Migration news roundup 12 September 2022

• Stories that inspired us this week
• International news
• UK borders and migration policy
• Specific migrant groups
• Cohesion and integration

Stories that inspired us this week

‘Welcoming the stranger’ has been a highlighted theme as Paddington Bear was seen among tributes to the Queen at Windsor. Here is a reminder of when the Queen hosted Paddington for tea. (Sources: ITV, Youtube)

Festival goers, hear about events old and new:

• The 10-day Intercultured Festival is coming to Bradford in October – featuring Hope The Boat art installation, Syrian cookery, Pahari poetry and Arabian Nights storytelling. (Sources: Telegraph and Argus, Eventbrite)
• The ‘Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas’ brings researchers and comedians together; Syrian academic Lina Fadel delivered an Edinburgh Fringe show about refugee narratives and cultural humility. (Source: The Conversation)

70 year old Chris is running the Yorkshire Three Peaks to support Ukrainian families in Craven. (Source: Telegraph and Argus)

Have you been to CAWA Coffee? Read about how three Ukrainian women have been settling in Sheffield. (Source: BBC)

International news

Following massive flooding of Pakistan affecting 33 million people, UNHCR is supporting displaced people including Afghan refugee communities. (Source: UNHCR)

Shukriya, Habibullah and Shahin tell stories of travelling from Afghanistan and what they now face in Turkey. In the US, some Afghans could be granted a path to long term settlement if the Afghan Adjustment Act passes; many were granted a temporary ‘humanitarian parole’ to quickly enter the US. (Sources: the Guardian, Al Jazeera)

What happened to Greece’s notorious Moria refugee camp after the devastating fires two years ago? Hear some stories from the residents. (Source: the Guardian)

UK borders and migration policy

The new Truss government brings about significant changes, including:

• Refugee Minister Lord Harrington resigned, suggesting that his role may no longer be needed. (Source: Local Government Chronicle)
• Some suggest that Truss’ ministerial appointments demonstrate a success story of post-colonial African migration to the UK with four Cabinet ministers whose parents migrated here. (Source: The Times)
• Newly appointed Home Secretary Suella Braverman previously endorsed opting out of the European Convention on Human Rights and plans to prioritise preventing migrants crossing the Channel. (Sources: the Guardian, Free Movement, Independent)

Further news coverage focuses on Albanians crossing the Channel, with comment from Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council (listen from minute 55:40) and interviews with Albanian professionals living in the UK. Before resigning as Home Secretary, Priti Patel announced plans to restrict modern slavery legislation with one apparent aim to reduce the number of Albanians identified as potential victims. (Sources: BBC Radio 4, Telegraph)

As the Rwanda scheme is examined in the High Court (Source: Sky News):

• The court heard that officials initially ruled out a migration partnership arrangement with Rwanda due to human rights concerns, while UN representatives stated the country is not a safe destination for people seeking asylum and the scheme would breach the Refugee Convention. (Source: Independent)
• There are reports of refugees previously losing their lives in Rwanda at the hands of the authorities. (Source: Byline Times)
• This article shares perspectives of Syrians seeking asylum here who fear removal to Rwanda. (Source: the Guardian)
• Protestors at a rally in York opposed the plans. (Source: York Press)

A new legal briefing explains inadmissibility in asylum claims. (Source: Free Movement)

A shortage of personal assistants to support disabled people is partly blamed on Brexit; care workers from outside the UK need to be sponsored by an employer to get a shortage occupation list visa. (Source: BBC)

Specific migrant groups

Great Yarmouth Borough Council launched a legal challenge against the Home Office to prevent people seeking asylum being accommodated in a local hotel. (Source: BBC)

Recommendations for the Home Office to improve the National Transfer Scheme (for ensuring councils provide care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children) include ensuring that children’s services have sufficient resource and capacity, and children going missing are understood as being at a high risk of exploitation. Relatedly, there is concern about government pressure on councils to accept responsibility for more unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and to act more quickly to move them from hotels into more permanent accommodation. (Sources: ECPAT UK, Local Government Chronicle)

Enquiries to Refugee Education UK increased by 45% over the last year as refugee and asylum-seeking children face a lack of support in advancing to higher education. The charity says hopeful students face ‘language barriers, complex enrolment processes and a lack of awareness’ in institutions about asylum applications.’ (Source: Independent)

While this report focuses on experiences of British survivors of modern slavery rather than people from outside the UK, it provides insight into the National Referral Mechanism system for providing support. (Source: Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre)

Cohesion and integration

PoliNations festival is celebrating migration and cultural diversity through the lens of British horticulture in Birmingham during September. (Source: ITV News)

This article looks back at the contribution of migrant workers to the NHS from the Windrush generation onwards. (Source: Independent)

Recent migrants, who moved to the UK in the last 5 years, are nearly three times more likely to be privately renting than the average for all migrants, as highlighted in a briefing exploring migrants and housing in the UK. The briefing compares housing types such as owning your own home, renting privately and social housing for different migrant groups and people born in the UK. (Source: Migration Observatory)

Concerns have been raised that diversity among court judges in terms of gender and ‘BAME’ representation is in decline in the UK. (Source: The Conversation)