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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,

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A boat carrying 20 people capsized off the coast of the Greek Island of Samos on Thursday. Several people lost their lives in the incident, including two Kurds, a member of a migrant association said.  Peshraw Abdullah, a representative of the Returning Migrants’ Association in Greece, told Rudaw five of the

Record number of deportees includes children who may have spent most of their lives in the UK More than 600 Brazilians, including 109 children, have been secretly removed from the UK – on the three largest Home Office deportation charter flights in history – since the Labour government came to power, the Observer has learned. The Home Office has

Figures show rise in numbers unable to access legal aid lawyer, with knock-on implications for clearing backlog Keir Starmer’s pledge to clear the asylum backlog is under threat because of a shortage of legal aid solicitors, experts have said. More than 54,000 people seeking asylum or appealing against a refusal in a tribunal in England

Over 20,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats since Labour entered office, latest official figures have confirmed. The milestone has been reached in the five months since July’s election, after a big uptick in crossings this October compared to last year. The number of crossings this year is still below those seen

Angela Eagle said short-term solution necessary despite Labour election pledge to end use of accommodation The asylum system would “descend into chaos” if Labour refused to open more hotels for people seeking refuge in the UK, a Home Office minister has told the Guardian. Angela Eagle, the minister for borders, security and asylum, said officials had been

Two men have pleaded guilty midway through their trial to people smuggling. Dilshad Shamo, 41, and Ali Khdir, 40, were convicted for their roles in an operation which ran through Europe labelled “Tripadvisor for people smugglers”. They brought about 100 migrants illegally to Europe each week, over a period of two years. The pair –