#uk home office

[ladymazzy]

Home Office delays Windrush grants amid row over social media posts

From the article;

'In December, civil servants approved applications from 15 organisations to receive about £10,000 of funding each from the Windrush community engagement fund, a grant established in the wake of the 2018 citizenship scandal.

However, their decision was blocked by the home secretary’s private office, because advisers were concerned that two of the groups approved for funding had retweeted posts expressing criticism of the Home Office.'

#uk politics #never tory #windrush scandal #uk immigration #suella braverman #uk home office #uk racism #hostile environment #and these bitches have the audacity to complain about 'cancel culture'...

[jackoshadows]

Author with British citizenship barred from flight home to UK

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi says Ryanair worker in Brussels wrongly took issue with her travel documents.

A Ugandan-born prize-winning author said she was left feeling “numb” after she was stopped from boarding a Ryanair flight from Brussels back home to Manchester.

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, a British citizen who has lived in the UK for 21 years, was returning from a literary festival when she was barred from checking in.

The 54-year-old novelist, who won the Windham-Campbell literature prize in 2018 and the Commonwealth short story prize in 2014, said she had been shocked by her treatment.

Makumbi, who has been a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and Lancaster University, was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2012 and British citizenship this year. She applied for a British passport in April and was waiting for an appointment.

She had no issues travelling to Belgium using her Ugandan passport and biometric residence permit. But on Wednesday evening Ryanair staff at Brussels Charleroi airport would not let her check in for her return flight to Manchester, where she lives with her husband and son.

Makumbi said: “I travelled on the same passport, with the same indefinite leave-to-remain card. But then on return the gentleman, the team leader at Ryanair, decided that I was not going to fly because my indefinite leave to remain had an expiry date, which was April this year – but in Britain that expiry date is ignored because it’s indefinite leave to remain. And, actually, immigration ignores it as well. So when I was coming out, Ryanair didn’t bother with it and I showed it to them.

“I tried to explain to this guy, but he just did not even look at me or give me a moment to explain. He just said we’re not going anywhere.”Makumbi said she was dismissed when she tried to show documentation to prove she is a British citizen, leaving her “in disbelief”.

“I explained to them that I’m a British citizen but they were not having it,” she said.

#UK Politics #Racism #UK home office #This after they tried to deport a black boy just because he was black despite him being a citizen

[totallyhussein-blog]

Musical talents to build bridges across the UK

The pop group Ooberfuse, together with Kurdish folk singer Newroz Oremari will be performing their new song: 'Show Me Love', to mark the start of Refugee Week. The performance will take place outside the UK’s Home Office in London on Monday, 19th June from 12.30-1.30pm.

The names of refugees who have lost their lives will also be read out and Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees in the Bishops Conference will give a reflection during this special event for Refugee Week.

Ooberfuse is a critically acclaimed band on the global Indie music scene and on the 24th June, they will be hosting a concert in Dover with highly acclaimed artists from Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. The concert is free to all residents of Dover and it's hoped the event will introduce new people to new talent from around the world.

According to the United Nations, worldwide, almost 20% of all human trafficking victims are children. The UN also explains that victims of human trafficking can be any age, any gender and from anywhere in the world.

You can join Ooberfuse for the free concert on Saturday 24th June, at St Mary's Church, Cannon Street, CT16 1BY. You can also watch the music video for the song 'Show Me Love' by Ooberfuse and Newroz Oremari below.

#ooberfuse #music #refugee week #refugees welcome #world music #iraq #syria #ukraine #europe #immigrants #london #uk news #pop music #kent #dover #uk home office #Press release #hussein al-alak #concerts #free event #britain #bbc news - world #BBC News #artists #manchester

[ukvisanews]

UK businesses experiencing impressive success will be eligible to sponsor talented individuals, from scientists and engineers to architects and programmers, to support their growth and contribute to boosting the UK’s economy.

After the first 6 months, the visa holder can continue working in that job or change or stop doing the job without telling the Home Office or be self-employed.

The visa holders can also extend their Scale-up Worker visa without a new sponsor when their current visa expires. But they must meet the earnings requirements.

#uk work visa #uk work permit #uk scale up worker visa #uktier2 #uk visa #ukimmigration #uk economy #uk home office

[probablyasocialecologist]

A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted asylum in the UK after claiming he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”. “Hasan”, whose real identity is not being disclosed for his own protection, has attended pro-Palestinian protests in the UK, and his lawyers also argued that his activism would place him at increased risk of hostile attention on his return. His lawyers said on Tuesday they believed the Home Office decision was unprecedented in the case of a Palestinian who held an Israeli passport. The 24-year-old is understood to have spent most of his life in the UK. He had claimed asylum to avoid being sent to Israel, and a first-tier tribunal hearing had been due to take place today. However, the Home Office unexpectedly caved in on Monday and granted Hasan asylum, so avoiding a hearing in which his legal team were intending to argue that Palestinian citizens of Israel were unsafe, and in particular those that were willing to speak out. It was Hasan’s belief, his lawyers said, that Israel was governed by “an apartheid regime that engages in systematic and pervasive discrimination, persecution and violence touching on all aspects of Palestinian life”.

