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May Bulman Profile picture
May Bulman
@maybulman
Investigations editor @LHreports, formerly social affairs corro @Independent Got a tip/story? DMs open or email: may@lighthousereports.com
Sep 13, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
EU president von Der Leyen praises Bulgaria for ‘showcasing best practices on both asylum and returns’

Fails to mention Bulgaria's been illegally locking Syrians, Afghans & others in cages before unlawfully expelling them& in some cases even shooting them ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…
Image Evidence here:

And here: lighthousereports.com/investigation/…
lighthousereports.com/investigation/…
Aug 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
On this day in 2021, Western countries made their chaotic escape from Afghanistan as the Taliban took power

They knowingly left behind tens of thousands of Afghans who risked their lives to support the West’s mission

They promised to get them out later - yet so many remain Wherever possible, western govts are looking for reasons not to help Afghans or to delay the process. Just a few examples here:



https://t.co/XbLPstBy4T

https://t.co/D6YC8eIi9vx.com/lhreports/stat…
x.com/lhreports/stat…
x.com/maybulman/stat…
Jan 6, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
On this day last year, the Home Office’s Afghan resettlement scheme (ACRS) opened, promising to resettle 20K Afghans - 5K in its first year

A year on, not one person has been relocated from Afghanistan under the scheme

Short thread🧵 Image On the same day that ACRS opened, HO revealed some Afghans who had ALREADY been evacuated would be included under ‘Pathway 1’ of ACRS

It later emerged this amounted to around 6-7K people - so 1/3 of the total pledged places were wiped out from the start independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Dec 8, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: European border forces are using secret facilities to systematically detain asylum seekers before illegally deporting them

@LHreports and partners can today reveal a number of these 'black sites' operating along the EU border

One is this derelict cage in Bulgaria: @LHreports We also discovered shipping containers in Hungary & prison vans in Croatia being routinely used to imprison people & prevent them claiming asylum

Experts call it 'torture'

And we can prove that they’re part funded by the EU, & in some cases operated under the noses of
@Frontex
Apr 14, 2022 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
UK condemned Rwanda for human rights abuses months before signing migration deal

Experts say it's 'ludicrous’ to think people seeking sanctuary in UK can build lives in east African nation, citing human rights abuses and economic issues

Thread 1/
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… In July 2021 UK’s intnl ambassador for human rights expressed 'regret' that Rwanda wasn't conducting 'credible' investigations into allegations of human rights violations, incl deaths in custody & torture, nor identifying/supporting trafficking victims 2/gov.uk/government/spe…
Sep 22, 2021 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Watching @CommonsHomeAffs questioning HO perm sec Matthew Rycroft

First Q is why were HO officials pulled from giving evidence to Nationality & Borders Bill Committee yday at last minute

Rycroft says 'plans changed' bc he was speaking to HASC today. Yvette Cooper not satisfied On newly arrived Afghans in hotels, Rycroft says there are around 7,000 currently. 70 are unaccompanied minors - 16 under age of 16

Social workers and nurses contracted by private companies running the hotels are caring for these children, says 2nd perm sec Patricia Hayes
Aug 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Bruce was deported to Zimbabwe last night. Usually I try not to express my opinions on here, but I am genuinely shocked.

Maybe naively, but based on prev experience, cases like his (here since children, one conviction 10yrs+ ago) are taken off the flight after legal intervention It started to emerge yday that Bruce’s legal reps were poor and that he was being charged thousands of £ for a bad service.

It's telling that the HO, who usually call me when I’m reporting on a deportation case to detail their past criminality, did not call me about Bruce’s case
Sep 28, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Gay woman who was gang-raped after being unlawfully deported to Uganda wins court case against Home Office

She was brought back to UK under court orders last year and the HO tried to appeal to send her back, but the appeal has been dismissed
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… The HO was ordered to facilitate the woman's return to UK last year after High Court ruled its decision to reject her claim was unlawful

She's one of 1000s whose cases were decided under 'detained fast-track', which was ruled 'structurally unfair' in 2015
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Sep 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Home Office bases immigration policies on ‘anecdote, assumptions and prejudice’, MPs warn

@CommonsPAC says department has ‘frighteningly little grasp’ of impact of enforcement and warns next Windrush scandal could be ‘right around the corner’
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… This is the latest in a stream of scathing reports this year about the HO's approach to immigration policy

In June @NAOorguk found the department had no evidence to show its hostile environment policy was achieving its aims – or any way of measuring this independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Sep 16, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I met Hassan in Calais last week. He is 17. He was with some Syrian men whom he had only recently met. He told me he had lost his parents in the war and that his grandparents, whom he had been living with, had recently died. He said he wanted to join his cousins in the UK 1/6 ImageImage Hassan got to the UK in June by crossing the Channel on a small boat. He says that other displaced people in Calais advised him not to tell the authorities he was a child, so he told them he was 18. He was subsequently deported from the UK to Spain earlier this month 2/6
Jun 27, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1/4 An asylum seeker died last month after being moved to a hotel in Glasgow in a suspected suicide. Those who knew him said his mental health problems had rapidly deteriorated since they were moved there and that he had been unable to get help he needed
google.co.uk/amp/s/www.inde… 2/4 Now it seems another asylum seeker who was moved into a hotel has carried out a brutal attack. Those who knew him warned he had been displaying aggressive and erratic behaviour, but despite evidence of mental health problems little action was taken
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Jun 3, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
First the PM confesses he doesn't know what No Recourse to Public Funds is, now the HO refuses to publish data on how many people have NRPF

