- The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford examined Home Office data showing that Afghans were among the top nationalities coming to the UK in small boats.
- Around a third of the 40,000 crossing in small boats this year are from Albania. Of the over 4,000 potential victims of slavery referred to the Home Office in the second quarter of this year, 27 per cent were Albanian, the most of any nationality.
- Just over half of Albanian asylum seekers are granted asylum. The figure for men is 14 per cent, but for women and children it is 90 per cent on the basis that they were trafficking survivors.
- An eight-year-old boy born in Britain remains stateless and unrecognised by authorities here, one of the more than 140,000 stuck in the asylum backlog. Human rights charities say there are an increasing number of children facing the prospect of reaching 18 before their parent’s status is resolved because of this backlog.
- Home Office figures show that decisions have been made for just two per cent of applications from the more than 35,000 migrants who crossed the channel between October 2021 and August 2022. The vast majority of those who have arrived in small boats since 2018 are still awaiting decisions.
- The Divisional Court ruled that a blanket policy to seize and download asylum seekers’ phones was unlawful and ordered steps to be taken to publicise its ruling, given that over 400 phones still held could not be linked to any individual asylum seeker.
- More than 40 per cent of those applying for asylum in the UK may be being denied legal aid to help fight their cases. An analysis of Ministry of Justice data showed a deficit in excess of 24,000 between the number of new asylum applications and the number of new immigration and asylum legal aid cases being opened.
- This short Care4Calais video explains why sending people to Rwanda will not work as a deterrent https://twitter.com/Care4Calais/status/1592789572643069953?s=20&t=6mqnIAIh6lBCic1suEIxlw
- The government’s payments to the French to take action against small boats crossing the Channel have increased from £63mn to £71mn over the last two years. Yet there has been a fall in the interception rate by French police, and those prevented from crossing are able to try again another day.
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