Asylum / refugees / immigration (UK)
Guardian: Cop26 failure could mean mass migration and food shortages, says Boris Johnson
A failure by world leaders to commit to tackling the climate emergency at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow could prompt “very difficult geopolitical events” including mass migration and global competition for food and water, Boris Johnson has said.
Speaking before the start of a gathering of leaders from the G20 industrialised nations in Rome, where he will push for countries to arrive in Glasgow with fixed plans to cut emissions, Johnson said the chances of success hung in the balance.
https://amp.theguardian.com/
Vice: Thousands of Afghan Refugee Families Stuck in Limbo With No Sign of Being Housed
On the 28th of August, Britain’s last military flight left Afghanistan, carrying the last of over 15,000 refugees back to the UK. These refugees, and their families, most of whom had worked for the British military in some capacity over the past 21 years, were ushered into the UK under the banner of “Operation Warm Welcome”.
But two months on, at least 7,000 are still living in UK hotels, and don’t know when they will be given permanent accommodation.
https://www.vice.com/en/
Guardian: Asylum seekers in UK housed in converted hostel with prison cells
Asylum seekers are being housed by the Home Office in a former courthouse turned hostel which promised nights in “an authentic prison cell” to backpackers.
Hundreds of people are understood to be in the facility – which appears to have been a form of court and prison cell “theme park” accommodation – including some who were imprisoned in the past in their home countries, including Libya.
They have said that the experience of being locked up in the UK in prison cell-type conditions had traumatised them again.
https://www.theguardian.com/
BBC: 'I feel free' - LGBT Afghan refugees arrive in UK
I feel like "a human being for the first time" in my life, a gay Afghan man has said after arriving in the UK with 28 others from the LGBT community.
The man - who the BBC is not naming for safety reasons - fled Afghanistan, fearing for his life under the Taliban.
On Friday, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters news agency that the group would not respect gay rights.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Guardian: Far-right groups in UK target hotels housing Afghan refugees
The evacuation of thousands of Afghan refugees to the UK after Kabul fell to the Taliban has triggered an increase in far-right groups targeting hotels where they are being accommodated, according to those monitoring the activities of extremist groups.
Britain First is one of the most prominent organisations involved and, according to its own website, has made more than a dozen unsolicited visits in recent weeks to hotels housing Afghan refugees in areas including Telford, Stoke-on-Trent and Colchester.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Independent: Home Office must rethink ‘regressive’ plans to use X-ray asylum seekers for age assessments, say charities
The Home Office must rethink its “regressive and unethical” plans to use scientific methods such X-rays to age assess asylum seekers, a coalition of children’s charities has warned.
Measures introduced as part of the Nationality and Borders Bill last week, and due to be debated on Tuesday, would allow the government to use “scientifically verifiable” methods to check the age of child refugees.
This could include X-raying children’s teeth and “examining or measuring parts of a person’s body”, as well as analysing saliva, cells or other samples and the DNA within them.
https://www.independent.co.uk/
Independent: People crossing Channel ‘not genuine asylum seekers’ and just want to stay in hotels, Priti Patel says
Priti Patel has been accused of “peddling dangerous myths” after claiming that people crossing the Channel are not genuine asylum seekers but are making the perilous journey because they want to live in UK hotels.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, the home secretary said that single men arriving via small boats were “economic migrants” and that the Home Office’s use of hotels as asylum accommodation had acted as a “pull factor” for people to enter Britain via unauthorised means.
https://www.independent.co.uk/
Fusion: Sanctuary Film
2020 marked the 10 year anniversary of Swansea becoming a City of Sanctuary.
Fusion decided to find out more about the lives of people dispersed to Swansea, why they come and the community they find when they arrive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Asylum / refugees / immigration (international)
Guardian: Greece lets boat packed with Afghan refugees dock after four days at sea
After roaming the high seas for four days as Greece and Turkey haggled over its fate, a cargo ship packed with hundreds of Afghan refugees has been allowed to dock at an Aegean island, with passengers disembarking to apply for asylum.
In what Greece’s migration ministry called “an unusual and special case”, the Turkish-flagged vessel was towed into the port of Kos on Sunday. About 375 passengers, the biggest single influx of asylum seekers in years, were taken to a reception centre on the island. Six others were detained for questioning and one woman was admitted to hospital on the island of Karpathos.
https://www.theguardian.com/
BBC: Libya: Thousands of migrants and refugees camp on UN's doorstep
Up to 3,000 migrants and refugees have spent the past month camped out on the streets of Libya's capital, Tripoli, outside a community centre run by the United Nations.
Many are desperate for help, after fleeing overcrowded detention centres. During one mass escape last month, six migrants were killed when guards opened fire.
In this film, the BBC's international Correspondent Orla Guerin meets those on the streets, and asks what the UN refugee agency are doing about it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/
Guardian: Slow transfer to Australian hospital contributed to death of Iranian refugee on Nauru, coroner finds
Omid Masoumali – the Iranian refugee who set himself on fire on Nauru in protest at his indefinite detention – would almost certainly have survived if he had been better cared for, or transferred more quickly to an Australian hospital, a coroner has found.
It took nearly 30 hours to bring Masoumali, suffering burns to 57% of his body, to Australia, after he doused himself in petrol and self-immolated in protest at his indefinite detention, telling those watching: “I cannot take it any more."
https://www.theguardian.com/
Relevant world news
Guardian: Tigrayan forces claim control of two cities on road to Ethiopia’s capital
Ethiopia’s prime minister has called on his supporters to redouble their efforts in the country’s war, as rival Tigray forces claimed to have seized key cities on a main road towards the capital.
A move on the capital, Addis Ababa, would signal a new phase in the conflict, which has killed thousands of people since the fighting broke out almost a year ago between Ethiopian government troops and Tigray forces in the country’s northern region.
The prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said in a statement on Sunday that federal troops were fighting on four fronts against the Tigray forces and that “we should know that our enemy’s main strength is our weakness and unpreparedness”.
https://www.theguardian.com/