Displaying items by tag: Immigration

400 Isle of Man teachers are demanding a pay rise and have stopped covering breaks or setting or assessing work to cover other teachers' absences. They are balloting on industrial action, including strikes. The department of education has made a pay offer which would see island teachers paid 1% more than their counterparts in England. It was rejected. Pray for the Manx government to come to an agreement with teachers so that schools are kept open and safe and young people receive consistent education. A policy review by Guernsey’s Home Affairs Committee found staffing essential services could only be maintained if more people immigrated there. There need to be government changes to allow extensions to short- term employment permits’ and review birthright privileges, as well as removing recruitment restrictions and building more houses for migrants to live in. Proposed changes will be debated next month.

Women immigration detainees are being sent to Yarl's Wood detention centre despite a confirmed case of coronavirus there. Some women have underlying health conditions and sanitation is poor - only one hand sanitiser in the building and women are issued with one pair of gloves and one mask each with no instructions. ‘Women for Refugee Women’ supports women in the centre and said the decision to continue bringing in new detainees was ‘negligent’ and accused the Home Office of putting lives at risk. One woman in her 40s, who asked to remain anonymous, said detainees continued to move around the centre with no social distancing in communal areas and women had to share rooms. Detainees with health conditions are ‘terrified’ about becoming infected. Staff are not providing updated information and some women have been told there was ‘no need for concern’ the charity said. The Home Office strongly denied the claims.

In this crisis, the Government has released 350 people from immigrant detention. But hundreds more are still being held in removal centres, pending ‘imminent’ deportation; human rights charities are calling for them all to be released. On 25 March the High Court was told by Detention Action that under British law the Government cannot continue to detain these people if they are not about to deport them. The case is vital as detainees are particularly vulnerable to coronavirus, living in big groups and unable to take ‘social distancing’ measures. They are living in unsanitary and unsafe conditions, with people displaying symptoms of the virus kept in the detainee population, and some even undertaking functions such as cleaning or serving food.

President Trump calls the ‘migrant caravan’ an invasion of the USA. . A desperate 2,600-mile walk from Honduras with children and a few possessions is an odd invasion. Honduras has suffered much since President Hernández’s fraud-marred re-election in 2017. As resistance to him persists, scores are killed by government security forces. Also gangs and drug trafficking cause one of the highest rates of homicide. Some are fleeing not because of crime or political oppression, but because of economic inequity and lack of opportunity. Scripture says we should care for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. Pope Francis said, ‘It is hypocrisy to call yourself Christian and chase away refugees, those seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty. If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I am a hypocrite.’

There are ten immigration removal centres in the UK, housing roughly 2-3,000 people at any one time. A survey of seven of the centres by law firms and charities showed almost 56% of the detainees were defined as ‘adults at risk’. Such individuals are only supposed to be detained in extreme cases, suggesting that Home Office guidelines on detention have been breached. The survey also found that a third had dependent children in the UK, 84% had not been told when they would be deported, and almost half the detainees had not committed a crime. The majority had lived in the UK for five years or more, and some had been in the country for over 20 years. Pray for the home secretary, Sajid Javid, to change our immigration system to something that has compassion on the vulnerable and end indefinite detention.

Fifty years ago corner shops advertised rooms to let with the warning, ‘No coloureds, no Irish, no pets’. The early Windrush migrants from the Caribbean faced enormous prejudice as they played a vital part in rebuilding Britain after the Blitz. The Home Office later destroyed their landing passes and other documents. Now, fifty years later, they have been issued with deportation orders. They believe they are still facing prejudice. Recently their situation was highlighted in the media, which led to parliamentary debates. Boris Johnson said there needed to be an immigration amnesty for longstanding Commonwealth immigrants to prevent others from getting caught up in the same situation. They should not have to produce overly onerous amounts of evidence to prove that they have been living here for years. Pray for attitudes to change, and that we will now value our Commonwealth brothers and sisters properly.

The commanding victory of populist parties in the national election will reverberate beyond Austria. Sebastian Kurz, when foreign minister, closed routes through the Balkans for immigrants, and his party spearheaded laws banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces. His political rise follows the far right gaining influence in Germany last month. Nationalist and anti-immigrant forces across the EU are feeling emboldened by the vote, which could bring the Islamophobic Freedom Party to power in a coalition government in Vienna. The People's Party want to fine migrants who refuse to attend integration and language classes, but the Freedom Party calls for dropping such classes completely. It has also pledged to deny migrants access to welfare payments altogether. If the two parties became coalition partners, Austrian politics would take a seismic shift to the right.

More than 56,000 attempts were made to get into Kent from France in 2016. That is an average of 153 attempts a day and is the second highest in seven years, despite dropping by 25,000 compared to 2015. The Home Office said the decrease was a ‘success’. Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke said it was shocking: ‘The figures underline the true scale of the challenge we face, and why we need more investment at our border.’ Pray for the Home Office, Border Force, and their French counterparts as they maintain border security and keep legitimate passengers and trade moving.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued two memos spelling out how they will implement the executive orders on immigration that President Trump signed in his first week in office. The specifics and the scope stunned even seasoned immigrant and refugee advocates. The memos call for hiring fifteen thousand new immigration and border patrol agents, renewing efforts for state and local police to implement immigration enforcement duties, and expanding a procedure known as expedited removal. There could be mass heartless deportations. Another change would end long-standing protections for individuals in or near sensitive locations like hospitals, schools and places of worship. Some churches and even some cities have joined the Sanctuary Movement, and refuse to use their own resources to aid federal authorities in deportation cases.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is ‘saddened and shocked’ by the Government’s decision to take only 350 unaccompanied refugee children. He said last week, ‘We believed that the Government was committed to welcoming up to 3,000 children. To end the scheme now, when such a small proportion have actually entered the country, is regrettable.’ The immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, has stated that after consultation with local authorities, the UK will take just 350 children, including more than 200 already transferred from France. The Labour MP Yvette Cooper described the move as ‘shameful’, while the Conservative MP Helen Whateley said that Kent was already looking after more than a thousand unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. MPs have challenged the Government’s assertion that local authorities cannot take more children, and suggested that other groups (including faith organisations) could help. Archbishop Welby urged the Government to reconsider, saying, ‘We must resist and turn back the worrying trends of seeing the movement of desperate people as more of a threat to identity and security than an opportunity to do our duty. We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable.’