#palestine #israel #uk #home office

[ceevee5]

“The disclosure comes at a time when there have been 176 deaths from all causes since 2020 and a doubling in the number of suicides over this period with at least 23 people taking their lives … Deborah Coles, the director of Inquest, a charity providing expertise to bereaved people on state-related deaths in England and Wales, said: ‘The levels of obfuscation and denial from the Home Office are unparalleled across any other public body. They show utter contempt for people who die in their care and their families. There is clear disregard for their legal and moral responsibility.’”

#uk politics #asylum seekers #refugees #home office

[lost-carcosa]

#UK politics #suella braverman #home secretary #security risk #unfit for office #fuck the tories

[jerseydeanne]

Is it vanity or stupidity that drives Prince Harry to continue his legal fight to have armed guards?

#prince harry #security #protection #home office #UK

[ladymazzy]

Chinese seafarers were coerced into leaving UK after war, Home Office admits

The Home Office's use of weasel words ('racially inflected') is just jumping out. Even in the most blatant examples of racism, these fuckers won't call it what it is. To them, it's still worse to be called 'racist' than, I don't know, be exploited during a world war and then, rather than a thank you, be separated from your family by a deceitful method of deportation because of your. Totes not racist. Just 'racially inflected'

From the article;

'Chinese seafarers with British wives and children were “coerced” into boats leaving Liverpool after the second world war in a “racially inflected” secret government programme, the Home Office has admitted.

After responding to calls to serve in the British merchant navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, about 2,000 Chinese seamen remained in Liverpool at the end of the war. They were subject to a secret Home Office campaign in 1945-46 to round up and ship them back east in the cargo holds of British ships.

A significant number had married British women and had children with them in the final years of the war. After boarding ships docked in the Mersey bound for Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, they were never seen by their families again.

After decades of silence, the Home Office and the Labour party – which was in power at the time under Clement Attlee – have now expressed their regret for a policy that the latter said had done lasting damage to families, leaving “scars that have run deep through several generations”.

The deportations were shrouded in secrecy for most of the 20th century, until the declassification in the 1990s of a tranche of Home Office files entitled “Compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen” prompted a handful of their Liverpool-born descendants to begin campaigning for justice.'

#uk politics #uk home office #uk racism #sinophobia #the uk is not innocent #uk immigration

[aiiaiiiyo]

#Honor Blackman #a motorcycle dispatch rider for the UK Home Office #during WW2 #aged 15. She delivered information and messages between HQ and remote units out in the 'field'. “I was only just old enough to ride a bike #but I thought it was heaven" #MarthaFarcuss #oldschool

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Let’s just dissect this:

Point 1- given the cost of petrol, train fares, bus fares etc, most of that £23.85 will likely be eaten up by commuting costs. Also, most people working from home won’t have the heating on all day every day. Let’s be generous and say the weekly commute costs £20, so possibly a saving of £3.85.

Point 2- I don’t know any gym or other organisation you can join for £3.12 a week. Possibly some workplaces have showers, but again this will likely be eaten up by commuting costs. No saving.

Point 3- Many workplaces don’t provide free tea/coffee, your contribution to the tea fund is very likely to be more than 16p a week. Even if you do get free tea/coffee, again the cost of getting to work is almost definitely more than 16p per week. No saving.

Point 4- I’m not sure there are *that* many places that let you straighten your hair outside the home for free. I’ve seen it once, at a posh private gym, that definitely cost more than 58p to be a member of. No saving.

Point 5- Who works for someone who will let you charge your own laptop at the office? I certainly never have. Anyway, as discussed, it costs a lot more than 38p to get to work 5 days a week. No saving.

Point 6- Heating your lunch in the office instead of what? This point makes no sense to me. No saving.

This list is just thinly disguised “get yourself back to the office” propaganda with a different slant on it. We know people do save money by working from home, especially if they can then live in an area with cheaper housing costs. You can also claim some tax back on working from home- last time I did it, I got over £300- that’s a lot of weeks of saving £3.85 to make that up.

Yes, if you have a membership of a gym or a swimming pool, it might make sense to shower there instead of at home if you’re going anyway. Otherwise, I don’t think these sums really add up.

#uk politics #cost of living #working from home #vs going into the office #nonsense #journalists are idiots sometimes

[generalelectionmusings]

#uk #politics #King Charles #home office #facism #protest

[totallyhussein-blog]

Will Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan stop human trafficking?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued an urgent order on Tuesday, preventing the removal of an Iraqi asylum seeker hours before his scheduled deportation from the UK to Rwanda.

The individual, who is reportedly a victim of torture, had claimed his life was in danger in Iraq and had left the country for Türkiye, from where he reached the UK after crossing the English Channel by boat.

