Ann Salter, @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social head of clinical services in the north west writes in the @bmj.com about the harmful & retraumatising impact of housing survivors of torture in large sites & former military barracks www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Today is #InternationalHumanRightsDay, and also the day when UK and EU leaders discuss weaken the rights of people fleeing war and persecution. If the European Convention on Human Rights is to be reformed, it must be to strengthen it, not undermine it. Read our statement for #Humanrightsday here 👇

The UK government's proposals on changes to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) rules have now been published in a consultation paper, ahead of a statement from the Home Secretary to MPs shortly www.gov.uk/government/c...

My spirit animal joins us (and I am particularly feeling him this week)!

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

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...

FfT has published 'A Place to Heal' a powerful report centring the voices of those in asylum housing & exposing the devastating harm it causes to survivors. The solutions are simple: ✅ Better quality & faster asylum decisions to manage numbers ✅ Locally-tailored, well-resourced housing

I'm just gonna pop this here for any Sun readers who are interested in why refugees actually come to the UK... from @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social report Fleeing a Burning House: www.freedomfromtorture.org/sites/defaul...

Confirmation published yesterday by the Home Office, that Napier barracks will continue to be used to house people seeking asylum until December 2025. It was due to close in September this year following years of criticism and labelled as 'squalid' by a High Court judge: www.gov.uk/government/p...

For anyone despairing at Labour’s “soft surrender” to Reform…. www.bigissue.com/opinion/labour-reform-immigration-policy-racism/

The vast majority of our clients detained under "one in, one out" scheme are survivors of torture and trafficking. Our independent clinicians have visited clients in immigration removal centres and found concerning levels of PTSD and suicidal thoughts www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Last week the government suspended new refugee family reunion applications. This devastating move will deny family life to refugees. It will simply punish those who have already suffered. The Home Secretary must restore refugee family reunion rights and build strong communities.

Confirmation of new migration ministers in the Home Office. Alex Norris takes over the asylum brief from Angela Eagle, while Mike Tapp is the new migration minister

I’m gonna politely disagree with some commentators who’ve excused Labour’s actions on refugee rights by focusing on the occasional reference to compassion. Haven’t seen much compassion from front bench this week www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/05/grim-migrant-bashing-labour-yvette-cooper

🚨 Nigel Farage is in Birmingham today, where he'll be talking about Reform's plans to try to send torture survivors into the arms of their torturers. So here's a new billboard to show who has come out to back his new plan. 📍near Reform’s party conference, Birmingham

So the govt is closing refugee family reunion for all practical purposes for the time being. Applying the usual family migration rules to refugees means they will need to be earning at least £29,000 a year. After spending possibly years in asylum accommodation and not being allowed to work.

Cooper will shortly be providing a statement to parliament on her plans for asylum reforms, including reforms to restrict access to refugee family reunion and speeding up processing of asylum appeals www.parliamentlive.tv/Commons

Finally, the text of the UK/France migration treaty Some comments 1/ www.gov.uk/government/p...

Well, in a dramatic twist that will surprise no-one, Philp has used the opportunity of the Government’s dog-whistle white paper on immigration to explain how the Conservatives could do all of the above & more + without any of the pesky human rights constraints that Labour is barely clinging on to.

New from FM: What is in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill? | Colin Yeo

The Bill is out: bills.parliament.uk/bills/3929

Second reading will be on 10th February, according to the business statement (bill isn't published yet though)

We're expecting first reading of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill at around 11:30am today. We'll finally see the detail of the counter-terror style powers this Government proposes to use against all those arriving at the UK border without pre-authorisation.

Until torture stops and until we have safe routes, refugees will always try to seek safety Smuggling gangs will simply adapt to new measures the govt is looking to introduce, as they've always done Head of Asylum Advocacy @silereynolds.bsky.social explains👇 morningstaronline.co.uk/article/smug...

Ensuring that people do not need to leave countries of origin to seek asylum elsewhere would be a laudable foreign policy aim, one which would require increased foreign aid investment, reduced arms sales and many other things. This is not close to that though. 1/ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Some helpful clarifications from Home Secretary Yvette Coopers' appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee on Monday: the immigration White Paper coming in the new year will focus on reform of labour migration routes to UK & enforcement on illegal working parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

Home Affairs Cttee just launched an inquiry into asylum accommodation. This is such an important inquiry at a critical time in the life of the current contracts. @FreefromTorture & @SSOonline will put in our evidence of the impact of asylum housing on survivors of torture tinyurl.com/4duk6fuu

Though it was accepted that people detained on DG required in-person assessment by medical experts these had not been facilitated & so the protection claims stalled. The reason behind this was a Home Office concern that allowing medical experts to visit might set precedent for Rwanda scheme 😱.

Revealed: Only half of checked asylum decisions now meet the Home Office's internal quality standards Figures have plummeted after processing shortcuts were introduced for Rishi Sunak’s backlog pledge, and appeals are rocketing www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

Help us achieve our dream of building a new day centre for vulnerable street children in Lubumbashi, D.R.C. Match funding available today, Giving Tuesday via globalgiving.org/projects/kim... Thanks so much! 🇨🇩👍👍 #DRCongo #streetchildren #Lubumbashi #safeguarding #Congo

"A new team of Asylum Move On Liaison Officers (AMLOs) is being operationalised to work with individuals at the start of the Move On process alongside Migrant Help"

If you'd like to stay up to date with UK immigration issues on BlueSky, we've created this new Starter Pack! This is a list of excellent organisations and experts working at the forefront of immigration in the UK, so please follow them to stay up to date on these crucial issues: go.bsky.app/gzfKcc

What did it actually mean when the Conservative's IMA made asylum claims inadmissable to small boat arrivals? What is the "asylum Hotel California"? My deep-dive for openDemocracy www.opendemocracy.net/en/illegal-m...

Starmer is clearly persuaded that people want certainty more than they want hope but it’s depressing to hear him characterise asylum grants as a bitter pill that we’ll have to swallow in pursuit of controlled migration. Would a little positivity really hurt? #LabourConference24

Starmer is right to say that the racist riots were not an expression of ‘legitimate’ concerns about immigration but if he doesn’t see how anti-migrant rhetoric & policies contributed to the violence then we’ll see further riots in the future, but they’ll be chanting “smash the gangs” instead

What can UK learn from Italian migration management: small boat crossings are here to stay & talk of Italian-style 'silver bullets' only sets Starmer up for failure. Even safe routes won't end the phenomenon. Only search & rescue will actually save lives. open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...