#channelcrossings — Public Fediverse posts

France to send in riot police in bid to stop migrant Channel crossings as part of £662 million agreement with UK

Riot police will be sent on to French beaches to stop migrants crossing the Channel under a fresh…
#France #FR #Europe #EU #Channelcrossings #crossingthechannel #Frenchbeaches #HomeOffice #illegalmigrants #Riotpolice #ShabanaMahmood #UK
https://www.europesays.com/france/8367/

Asylum Seekers: UK Policy Changes and Impact in 2026

Some positive news on refugees and asylum seekers

January 2026

With the events in Venezuela, threats to occupy Greenland and continuing conflict in Ukraine, news about small boat arrivals and immigrants generally has dropped out of the news recently. Problems remain however.

Firstly, the final figure for irregular arrivals in the UK by small boats in 2025 was 41,000, the second-highest annual total ever.  The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act is now in force, with new measures allowing Border Force to seize phones and SIM cards from irregular arrivals, ostensibly to help in tracking down smugglers.  Seizures of cash and assets of convicted smugglers are up 33% in year to September, compared to the previous year.

More positively, 5 local councils in England and Wales have declared an interest in a pilot scheme to use new build and refurbished council homes for asylum seekers as a way of removing them from hotels. The homes would be built with government money, leased to the Home Office, and then added to LA stock. The views of other prospective council home tenants have not yet been noted.

In the EU, heads of state met on 8 January to discuss its Common European System for Returns, instituted last March.  The Commission claims that only 20% of those designated for deportation actually are removed.  The effectiveness of the new system is not yet clear.  The UK government claims to have removed 50,000 claimants since it came into office in July 2024.

On the global level, Sherif A Wahab has calculated that the numbers of Displaced Persons is now double what it was in 2012; one-third of them are refugees (i.e. outside their country).  Likewise the number of refugees who have been in exile for more than 5 years has doubled over the last decade; reasons for this include conflicts lasting longer; lack of strategy at local and national levels; refusals of permanent residency and other repressive policies. Of the world’s 32 million refugees only 204,000 returned home or settled permanently in 2022 (latest figures).

‘failure of imagination and ambition’

The head of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi – on retiring last month – expressed his views on what he saw as a failure of imagination and ambition; “the international community should invest in asylum systems to make them faster, more efficient and better able to return people who do not need the help”  In his view, governmental responsibility does not impinge on sovereignty, but is an extension of it.

The link below to an article from The Guardian looks at the working of community sponsorship schemes; it implies that the government is still committed to legal routes to resettlement.  The Home Secretary said last November that she hoped to develop this model further.

“With control [over Britain’s borders] restored, we will open up new, capped routes for refugees for whom this country will be the first, safe haven they encounter.  We will make community sponsorship the norm, so we know that the pace and scale of change does not exceed what a local area is willing to accept,” she said.

‘It takes a town to raise a family’: the community sponsors supporting refugees in the UK | Communities | The Guardian

On the campaigning front, Safe Passage International have produced for the new year a Resolutions Generator, which, when pressed, will offer a small way in which one can help or understand better.

And here’s a petition against deportations from WeMoveEurope:

Say No to Mass Deportations in Europe | WeMove Europe

AH

Previous posts:

• Asylum Seekers: UK Policy Changes and Impact in 2026
• Latest death penalty report
• Britain’s role in the destruction of Gaza
• Israel revokes licences for aid organisations
• Surge in executions in Saudi

Talk by Peter Oborne in Salisbury on 21st about his new book ‘Complicit’

#asylum #BorderForce #channelCrossings #HomeOffice #refugees

https://www.europesays.com/uk/316752/ Labour minister squirms over simple migrant question in tense BBC Breakfast clash | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV #AngelaEagle #BBCBreakfast #BbcBreakfastPresenter #ChannelCrossings #JonKay #LabourMinister #LabourParty #MigrantCrisis #News #SmallBoats #World

UK Refugee Crisis: Strategies to Address Small Boat Arrivals

Refugees and boat crossings still making political waves

July 2025

With the state visit of President Macron this week, the small boats are back in the headlines. As Macron and Starmer try to thrash out a deal to reduce the numbers arriving in the UK, the UK has been pressuring the French police to use new tactics against the irregular immigrants, allowing them to stop boats from up to 300 meters from the shoreline rather than only dealing with them on land. Presently they can only intervene if there is danger to life. The police are, in any event accused of puncturing inflatable boats as well as more heinously using tear gas and pepper spray on children.

