🧵 🚨 BREAKING: The Government's Illegal Migration Bill has completed all its stages in parliament, received royal approval, and is now an Act of Parliament. This means it's up to the Government to put this law into action. Together with other organisations we’ve put in tremendous effort to influence the Bill as it has been debated in Parliament and we are pleased there have been some amendments made even though overall the legislation is appalling and will cause immense human suffering

🧵 Today we publish a report showing that the majority of those men, women and children who cross the Channel on small boats would be granted asylum in the UK because they are fleeing war and persecution. Here’s how the Home Office tried to rubbish our report last night…. They claimed we’d got our sums wrong and that we were using figures in the wrong way. They contacted journalists to say so.

They claimed our estimate of the number of children on boats last year - almost 20pc of all those on the vessels - was wrong….

🧵 The Home Secretary responds here by saying she won’t apologise for the language she has used, and justifies that by what she says is the scale of the problem in relation to asylum and refugee protection.

https://twitter.com/FreefromTorture/status/1614172335921303554

There is a lot of understandable anger about her response. It is also worth exploring what she says about the scale of the problem.

Response to today’s high court ruling on the Rwanda plan from our CEO @enversol:

“We are very disappointed in the outcome of this case. If the Government moves ahead with these harmful plans, it would damage the UK’s reputation as a country that values human rights, and undermine our commitment to provide safety to those fleeing conflict and oppression, as enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention.

As the government announces its deal with France on channel crossings, new figures we are releasing today underline the scale of the crisis in the asylum system. They show that a staggering 122,000 people are living in limbo waiting for a decision on their asylum claim. Around 40,000 people have been waiting for between one and three years for a decision - and more than 700 have been stuck in the system for more than FIVE YEARS.

🧵 Ministers must immediately convene a task force to address the humanitarian crisis in the asylum system in the UK. Here are the six things we think they should do as soon as possible… They must set up a well resourced and dedicated task force to clear backlog of asylum claims, convene a summit with refugee and migration experts, local authorities and housing providers to examine options for short and long term accommodation options for people seeking asylum

🧵 The asylum system in the UK is in chaos - and the impact on the people stuck within it because of Government failure is increasingly worrying. This week has show the true scale of the crisis. 1/ We have dangerous overcrowding at the Manston processing centre, with high risks to health. Unaccompanied children are going missing. Only 4pc of the huge backlog of asylum claims were processed last year. 2/

Our response to the Home Secretary's speech this afternoon:

“The proposals in this speech are deeply worrying and out of step with the majority of the public who support giving refugees protection.

1/5 “Most of those coming to the UK on small boats are fleeing the unimaginable horror of war, conflict and persecution. They must not be criminalised for doing so but given a fair hearing on UK soil.

2/5

Our focus during #ConservativePartyconference is pushing for fresh thinking on refugees and asylum. While Home Secretary seems determined to stick w/ current - failing - policy, we've been working w/ voices from across politics and beyond to come up w/ alternatives: 🧵THREAD: Our proposals are in a new report written by Baroness Stroud, our CEO @EnverSol, @alexander_betts and Will Somerville. It makes a number of pragmatic and deliverable proposals for a system combining fairness w/ compassion for those forced on dangerous journeys.

Today, an urgent question was raised in parliament, asking the government to provide an update on the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Here's what we learned... Numerous MPs raised concerns over the fact that the ACRS was first announced on 18th August but is still not operational. The information on the government website was last updated on the 13th September, leaving families with no access to more up to date information.

Later today and tomorrow, MPs will debate the Government's Nationality and Borders Bill - otherwise known as the #AntiRefugeeBill. It proposes huge changes to the UK's asylum system, changes that are opposed by a wide range of groups working with refugees. Why is that? (THREAD) The bill proposes to grant fewer rights to those refugees who arrive 'irregularly' - e.g. w/o a valid visa. But refugees fleeing war and oppression aren't able to wait around for paperwork. Arriving irregularly is how the vast majority of asylum claims are made around the world.

Today MPs debated the asylum system and the mental health of asylum seekers. They raised concerns that Govt's new plans on asylum will exacerbate mental health problems - in a context where asylum seekers are 5 times more likely than others to have mental health needs (THREAD) Refugees often have mental health problems after fleeing traumatic circumstances, witnessing violence and losing or being separated from family members. Yet in the UK these issues can be worsened by poor accommodation, delays in the asylum process, and a lack of access to support

(1/6) Today is the 69th anniversary of the #RefugeeConvention, the international treaty that protects the rights of refugees and has enabled millions of people to seek protection from war and persecution around the world. (2/6) To mark the occasion, we’re sharing some top refugee facts! Did you know…