children have been systematically failed by the EU and its member states, including the UK, and as a result, thousands are living in “squalid” conditions, treated with suspicion by authorities and preyed upon by traffickers and people smugglers, according to the House of Lords EU home affairs subcommittee report. (Amelia Gentleman, Guardian)
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One of the Coalition government’s first - and best - policies was to end the detention of children in immigration removal centres. But now it looks like May’s government is about to reverse that process. A written ministerial statement yesterday announced the closure of Cedars, a removal centre for families run by the charity Barnardo’s. Instead, the people who would have been sent there will be moved to a “discrete unit” at Tinsley House removal centre, near Gatwick. Discrete or not, the children of those families will be back in an immigration detention centre.
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Almost 5,600 refugees and asylum seekers have been destitute in the UK in the first half of this year, according to British Red Cross figures released on 8 July. The number of people supported by the charity’s destitution services, which include the provision of food parcels, clothing and small amounts of emergency cash, has risen by 16% since the same period in 2015, during which 4,679 people were helped.
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Last month, the High Court made an important ruling which could transform the futures of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK. Refugee Council Policy Manager Judith Dennis explains what happened and why the ruling is so important.
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Shot by refugees fleeing to Europe to be broadcast on BBC 2, 11-13 July at 9pm.
A ground breaking new documentary gives cameras to refugees fleeing to Europe. The resulting three-part film takes you with them every step – from suburban flat to leaky dinghy to suffocating container. (The Guardian)
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A Conservative minister has pledged to investigate reports of the ill-treatment of asylum seekers in Glasgow. Home Office minister James Brokenshire said that he would probe claims that some cannot lock the doors of their accommodation. The vow came as SNP MP Chris Stephens raised concerns about what have been described as 'horrific' conditions. (Kate Devlin, The Herald Scotland)
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Five situations deteriorated in June 16: Central African Republic, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, Turkey. Improved Situations: Colombia
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In Paris on 25 June 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the countries of Europe as well as the international community at large to work towards a compassionate and humane solution to the problem of refugees and migrants, emphasizing that he counts on the European Union and Britain to continue as strong partners of the UN on development and humanitarian issues. (Human Wrongs Watch)
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Much has been made of the impact the Brexit vote is likely to have on EU migrants and their free movement in and out of Britain. But the impact on refugees, often the most vulnerable migrants of all, should not be ignored. (Lucy Gregg Politics.co.uk)
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Anyone who's ever worked in a pub knows it can be pretty impossible to always guess someone's age correctly just by looking at them. But that's exactly what the Home Office has been trying to do to unaccompanied child refugees and the consequences have been calamitous. (Judith Dennis Politics.co.uk)
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UNHCR Global Trends report finds 65.3 million people, or one person in 113, were displaced from their homes by conflict and persecution in 2015.
Wars and persecution have driven more people from their homes than at any time since UNHCR records began, according to a new report released today by the UN Refugee Agency. The report, entitled Global Trends, noted that on average 24 people were forced to flee each minute in 2015, four times more than a decade earlier, when six people fled every 60 seconds.
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A joint statement from Scotland’s faith communities
On International Refugee Day 2016 we offer our solidarity to those seeking sanctuary, and we encourage and commend faith communities who work with refugees to provide hospitality and to seek to build mutual understanding.
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Grace Buckley J&P Scotland's European Representative, recently took part in a Working Party on Human Rights and Migration, in Athens. This was two days of work and discussion and a day of visits to Caritas Greece/Athens refugee projects. Here Grace tells of one aspect of the visit
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Deteriorated Situations: Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Turkey, Venezuela. Improved Situations: None
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The Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre has published a timely new Briefing that sets out concrete recommendations for addressing the needs of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and Child Refugees arriving in Scotland.
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A group of MPs has made a series of recommendations calling on the Government to improve the support and protection it gives to asylum seekers and refugees. In its latest commentary on the quarterly immigration statistics, the Home Affairs Select Committee make a number of criticisms of the way the Government is currently treating asylum seekers and refugees. Among these criticisms is a call for the Home Office to rethink the way they treat unaccompanied asylum seeking children when they reach 18, with the Committee saying children should not be sent back to dangerous countries. (Ekklesia)
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Published Thursday 26th March 2016
Asylum applications from main applicants increased by 38% to 34,687 in the year ending March 2016, the highest number of applications since the year ending September 2004 (36,305). The largest number of applications for asylum came from nationals of Iran (4,305), followed by Eritrea (3,321), Iraq (2,805), Sudan (2,769), Pakistan (2,669) and Syria (2,539). Including dependants, the number of asylum applications increased by 30% to 41,563 in the year ending March 2016. There was around 1 dependant for every 5 main applicants.