An agreement between the UK and France on a “one in one out” basis, so that any arrival can be sent

back to France if replaced by a candidate deemed more worthy by dint of family connection, has been mooted, but the press conference will be on Thursday afternoon, so we will not know just yet. At all events, other EU nations are complaining about a possible deal which will make it more likely that arrivals in Europe will end up on their shores.

‘we have to make migration boring again’

Meanwhile, Amy Pope, the CEO of the (UN’s) International Organisation for Migration, has suggested any proposed changes will be unlikely to work, bearing in mind the level of commitment the migrants have already put in before reaching the English Channel. She is also in favour of de-politicising the debate. Her comment “We have to make migration boring again” is clearly  the most valuable contribution from anyone so far.

Arrivals

As noted last month, the number of arrivals in the UK on small boats continues to break records (20,000 by the end of June). This has been put down to good weather, smugglers’ new techniques and increasing conflicts around the world (the largest number of hopeful asylum seekers in Calais are from Sudan).

The Government is hoping to save up to £1 billion by speeding up backlog processing. However, the backlog is now 90,000 rather than 50,000 in 2024. In 2024, there were84,000 asylum claims – In the EU as a whole there were nearly a million – 997,000.

With much discussion on what legal routes immigrants can take, here is a summary of the current situation in the UK: there are presently 7 options.

1. UNHCR can select people it thinks appropriate to send (the places cannot be applied for, and amount to only 1% of all refugees).
2. UK Resettlement Scheme. The status of this is unclear; it includes community sponsorship and accounts for about 700 arrivals last year.
3. Mandate Scheme. This is for people with relatives in the UK. 23 cases were reported in 2024.
4. Family Reunions. Applies after refugee status has been agreed by the UK.

Mostly Syrians , Iranians and Eritreans. 5000 in quarter 1 2025.

• Hong Kong. Numbers low now as most cases already settled.
• Afghanistan. ACRS and ARAOP have now been closed, with virtually no explanation. “Further measures…[will be] announced later this year.” More Afghans have been arriving by boats than under these arrangements anyway.
• Ukraine. Numbers also down now to about 4000 a month. Only 1698 asylum claims since 2022.

The Refugee Council have a new report New Roots, New Futures, arguing for a national integration strategy for refugees in the UK. They are particularly exercised by the need for new arrivals to have access to help in obtaining work and housing once they have been given right to remain.

The Green Party have put forward a plan for the Home Office to be split, with various options for the immigration departments.

By way of context, it should be noted that 73% of the world’s refugees are in Low/Middle Income countries, 67% of them are in countries neighbouring the one they are fleeing. Per head of population the countries with the highest number of refugees are Lebanon (1 in 8 of the population), Aruba and Chad.

The European Convention on Human Rights has become an issue again with questionable claims being made about possible unfair exploitation of loopholes. It should be stated that the Convention does not affect individual countries’ immigration policy, and that it is rare for claimants to a right of “family life” and such to win their case. The ECHR has ruled against the UK twice in the last two years, in neither case about immigration/deportation issues. They have generally prevented removals from the UK about once every 4.5 years since 1980. Leaving the Convention over this issue would seem rather unnecessary.

Andrew Hemming

Recent posts:

• Gaza gets ever worse
• Group minutes and newsletter
• Human rights in the UK
• Death penalty report
• UK Refugee Crisis: Strategies to Address Small Boat Arrivals

#asylum #channelCrossings #France #immigration #RefugeeCouncil #refugees

"Let them drown" says a rich man.

"ooo, valid opinions the nation needs to hear" goes the rich man's media

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/24/dont-rescue-people-who-scupper-their-channel-boats-says-reform-uk-deputy

#ChannelCrossings #SmallBoats #UKPOL #Ukpolitcs #reformUk #BenHabib

This border kills! One person dead and one feared missing at sea after shipwreck last Thursday
Last Thursday an Eritrean man died after he was recovered from the Channel when the boat he and others were traveling to the UK on sank. One other person is feared missing at sea.
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2021/08/18/this-border-kills-one-person-dead-and-one-feared-missing-at-sea-after-shipwreck-last-thursday/
#borders #CalaisMigrantSolidarity #Channelcrossings #EnglishChannel #refugeestruggle