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31 Jul, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Exclusive: The Home Office set up a website targeting asylum seekers with “misleading” claims to deter them from journeying to the UK

It created a fake organisation called On The Move, which claims to provide "free, reliable and important information”

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Links to the website were pushed out to asylum seekers in France and Belgium as part of a £23k govt social media campaign

The website, using a .org domain associated with charities, contains no government branding and does not disclose any link to the Home Office
The website was set up in April 2020, using a private registration tool that conceals the owners' personal information

 It invites asylum seekers to email On The Move with questions, without knowing that they would be contacting the British government
The website contains misleading claims about returns and prosecutions

A page on “safe and legal alternatives” does not detail how to seek asylum in the UK or reach Britain

Instead, it focuses on France, Belgium and other EU countries, or how to “return home voluntarily”
The Home Office said that posts linking to the website were made from its “clearly branded” official Facebook and Instagram accounts as part of a campaign from December to April

But the website remains online without any link to the government or official branding
Dan O’Mahoney, the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said campaign "highlighted the risk of making deadly journeys and providing information on claiming asylum in the safe country they are in. We make no excuse for providing important and potentially lifesaving information.”

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More from @lizziedearden

Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
31 Jul
After I put questions about the website to the Home Office, the first line of its response was: "The Independent’s claims are wrong and misleading"

They hadn't seen my article, I hadn't even written it
The story was sparked by an FOI by Press Association's excellent @MikeRDrummond on the cost of Home Office social media posts trying to deter migrants

It included screengrabs of the ads in its response where the 'On the Move website link can be seen if you zoom in
It was a struggle to get the grabs as the Home Office didn't publish the response on thr FOI section of its website

I asked the FOI department for it and it kicked me to the press office. The press office sent me spending figures but cropped the FOI to exclude the grabs
Read 4 tweets
Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
31 Jul
The government can no longer strip suspected Isis members of their British citizenship without telling them, the High Court has ruled

The power has become a major part of the UK’s efforts to prevent jihadis returning from Syria

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
In a challenge bought by a woman known as D4 - who is being held in the same camp as Shamima Begum - Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled that the decision to remove her British citizenship was “void and of no effect“ because she was not notified, and that she remains a UK national
The judgment found the government had gone beyond its legal powers by removing a requirement to tell people who are being stripped of their nationality in 2018

“Parliament did not give the home secretary power to make regulations that treat notice as having been given to the...
Read 5 tweets
Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
27 Jul
Exclusive: Britain’s most senior police officers were not consulted about Boris Johnson’s new plan to “beat crime” – or even aware it was being drawn up

The media were sent a copy of the document before police chiefs received it this morning

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Victims' advocates were also not consulted on the 50-page plan, which refers to victims more than 100 times

It is believed to have been written by the government in a matter of days, and contains some measures that had not been requested by criminal justice agencies or experts
Police chiefs were formally told the plan was coming in a briefing with the policing minister last night. “We received the plan today and will now be reviewing it carefully," they said

The Police Federation hit out at government "gimmicks" and learned about it in Sunday papers
Read 6 tweets
Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
27 Jul
Calls are mounting for the Home Office to publish its evaluation of a 2019 pilot to relax rules on blanket stop and search powers

The results have not been made public, but the new Beating Crime Plan makes the pilot's experimental measures permanent

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
The Home Office said an assessment showed "relaxing conditions on use of s60 gave police officers greater confidence to make use of the power, better reflected uncertainties officers face predicting serious violence, and acted as a deterrent" but hadn't decided if to publish it
Section 60 stop and search allows police to search anyone without suspicion in area where violence is expected and can only be used in certain conditions

Section 1 s&s is more common and can be carried out anywhere with reasonable suspicion someone is carrying weapons, drugs etc
Read 4 tweets
Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
27 Jul
Thousands of asylum seekers are waiting in northern France for a chance to cross to Britain amid record arrivals on small boats

According to Home Office figures, at least 2,000 migrants are currently massing around the Calais area

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Almost 9,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year-more than total for 2020

Authorities are concerned about a shift in tactics that may have been sparked by enforcement efforts around Calais, seeing migrants attempt longer and more dangerous crossings
Officials have also been documenting the arrival of much larger inflatable boats than the small dinghies commonly used

Overall asylum applications to the UK have fallen, but small boat crossings have risen dramatically after COVID caused a fall in freight and passenger traffic
Read 4 tweets
Lizzie Dearden Profile picture
5 Jul
Senior police officers have undermined the government's justification for controversial new laws to crack down on “noisy” protests, saying they did not ask for the powers

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is returning to parliament today

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
The government has defended its widely opposed proposals, telling journalists that the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Metropolitan Police had “been consulted and support these measures”

But the NPCC and Met say they did not ask to impose conditions based on noise
The govt also points to a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary that said police needed to better balance the rights of protesters and wider public, but the watchdog did not look at the proposed noise law

Senior police and crime commissioners are also opposed
Read 5 tweets

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