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On 12 May 2016, the Immigration Bill 2015-16 received Royal Assent, which means it now becomes the 2016 Immigration Act. In those words, a great deal is bound up. What’s been won, and what’s been lost. Read the 'Right to Remain' blog on the Immigration Act.
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Please sign the petition to the UK Govt.
The Government has proposed a massive increase in the fees that immigrants and asylum seekers pay to have their immigration/asylum cases heard in court. This huge rise in fee (eg. from £140 to £800 for a hearing in court) will prevent individuals from being able to take their cases to court.
If the Home Office makes an incorrect decision on someone's case, this can usually be appealed in court.
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THE “scandal” of refugee children made destitute after winning the right to stay in Scotland has been laid bare in new figures. The Refugee Survival Trust (RST) awards lifeline grants to asylum seekers and refugees cut off from support. (Kirsteen Paterson, The National)
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Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gambia, Iraq, Macedonia, Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Republic of Congo, Syria. April saw fighting escalate again in Syria and Afghanistan, and erupt in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian-backed separatists and Azerbaijani forces.
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Campaigning does work - thanks to all who emailed their MP and signed the petition
PM climbs down, saying he will not stand in way of amendment for UK to take in unaccompanied children already in Europe. David Cameron has given in to calls for the UK to accept unaccompanied refugee children from Greece, Italy and France in a bid to avoid defeat in the House of Commons. (The Guardian)
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Please email your MP
After a narrow defeat in the House of Commons by 18 votes on Monday 25 April, an amendment to the immigration bill will return to the House of Commons most probably the week beginning 9 May. Please email your MP immediately asking them to support this amendment, which will ask the Government to resettle “a specified number” of children in consultation with local councils.
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Please sign this petition as a matter of urgency. The Government should accept the call to give sanctuary to child refugees who are alone and at risk in Europe.
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Thirteen aid and development agencies have come together to say that 'while the UK government has been a leader in providing assistance to countries hosting large numbers of refugees, it has fallen short of its moral responsibility to provide safe routes to protection for people seeking refuge in the UK, and has failed to advocate for an approach that protects the rights of all people on the move'.
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Europe’s leading human rights body has issued a stinging indictment of the EU’s refugee deal with Turkey, which it said at worst exceeds the limits of what is permissible under international law. A report from the Council of Europe’s assembly listed numerous concerns on human rights, from keeping migrants in overcrowded and insanitary detention centres on the Greek islands to inadequate legal protection for people seeking to appeal against rejection of an asylum claim. (Jennifer Rankin, Guardian, 20/04/2016)
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In the desert, the smugglers lace their water with petrol so the smuggled won’t gulp it down and cost more. Sometimes the trucks they’re packed into stall crossing the Sahara; they have to jump out to push, and some are left behind when the trucks drive off again. (Anders Lustgarten The Guardian)
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Contact your MP to ask them to support two key Lords Amendments on detention
The Immigration Bill continues to make its way through Parliament and on 25 April returns to the House of Commons where MPs will consider amendments made during its passage through the House of Lords. There are two key amendments regarding detention: Lords Amendment 84 and 85. (Scottish Detainee Visitors)
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At least 95,000 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in Europe last year, four times the numbers for 2014, Bureau research can reveal. The huge increase was discovered by the Bureau during an investigation into the level of migration among unaccompanied under-18 year olds in Europe and the stark inconsistencies in the way they are treated. (Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
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The Government has deported three times as many teenagers to countries ravaged by war and poverty than ministers have previously admitted, figures seen by The Independent reveal. Charities and politicians have warned the 'life or death' decisions of whether to deport young people are being mishandled by a 'callous' Home Office without a grip on the facts. (Jon Stone The Independent)
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The Home Office has proposed a new policy to protect vulnerable people including pregnant women (‘Adults at Risk’ policy), but there are concernsthat it is very similar to the previous policy, which failed to protect pregnant women. We believe the only way to make sure pregnant women are not detained is to implement Stephen Shaw’s recommendation and to introduce an absolute ban on them being detained.
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Eight Deteriorated Situations in March 2016: Belgium, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Western Sahara
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The Scottish Refugee Council is calling on politicians to build a better future for refugees in Scotland. Their recently published manifesto, sets out five recommendations for the new Scottish Government to be elected in May 2016.
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At the recent special summit on Syrian refugees, the UK Government shamefully failed to respond to the UN’s call to offer more Syrian families safe passage. But it’s not over yet.
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The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has published a Memorandum addressed to the UK Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, in which he condemns the use of anti migrant language and rhetoric by Ministers including David Cameron and Theresa May, criticises discriminatory and disproportionate measures against migrants and expresses disappointment with the UK’s lack of solidarity with other EU Member States
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Email your MP now
Imagine you and your family were fleeing war and terror but you had no legal way to escape your country and find safety. No other country would give you a visa for travel and that would mean you couldn’t simply get on a plane and escape. This is the reality many refugees searching for safety are faced with. They have virtually no options for safe, legal international travel.
