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A total of 5,512 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats so far in 2025 More than 5,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel so far in 2025, Home Office data shows. This is the earliest point in the year that crossings have reached that point since recent records began. A total of […]

Failed asylum seekers could be sent to the Balkans under plans being considered by the government. Home Office officials have discussed proposals to set up overseas “return hubs” to house asylum seekers who have had their claims rejected and all appeals exhausted. The proposals, which are at a “very early stage”, according to a government

Migrants depart by boat from France to cross the Channel to the UK on 17 January 2025. Almost 42,000 asylum seekers are waiting for an appeal hearing after the Home Office rejected their initial claims, according to analysis of official figures. The Refugee Council said the number is a five-fold increase in two years and

The Home Office is launching an advertising campaign in Iraq to try to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats. Similar campaigns were launched in Albania and Vietnam by the previous Conservative government in 2023 and 2024. On Sunday, 592 migrants in 11 boats crossed the Channel, according to figures from the

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi government brought back 12 people from the Kurdistan Region who spent nearly two months in Libya trying to reach Europe, a diplomat told Rudaw.  “After nearly two months of efforts and follow-up, today we managed to return 12 citizens who were stranded in Libya while attempting to reach Europe

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani secured a £12.3 billion ($15 billion) trade package in London during a meeting with his British counterpart Keir Starmer on Tuesday, signing key deals in a vast range of fields including security, economy, and migration.  “The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the vision of a

Home Office figures released on New Year’s Day show 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in small boats throughout 2024, an increase on the previous year, but not as many as in 2022. The last group, made up of 291 people, arrived on 29 December. The year 2024 was the deadliest on record for the crossings,

Rishi Sunak’s push to clear backlog of claims is driving huge increase in legal appeals, costs and harm to applicants Only half of the Home Office’s recent asylum decisions have met its own internal quality checks, significantly fewer than before Rishi Sunak’s push to clear a backlog of old claims. Civil servants and lawyers say

A man suspected of being a significant supplier of small boats equipment to people smugglers has been arrested in Amsterdam following a joint operation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Dutch and Belgian police. The man is alleged to have supplied engines and boats to smugglers in northern France, according to the NCA.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Kurdish man who lost his wife and child when their boat capsized near the Greek coast this week has blamed the smuggler for their deaths. “The boat capsized. All the passengers fell into the water. My wife, Naila Mustafa, and child, Noor, who is nine months old, drowned,” Kawez Saadulla,