Today is a dark day for anyone who believes in sanctuary in the UK. People who've fled war and torture should be able to rebuild their lives in peace and security - not live under a constant threat of removal. We must not stop fighting these appalling anti-refugee laws.

We are disgusted by the latest cruel and inhumane anti-asylum policy announced by the Home Secretary. Limiting refugees to 30 months before needing to re-apply undermines their ability to rebuild their lives, to feel safe and secure, all while increasing Home Office bureaucracy and costs.

Mauritanian expulsìons:

UK update:

Here's Home Minister Mike Tapp celebrating that "we have more than doubled the number of people granted sanctuary via safe and legal routes." Which is only true because they're counting extending the leave of people who arrived under the previous government... www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Another splendid 'debunk' from @monkemma.bsky.social. It's hard to overestimate just how much work it takes to excavate, accurately and in detail, the layers of half-truth, falsity, misinterpretation etc. of these kinds of stories: monkdebunks.substack.com/p/the-500k-b...

What does the Mixed Migration Centre think of this?

Today's good news story:

I’m confident my research skills — honed over almost a decade in grad school using libraries, archives, electronic databases, learning where to find the answer to complicated questions— will never be done by AI. Tech bros don’t know why they don’t know. The real problem is defunding libraries for AI

Won't be a revelation to anyone but the reason all the worst people on the right are pivoting to talking about race and culture rather than immigration is so they can keep banging the drum even as net migration figures fall (UK) and even reverse (US). This is the next step and it always was.

Germany moves to return more Syrians, but Damascus says the country is not yet ready #Refugees

NGOs condemn Italy's migration bill: 'The aim is to push us out' #Refugees

Great thread!

1/3 What Musk is really referring to here is, of course “race” - that construct that served to define the hierarchies of wealth & power structured by modern colonialism. Like other far right racists though, he uses the word “culture” as a seemingly less pernicious synonym.

I can’t even explain the fear most refugees in Egypt currently have. People are being taken from the streets, the metro, their own houses. Valid residency and UNHCR cards mean nothing. Hundreds are being deported, people are dying in detention. UNHCR Egypt has been silent, no statement whatsoever.

Let’s not pretend the US wants to fund principled humanitarian action: www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2026... (@newhumanitarian.bsky.social)

Why Tanzania’s mass repatriation of Burundi refugees must be stopped : www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2026... (@newhumanitarian.bsky.social)

NEW: Opening up the Trump admin's attack on Minnesota refugees to greater public scrutiny. On Tuesday, Law Dork, with Public Justice, filed a motion to improve access to a key court case challenging ICE's new effort to detain thousands of law-abiding refugees.

Good.

Approved today by the European Parliament with 396 votes in favour, 226 against and 30 abstentions. www.europarl.europa.eu/news/sv/pres...

When the UK gov. a couple of years ago launched the idea of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda, many in the EU saw this as a controversial, radical step to take. Well, it’s now a mainstream position. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

European Parliament Tries to Bury the Right to Seek Asylum #Refugees

There was systematic cruelty to children of irregular migrants under Trump 1.0. This time there are plenty of reports of mistreatment of US citizens. The ICE phenomenon is only partly about migration.

New York Times: My Rohingya People Are Running Out of Time #Refugees

It's officially publication day for our book, The Way Out. It's been a long road. Rebecca and I started working together in 2019, and it's fair to say that the context shifted under our feet as we wrote and thought. Get the text 30% off with code UCPSAVE30 at www.ucpress.edu/books/the-wa...

But how 'voluntary' will it really be, given Algeria's harsh treatment of migrants?

My latest blog. 'Refugee camps: a persistent paradox'. It explains why so many refugees continue to be accommodated in camps, despite all the evidence concerning their negative characteristics and consequences: rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2026/01/20/r...

Obviously illegal & super dangerous. Let’s stand up for international law, not as some obscure text but as a basic principle that it is not acceptable to kidnap a president, however horrible, or take another country’s oil. Normative pressure and political and economic incentives are needed from all

Here we go again...

My latest blog. Why does academic research on refugees have little direct impact on UNHCR policy, programmes and practice? And will that change as a result of the localization of research? rsc.ox.ac.uk/blog/waiting...

Why are people migrating from Egypt? #Refugees

Frontex before the EU courts Analysis of the two recent big losses in court for the EU border control agency, by Antje Kunst - eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/01/fron...

The people of the DRC must be punished until their government becomes sufficiently enthusiastic about the UK‘s obsession with expelling people

Today's good news story.

Secret plan for east Africa: Austria looking to set up 'transit centres' for rejected asylum seekers

My latest article: 'Can Trump dismantle the UN Refugee Convention?' passblue.com/2025/12/01/c...

So the Home Office, which is responsible for the welfare of asylum seekers & for determining their claims, has decided to call them “illegal migrants” & tell everyone it’s “furious” about them being here, but I’m sure this is fine and not a symptom of a culture of disbelief & gratuitous cruelty

‘Remigration’ is a term that comes out of the European far right. Its use by the DHS account is a sign of democratic and epistemic collapse

Europe's new migration deals promise 'safe and legal routes,' but who really has access? #Refugees

Free speech news

Useful thread on the UK's latest approach to asylum.

Among the many things wrong with Labour’s immigration strategy, this stands out: to “fight” a few thousand so-called illegal migrants, Shabana Mahmood is willing to make life hell for hundreds of thousands of people who are legally in the UK. 🔗 theconversation.com/labours-plan...

I can't stand 'statistics' like this one!

EU member states are once again locking horns over asylum policy, reviving old rifts that never truly healed.

Repatriated or deported?

One more week! See the post below for registration details 🇸🇩 #KeepEyesonSudan

Exactly what the right-wing ecosystem has been trying to achieve.

I continue to believe that the Trump *campaign* successfully convinced quite a lot of people that mass deportations did not mean mass deportations; that it meant targeted enforcement against “the bad guys.” The problem for the Trump *administration* is that no one believes that anymore.

Europol set to grow. ”Beyond privacy fears, rights groups argue the reform entrenches a ’Fortress Europe’ approach by framing migration as a criminal and security issue. www.euractiv.com/news/parliam...