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Eight Deteriorated Situations in February 2016: Afghanistan, Chad, Korean Peninsula, Mozambique, Somalia, Turkey, Venezuela, Zimbabwe
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Join Justice and Peace at the Stand Up To Racism March and Rally on March 19th. Assemble at 11am at George Square, Glasgow. There will be a number of speakers on the day.
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Asylum seekers in Scotland have allegedly been locked out of their homes in breach of agreed eviction guidelines. An ex-employee of housing provider Orchard & Shipman (O&S) said this "brutal" practice can leave them destitute and homeless. BBC Scotland has also seen company emails instructing staff to "remove individuals" from specific addresses. The housing company has strongly denied breaching guidelines. (BBC Scotland)
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Please ask your MP to sign this EDM
That this House expresses its serious concern about the allegations in The Times Scotland on Thursday 18 February of dehumanising treatment, neglect and poor standards of accommodation for those seeking asylum in the UK who have been dispersed to Glasgow; notes that these allegations pertain to Orchard and Shipman in particular, who have been sub-contracted by Serco, itself under contract from the Home Office
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Detention/Adults: The number of people entering detention in 2015 increased by 7% to 32,446 from 30,364 in the previous year. Over the same period there was a 12% increase in those leaving detention (from 29,674 to 33,189). As at the end of December 2015, 2,607 people were in detention, 25% lower than the number recorded at the end of December 2014 (3,462). The fall may be partially attributed to the closure of Dover IRC in October 2015 and changes to the detained fast track asylum process.
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The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern at recent restrictive practices adopted in a number of European countries that are placing additional undue hardships on refugees and asylum-seekers across Europe, creating chaos at several border points, and putting particular pressure on Greece as it struggles to deal with larger numbers of people in need of accommodation and services. (Ekklesia)
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The Scottish Refugee Council has called for an investigation into allegations about the way asylum seekers are treated and housed in Glasgow. It follows claims in The Times newspaper that refugees have been kept in dirty and dangerous homes and have felt threatened and humiliated. The allegations include the case of a mother and baby housed in a cockroach-infested property in Glasgow.
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Ask David Cameron to save lives by giving refugees safe routes to protection
3,772 people drowned last year while trying to find safety in Europe and 410 have died already in 2016. Refugees in Europe are stuck at borders in the freezing cold waiting for protection, families are separated and 10,000 children have gone missing. The world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War and the number of refugees worldwide is continuing to rise.
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Thousands of young people who sought refuge in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum-seekers have been deported to repressive regimes and countries partly controlled by Isis and the Taliban, the Home Office has admitted. Over the past nine years 2,748 young people – many of whom had spent formative years in the UK, forging friendships and going to school – have been returned to countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria. (Maeve McClenaghan, The Independent)
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Deteriorated Situations: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Korean Peninsula, Yemen
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In our time, migration is growing worldwide. Refugees and people fleeing from their homes challenge individuals and communities, and their traditional ways of life; at times they upset the cultural and social horizons which they encounter. Increasingly, the victims of violence and poverty, leaving their homelands, are exploited by human traffickers during their journey towards the dream of a better future. If they survive the abuses and hardships of the journey, they then have to face latent suspicions and fear.
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First, the Government accept Mr Shaw’s recommendations to adopt a wider definition of those at risk, including victims of sexual violence, individuals with mental health issues, pregnant women, those with learning difficulties, post-traumatic stress disorder and elderly people, and to recognise the dynamic nature of vulnerabilities. It will introduce a new “adult at risk” concept into decision-making on immigration detention with a clear presumption that people who are at risk should not be detained, building on the existing legal framework.
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An independent review into the welfare of immigration detainees commissioned by the home secretary has called for ministers to reduce “boldly and without delay” the 30,000 people detained each year. The report by Stephen Shaw, the former prisons and probation ombudsman, calls for a complete ban on the detention of pregnant women in immigration centres such as Yarl’s Wood. He says there should also be a “presumption against detention” of victims of rape and sexual violence, people with learning difficulties, and those with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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A record number of asylum seekers in Britain are being left destitute, and planned legislation could plunge thousands more into poverty, according to the British Red Cross.The charity said it had supported more than 9,000 refugees and asylum seekers who were destitute last year, compared with 7,700 in 2014. The youngest was less than one year old and the oldest was 81
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5 actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and none improved in December 2015, according to CrisisWatch 149. Deteriorated Situations: Afghanistan, Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Niger
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