Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Cttee published its report on the statement of changes that brings in 30-month refugee leave, which goes live today. Important read if you're doing advocacy on this. @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social & @helenbamber.bsky.social put in evidence tinyurl.com/mmnf9trv

It is completely irrational for the Home Office to have banned doctors & nurses seeking asylum from working, while threatening to cut off support for those unable to work due to ill health. The government should provide meaningful support to those who can work to access employment.

🧡Read our new Refugee Mental Health & Place Blog by members of the @helenbamber.bsky.social co-production group: "Co-producing research in a hostile environment: Reflections from practice" 🔗 www.kcl.ac.uk/co-producing...

Last week, it was revealed that a record high of 100,000+ people were waiting to appeal their asylum decision. Poor-quality decision-making by the Home Office is keeping people stuck in limbo for years, unable to work or rebuild their lives. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

After 10 years, Rose was finally reunited with two of her daughters in London. But her eldest has yet to join her. This #MothersDay, she shares her story and asks: “How will making refugee family reunion more difficult affect mothers like me?” Read it here 👇 www.helenbamber.org/resources/re...

Home Secretary’s announcement that asylum support would be revoked for those who “have the ability to support themselves” risks pushing people who simply cannot work towards homelessness, poverty & losing access to legal aid. Our response: www.helenbamber.org/resources/la...

Some in Government insist that modern slavery claims are being used to get in the way of deportation attempts. This narrative misses that in fact, claims of experiencing modern slavery are met with huge barriers in immigration detention.

The policies that are made in the grand building of parliament impact real people all around the country. Yanick, Rene, Anusha and Bsmah have all experienced the asylum system first hand. They are members of our community. They campaign for justice. And we share their outrage.

This cruel change, which deliberately keeps people’s lives in limbo, will not deter men, women, children & families fleeing war, conflict & persecution from seeking protection in the UK. What it WILL do is trap people in a constant state of instability & profoundly harm their mental health.

Amir was left homeless after being wrongly assessed as an adult following flawed age assessment. In a legal first, we supported Amir to win compensation from the local authority for the harm the assessment caused him. Read article written by our Policy & Campaigns team here

Thank you @rcpsych.bsky.social for inviting our Medical & Research Director and Housing & Welfare Manager to speak at the Faculty of General Adult Psychiatry Winter Conference yesterday about the barriers impacting survivors’ ability to access essential services. www.rcpsych.ac.uk/events/confe...

Refugees experience profound psychological distress when separated from their families, many of whom remain in active conflict zones. Family reunion can be a matter of life or death. We're representing @safepassageintl.bsky.social in this vital legal challenge. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

From yesterday: New report calls for overhaul of flawed age assessment process for unaccompanied children | Jasmine Quiller-Doust

The conversation about housing is all wrong. For decades, governments haven’t built enough social homes. People are struggling. Yet refugees get blamed. Our new video flips the narrative and focuses on the real issue. Watch it. Share it. Let’s change the conversation.

We've repeatedly warned that hundreds of children seeking asylum in the UK are wrongly treated as adults, denying them the support & protection they need. Flawed Home Office decisions put them at significant risk & harm their mental health. This MUST change. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The proposed Earned Settlement framework is cruel and divisive. We urge the government to scrap the retrospective application of these proposals. Read our response here: www.atleu.org.uk/cases-news/e... #EarnedSettlement #ProtectSurvivors #EndTrafficking

Another harrowing reminder of why asylum hotels are not suitable for anyone. Community accommodation is safer, more dignified and far, far cheaper than either hotels or military camps. Everyone deserves a real home in a community. inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...

We're deeply concerned about the UK government's proposed changes to settlement. These plans are incompatible with the UK’s international obligations and would push migrants, refugees and stateless people towards insecurity, poverty and exclusion. 👇

The government’s plan to make refugees ‘earn’ protection by proving their ‘contribution to society’ makes their safety and stability in the UK dependent on their economic ‘worthiness.’ These are men, women, children & families who have fled conflict, torture, trafficking & extreme violence. 🧵

Children need their families. Refugee children are no different. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Refugee homelessness has risen 400% in just four years. Instead of fixing the crisis, the government is cutting support for people seeking asylum and refugees, leaving more people on the streets. Safe housing is a human right & the Home Office is failing to protect it.

Labour peer @alfdubs.bsky.social is right to call for the restoration of family reunion rights so that children in need of protection can reach the UK. In the year ending June 2025, 93% of family reunion visas went to women & children, over half to children. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

What is particularly concerning about detention under the UK–France scheme is the combination of harms 1/

This performative hostility helps no one. In our experience, people seeking asylum rarely use taxis for medical appointments & the £6 a week they receive for travel is entirely insufficient to access medical care, food & education. 1/3 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The government’s plan to make refugees wait up to 20 years to settle in the UK would leave people stuck in limbo, unable to properly put down roots, build careers, pursue education or feel a sense of belonging. Research across Europe shows that long-term uncertainty doesn’t support integration 🧵

The Bibby Stockholm exposed the profound harm caused by forcing people seeking asylum into unsafe, unsuitable large sites. Though the barge closed a year ago, the same cruelty continues in ex-military camps. We need #CommunitiesNotCamps www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Immigration detention: A mental health crisis without borders" by Reem Saifeldeen -- a new Refugee Mental Health and Place blog is out. #RefugeesWelcome🧡 An important read: www.kcl.ac.uk/immigration-...

