Two weeks ago, I was in Canterbury Crown Court, where I witnessed four asylum seekers from Sudan being handed prison sentences for crimes related to navigating across the Channel in small boats.

One of those sentenced to prison claimed to be 16 years old.
opendemocracy.net/en/asylum-seek… The crimes these individuals were charged with were introduced last year through the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which amended section 24 and section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971.

As the UK government begins evacuation of British nationals from Sudan, I thought it would be worth providing an overview of the situation currently facing Sudanese people in the UK's asylum system 🧵 Every year, a sizeable number of people arrive in the UK from Sudan in order to claim asylum.

Recently, a large proportion have been non-Arab Darfuris, an ethnic group at risk of persecution (some 3 million people are currently internally displaced in the Darfur region).

New report published today on failure by immigration authorities to treat child asylum-seekers as children.

In 2022 over 850 children were wrongly put into the adult asylum system with no support - some as young as 14 were sharing rooms with adults. 🧵 This figure is an underestimate as the government publishes *NO statistics* for cases where they age-dispute, place child in adult system - and that child is later referred to children's services by a charity and then assessed as a child.

Huge mobilisation of far-right protestors outside a hotel for asylum-seekers in Knowsley, just outside of Liverpool. They've now set fire to a police van.

This was taken in the last hour: Video of the police van on fire.

People referring to the asylum-seekers in the hotel as "nonces". Someone can be heard complaining about police p
"protecting the nonces".

The wonderful people at @SLRAcharity and @Project17UK have put together a short video series about No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), who is impacted and how to get support. Recommend giving them a follow to find out more.
Research by the Citizens Advice Bureau (@CitizensAdvice) found that 1.376 million people have the NRPF condition attached to their immigration status. Most of these people have been living in the UK for many years.

This account from a "security manager" at Manston detention camp written up in the Times is one of the most disturbing things I've ever read about the UK asylum system.

"When the sun goes down at Manston, the crying and wailing begins"

thetimes.co.uk/article/when-t… The manager describes how people are kept from escaping by given only socks and flip-flops to wear - and how "most of the escapes are unsuccessful".

Also people have been protesting in their tents.

Was in Manston today, at the detention camp. We saw so many young children - from Syria, Afghanistan and Iran. The narrative much of the media is presenting is false.

The chants of "freedom" and "we need your help" will stay with me for a long time. More here:

https://twitter.com/sdetsup/status/1586775725763428352?t=GLcmOmhmtCkxw8s2sKLL9w&s=19

Was thinking about the thread I wrote yesterday about the unaccompanied minor at our youth club - and I'm pleasantly surprised by the strong reaction its received.

But if you think that's bad, wait until you hear what else is going on.

Another quick 🧵 Here's the original tweet thread if you haven't read it yet:

https://twitter.com/BennnyH/status/1540328970176139264?t=W0BjLSEK3WjoiZW2pjX9EQ&s=19

An unaccompanied 16-year-old Eritrean boy turned up at our youth club this week, just after opening, with some others.

He was a new face so I asked him how long he'd been in the UK and he said: "today".

I said: "what do you mean 'today'?"
He said: "I arrived, just today".

🧵 He'd arrived into London that morning, in the back of a lorry, and had somehow found his way to Brixton.

There he saw another Eritrean young person by a bus stop and he asked him for help.

That young person brought him to our youth club in Streatham.

Need people down at Evan cook close now ! Immigration raid. We are still here.