On May 24th, British authorities rejected his asylum claim as “inadmissible” and served a “notice of intent” to relocate him to Rwanda. The Court noted the risk to the human rights of the Iraqi national in Rwanda, a country outside the jurisdiction of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Just last month, fighting erupted at the Grande Synthe camp in Dunkirk, after gangs quarreled over territory for launching their small boats into the English Channel. A witness told Le Parisien that they “heard gunshots,” which sounded like “bursts of Kalashnikovs.” Adding: “Everyone got down on the ground.”

The camp, the largest in France, is reportedly controlled by gangs, who organize territory and allocate migrants spaces on small boats. UK Border Force officials told The Times that migrants were regularly facing threats of violence, often at gun or knifepoint, if they questioned the seafaring quality of the small boats.

Richard Lederle, from the crime and financial investigations unit at the UK's Home Office, said: “It often isn’t an option of choosing to get into the boats. It will affect profit margins and business models as gangs are competing with each other.”

#priti patel #Boris Johnson #stop the flights #refugees #refugees welcome #manchester #london #liverpool #scotland #uk home office #immigrants #human trafficking #human trafficing and sex racket #modern slavery #rnli #rwanda #European Union #house of commons #Labour Party #conservative #lib dems #snp #Nicola Sturgeon #hussein al-alak #iraqi refugees #Iraq Solidarity News (Al-Thawra)

[nowandthane]

my villain origin story isn't the divorce, it's all the shit i have to do to make the divorce happen

#actually applying for it was easy enough #my issue rn is all the stupid visa shit #seriously it has been months just fucking get it OVER WITH #i do not need any more reasons to contact the bastard!!!!! #.... the last time i had to contact him was to inform him of the sti #like seriously universe have i not suffered enough #someone fucking kill him or something #and maybe the entire uk home office too #cw vent

[probablyasocialecologist]

The Home Office has won a battle to suppress a report from its own expert adviser that recommended decriminalising possession of drugs.

A tribunal has concluded that the document by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs should be kept secret. The decision follows a three-year freedom of information battle to force the government to release the report, which is the only one in the council’s history not to be published.

The Home Office argued that because the policies discussed in the paper were under consideration, it was not compelled by freedom of information laws. The contents of the report are known only because one former member of the council blew the whistle.

Last year Professor Alex Stevens submitted evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee that the document recommended decriminalisation. Stevens explained that the report, which was written in 2016 and that he part-wrote, suggested “repealing the part of the Misuse of Drugs Act that makes it a criminal offence to possess controlled drugs”. The move would “align it with the Psychoactive Substances Act, which does not criminalise possession outside custodial settings”.

In 2019, Stevens quit the advisory council after claiming candidates were being vetted for their political and drug policy views. Speaking for the first time about the issue, he said: “This all raises the question of whether the council is an independent public body there to create independent and transparent advice or if it is a creature there to serve the whims of the Home Office.

“It’s possible that if drug possession had been decriminalised, then it would have been easier to provide the sort of treatment that saves people’s lives.”

Last month, MPs on the home affairs committee questioned Chris Philp, the minister for policing, over the report but he refused to discuss the document or share it privately with MPs. He said: “Parliament has a proper role to scrutinise but it’s important that ministers can have confidential conversations with officials.”

Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said the idea that the more controversial, the stronger the arguments for keeping policy discussions confidential, was “incompatible with the principles” of the Freedom of Information Act.

Crispin Blunt, the co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform, claimed successive governments had not wanted drug policy “based on evidence”. He said: “We are dealing with a decades-long strategic failure.”

#decriminalisation #uk politics #drugs #war on drugs #home office #conservatism

[feckcops]

Jeremy Corbyn: LGBT rights are refugee rights – let’s stand up for both

“In 2020, there were more than 1,000 asylum applications lodged in the UK where sexual orientation formed part of the basis for the claim. This figure does not include trans people, whose persecution is scandalously ignored altogether. LGBT refugees have already been punished for being themselves. Now, they get to experience the trauma of rejection all over again.

“Not content on abandoning those in need, the government has been determined to implement a policy that would actively place them back in harm’s way. This week, the Court of Appeal ruled that Suella Braverman’s dream to deport refugees to Rwanda was unlawful. It was a dream that the Home Office itself admitted could put LGBT people at risk ...

“Some government ministers are keen to downplay the persecution of LGBT people abroad to quash their asylum claims. Others rely on colonial narratives to condemn other nations whilst turning a blind eye to our own record at home. Both are gravely misguided. Instead, we should acknowledge how the UK’s historic role in creating LGBT persecution generates additional obligations to those still suffering the consequences ...

“We can stand up for LGBT rights, or we can abandon refugees. We can’t do both. We should stand up for LGBT people for the same reason we should stand up for refugees: everybody—no matter their sexuality, gender or ethnicity—deserves to live a life of safety, joy and love.”

#refugees #asylum seekers #persecution #discrimination #gay #trans #lgbt #queer #lgbt rights #human rights #civil liberties #rwanda #suella braverman #home office #conservative party #conservatives #tories #fascists #far right #uk