The government’s proposed asylum & settlement reforms would have profound & damaging consequences for children’s rights, wellbeing & long-term integration. Yet the government has failed to make an assessment of their impact on children. refugeechildrensconsortium.org.uk/briefing-on-...

Refugees need stability & security to recover from profound trauma. But the government's asylum reforms will force them to re-prove their need for protection every 2.5 years for up to 20 years before they can settle in the UK. We're already seeing the impact of this on our clients' mental health 🧵

Ex-military barracks & hotels are NOT suitable sites to house people seeking asylum in the UK, who have experienced unimaginable trauma. Protests like these only deepen fear & make already-vulnerable people feel even less safe. We need #CommunitiesNotCamps www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

We work with thousands of asylum seekers every year. None have ever said they chose to seek safety in the UK because of hotel accommodation. If the Home Sec thinks this motivates people, she needs to actually consult with asylum seekers and expert organisations. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

It costs: 💰 £144.98 a night to house someone seeking sanctuary in a run-down repurposed hotel 💰 £132 a night to ship them to an isolated, traumatising military camp OR 💰 £23.25 a night to let them live in an ordinary, safe, community home

People seeking asylum get just £6 a week for travel. The Home Office says that's enough for “one return bus fare a week”. But one trip clearly ISN'T enough to access medical care, food & education. People seeking asylum in London urgently need free bus travel. www.helenbamber.org/resources/re...

The NAO’s report shows the issues we’ve raised for years. Successive governments have made kneejerk, short-term (cruel) changes that have ‘shunted problems elsewhere’. This has harmed people’s real lives, with survivors forced to spend years living in limbo & poverty: www.nao.org.uk/reports/an-a...

On #HumanRightsDay today, we celebrate 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) & 25 years of the Human Rights Act. For generations, these frameworks have protected people’s dignity & safety, limited the misuse of power & upheld fairness. But they are currently under threat 🧵1/5

Shipping people off to military land in the middle of nowhere does nothing to solve the problems in our asylum system. It's a completely failed experiment in expensive cruelty - it shouldn't be delayed, it should be cancelled completely.

The young people we work with say it best. 🎥 Hear their voices. 🧡 Help us keep this community going. This week, your support can help keep these spaces alive. Every donation is doubled through The Big Give. donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Finally reunited🧡 When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, 10-year-old Arman* fled to the UK with his aunt and was separated from his parents & siblings. He waited YEARS for the moment he could hug them again. It finally happened a few weeks ago. No words can describe this.

The day after Home Sec announced a raft of punitive policies that deny refugees the safety & stability they need to rebuild their lives, @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social joins @helenbamber.bsky.social in challenging Govt’s failure to consult experts ahead of harmful changes to asylum housing policy

🚨 Today we’re in court challenging changes to the Home Office’s 'Allocation of Asylum Accommodation' policy which force more trafficking & torture survivors to share rooms with strangers. These were introduced with no consultation or warning. 🧵 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

New govt measures won’t deter people fleeing danger but they WILL cause significant harm. Forcing refugees into decades of limbo, tearing families apart & restricting support in the name of 'deterrence' will only worsen mental health and leave people at risk. www.helenbamber.org/resources/la...

25 years ago, the Palermo Protocol provided the ‘gold standard’ definition of human trafficking & mandated governments to protect & support victims. But countries, including the UK, are falling behind in meeting those commitments. Read more: www.helenbamber.org/resources/la...

Every day, we support hundreds of survivors of trafficking & torture who could be impacted by the government's proposal to make volunteering as a condition of being allowed to settle in the UK. This is both immoral and impractical. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This vital new report sheds light on the horrific conditions in asylum hotels. While families live in crowded, mouldy hotel rooms and are served substandard food, private companies pocket millions. It’s time to end the use of asylum hotels and invest in communities.

"I was isolated and it was very re-traumatising..." Our client speaks to @claudiahammond.bsky.social on BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind about his experience of being placed in an asylum hotel & the harmful impact it had on his mental health. 📻 Listen in! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Human being belong in communities, not camps. And our Government knows it. They said they'd shut the camps and stop wasting millions making people seeking sanctuary suffer - so why are they bringing this failed plan back now?

Children don’t stop moving just because safe routes are closed. But they do take riskier journeys. When the Government suspends vital safe routes, it leaves them with no choice but to turn to smugglers to reach their families in UK. Take action: act.safepassage.org.uk/email-home-s...

Legal advice is vital for survivors to navigate complex asylum systems. But many are unable to access it. Ambassadors for Change, a group of campaigners with experience of the UK asylum system, write about the barriers in getting free, quality legal advice 👇 www.helenbamber.org/resources/re...

Leaving the ECHR won't stop people risking their lives through Channel crossings but it WOULD harm the rights of both migrants in the UK & our wider communities. On 75th Anniversary of ECHR, we call on politicians to stop scapegoating & defend human rights. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

This #StressAwarenessWeek we're highlighting what stress really looks like for young people facing displacement. It’s living with constant uncertainty, about where you’ll stay, who you can trust, and what comes next. @helenbamber.bsky.social