Don't they realise thousands of families (many key workers) are suffering with ZERO support during this crisis bc of it? Ignorance is bliss Image Here is some proof of the suffering:

A grieving family whose hardworking father died from Covid-19 left with the prospect of having to leave the UK after 15 years because he was the breadwinner and they can't access benefits
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
As most of us despair about not being able to spend more time outside, hundreds of rough sleepers have no choice but to roam the streets, with dramatically reduced support

'We’re left in a lonely place. We’re the forgotten ones,' one told me

Read more:
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… The govt said on 27 March that all rough sleepers would be housed within two days

While some have been placed in hotels, I've spoken to many who have asked their local councils for help, but remain street homeless

@crisis_uk estimates 1,000 people are still on the streets
Mar 18, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Immigration detainees say they feel unprotected from coronavirus due to poor hygiene & inadequate healthcare in centres

HO meanwhile faces legal challenge over claims it is unlawfully holding ppl it cannot deport (travel bans) or who have health issues
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… From Colnbrook IRC, Reshawn Davis (who is STILL in detention), told me: 'If they know someone new is coming in, [officers] all have their masks. Why are they protected and we are not?

'We’re like tunas in a can. If one person comes in with it, everyone is going to get it'
Mar 15, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Osime Brown, a severely autistic 21 yr old, is facing deportation to Jamaica – a country he barely knows

His mother Joan says it marks a culmination of failings by authorities over the years to acknowledge his learning disability and provide support independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… Osime is currently in prison, where he has been repeatedly self-harming to the point where he has cuts all over his body

A psychologist assessment of him states it would be an ‘act of pure folly’ to deport him and that the consequences would be ‘potentially life-threatening’ Image
Mar 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Excl: Children coerced into drug trafficking face cycle of exploitation due to failings in system, warns UK slavery tsar

@UKAntiSlavery Dame Sara Thornton calls for power to be devolved from the Home Office to curb soaring number of child slavery cases
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… @UKAntiSlavery Dame Sara said efforts to curb problem were also being hampered by @ukhomeoffice's unwillingness to provide data around the issue (despite her multiple requests)

It is not the first time the HO has been accused of withholding data on modern slavery: independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Feb 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Over the past few weeks I've been speaking to men who have been deported from the UK after living here since they were children

Here are some of their stories, which I hope will help to disprove the govt's claim they are all hardened criminals

Pls share
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… Image One of them is Tremayne Brown, who came to UK from Jamaica aged 6. He now has a British son of the same age who he hasn't seen since he was deported in 2017.

'Through his childhood I haven’t been there.... Everything I know is from Britain. I never learned anything from Jamaica' Image
Feb 12, 2020 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Home Office accused of ‘inhumanity’ after detainees driven to charter flight despite courts blocking their deportation

One disabled man says he suffered ‘excruciating pain’ after being forced to sit on a coach for 11 hours to airport and back #Jamaica50 independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… Image Among those who *were* put on the flight was Rayan Crawford, 34, who has two young sons

His partner Yana told me it had 'destroyed' their family

'My three-year-old wakes up every morning and asks, ‘Is dada back?’ I can’t explain it to a three-year-old'
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
Feb 10, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
BREAKING: Court of Appeal halts deportation of many of those set to be on Jamaica charter flight on grounds that they weren't given adequate access to justice ahead of removal Comes after mobile phone outage at Heathrow detention centres left ppl unable to communicate with lawyers

Judge: 'At best some individuals have had a functioning Sim card for 3 working days. At worst, evidence indicates that some have still not received a functioning sim card'
Feb 6, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: A leaked copy of the Windrush lessons learned review seen by @DavidLammy and @BBCNewsnight calls on @ukhomeoffice consider ending the deportation of foreign born offenders.

YET the govt is about to deport dozens of people on a charter flight to Jamaica. Grim Update: Home Office meanwhile admits there’s been mobile phone outage in Heathrow detention centres since 13 Jan - preventing people accessing legal advice/challenging deportation

Worse, it took 23 days to take any action - during which 3 charter flights have left the country
Jan 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Windrush man who served in British army for nine years told there is no record of him

To make matters worse, Paul Nichols is struggling to obtain compensation two years on. He is one of many who complain of a lack of govt-funded support to help them apply independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n… Immigration lawyers claim the shortage of funding for the Windrush community when compared to the govt money that has gone into helping people apply for the EU settlement scheme amounts to racism.

They say the HO is wrong to claim people can present their cases w/o legal advice.