BREAKING: The High Court has just ruled that the Home Secretary @SuellaBraverman's policy of placing unaccompanied children seeking asylum in hotels is unlawful in our case brought by @BrightonHoveCC.

Since December 2021 when the policy became systemic and routine the Home 1/ Secretary has exceeded the proper limits of her powers.

The High Court has further ruled that the National Transfer Scheme - the statutory scheme that allows children to be placed in local authority care through a rota system - is enforceable by the Home Secretary.

Suella 2/

NEWS: We are bringing a landmark legal challenge against Priti Patel for her policy to expel asylum seekers to Rwanda.

This challenge, brought together with @pcs_union & @Care4Calais is brought on behalf of everyone who is vulnerable to this 1/

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… medieval-style of banishment for daring to seek sanctuary in the UK & on behalf of the British public who have every right to know what is being done in their name.

We believe this entire policy is unlawful, both the secrecy surrounding the selection criteria and the whole 2/

Bit by bit we are extracting more concessions from Priti Patel. But it shouldn't have to be like this. And so much harm is being done to terrified people in the meantime.

This morning we were called by a British man - and a lifelong Conservative voter - whose partner & child 1/

https://twitter.com/johnestevens/status/1498621680607977475

are Ukrainian and have fled to Poland.

He told us that he's desperate to bring them quickly and safely to the UK, but because he and his partner fall outside the strict rules that still remain in place, the Government won't offer them both that route to safety.

Family visa 2/

Rest in perfect peace all you souls who have perished in the Channel today.

Just think of all the people hearing news of their loved ones tonight and dealing with that horrifying, excruciating first punch of grief.

It is hideous that in 2021, the UK Government, with all 1/ its money and power, is content to sit by and allow the tiny strip of water that surrounds our island be turned into mass grave.

Boris Johnson & Priti Patel could end this sociopathic farce tomorrow. But they won't. They will bang on about the French and the people smugglers. 2/

There's a lot of nonsense flying around about offshore processing - e.g. that it stopped refugees travelling to Australia (it didn't) - but my view is that the threat of it being implemented is now very real.

Here's a 🧵 about the legislative offshoring powers the Gvmt seeks Clause 28, sch 3 of the Nationality & Borders Bill gives Gvt the power to remove any - and theoretically all -asylum seekers from the UK to an unknown third country.

This would essentially entirely outsource the asylum system.

It applies to children, pregnant women, torture 2/

1/ I was invited onto @BBCNewsnight yesterday to discuss Channel Crossings. Unfortunately my interview was pulled.

But with so much misinformation and hysterical coverage around the issue at the moment, I thought I would share a few thoughts: 2/ First, let's look at the human toll. This recent @hrw report provides chilling detail of inhumane conditions for people living precariously in N. France.

There have been encampments on the UK border in France for decades now, yet successive UK...
hrw.org/news/2021/10/0…

1/ A thread on the UK's detention and forced removal of Afghans in recent years and what the UK Government must now do.

My organisation @DetentionAction has supported tens of Afghans in detention in recent years. The highly traumatised people we have come across in detention frequently arrived in the UK as unaccompanied children having fled the most unimaginable horrors in Taliban controlled parts of Afghanistan including their parents being killed. The @ukhomeoffice response to this was too often to reject asylum claims and then begin removal

1/ A few thoughts on the many and varied ways in which Priti Patel has disrespected the UK's constitutional balance and trashed democratic norms (in the last 18 months): 2/ Just two days ago the chief constable of Staffordshire police said he was concerned that the Home Secretary was becoming concerned with operational matters which risks "policing [being] seen as the extension of Government' dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

The @ukhomeoffice is losing its grip and lashing out at the independent judiciary.

Its attempt to pressure the Immigration Tribunal over its release of people detained indefinitely during the #COVID pandemic is a constitutional disgrace theguardian.com/politics/2020/… 2/ What's also noteworthy about the @ukhomeoffice letter is that it confirms hundreds more people have been released since @DetentionAction launched legal proceedings last month. Total number of people detained stood at 708 on 21 April 2020...