The piece that meant the most to me in 2025 - written after a traumatic week, the words tumbled out of me. Thinking of all the NHS overseas workers propping up the system and keeping our loved ones alive. Where would be without them. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

Buy @bylinetimes.bsky.social wherever you get your papers. My latest there now (online version is paywalled).

Ending the year on an upbeat note! When everything feels a bit crap, remember there are always brilliant people doing brilliant things somewhere out there. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

🔴Up and down the country there are brilliant people doing brilliant things, quietly resisting the thugs and the politics to help. Ending the year with this hopeful post (free to read). Small acts of kindness go a long way. Merry Christmas! open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

The immigration hostile environment encourages overzealous over enforcement because there is no penalty in that direction. But there are severe penalties for under enforcement.

Ending the year on an upbeat note! When everything feels a bit crap, remember there are always brilliant people doing brilliant things somewhere out there. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

🔴Up and down the country there are brilliant people doing brilliant things, quietly resisting the thugs and the politics to help. Ending the year with this hopeful post (free to read). Small acts of kindness go a long way. Merry Christmas! open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

Really moving piece in the New Statesman on a Palestinian student's journey from Gaza to the UK. Applying labels shames and harms: always use 'people' not 'refugee'. Language matters.

🔴A British academic and his wife have been told their cousin can't come to the UK for Christmas. Despite sending over 100 pages of evidence, the Home Office said that they could not prove "a genuine relationship". bylinetimes.com/2025/12/18/t...

🎧There are incredible people up and down the country propping up the asylum system. I'm so glad @aloner.bsky.social and @ellenhalliday.bsky.social chose the clip of me talking about it on their podcast for this uplifting end of year episode of the @prospectmagazine.co.uk podcast.

🎧There are incredible people up and down the country propping up the asylum system. I'm so glad @aloner.bsky.social and @ellenhalliday.bsky.social chose the clip of me talking about it on their podcast for this uplifting end of year episode of the @prospectmagazine.co.uk podcast.

An immigration system built on cruelty...

Even by my low expectations for Kemi Badenoch ‘violence against women and girls is something done by immigrants and nobody else’ has shocked me.

Napier should have been closed years ago. It set the, low, standard for the conditions we see elsewhere though. Nobody should be being stuck in these camps. Instead of closing them we are seeing proposals to increase their use. There are better alternatives. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

🔴A British academic and his wife have been told their cousin can't come to the UK for Christmas. Despite sending over 100 pages of evidence, the Home Office said that they could not prove "a genuine relationship". bylinetimes.com/2025/12/18/t...

🔴I've spent the last week speaking to aid workers and migrants in northern France who've been attacked by dogs and racially abused by the far-right. This is a new phenomenon - Raise the Colours have made five trips to Calais & Dunkirk in the last month - and they're becoming increasingly volatile.

Nigel Farage said that the 'Raise the Colours' campaign was a "grassroots movement driven by ordinary people”. Kemi Badenoch said they should be "welcomed" as a symbol of "unity" Now the campaign has pivoted to racially abusing migrants and intimidating charity workers on the beaches of France

🔴I've spent the last week speaking to aid workers and migrants in northern France who've been attacked by dogs and racially abused by the far-right. This is a new phenomenon - Raise the Colours have made five trips to Calais & Dunkirk in the last month - and they're becoming increasingly volatile.

The politics of #migration have driven some of the most consequential changes in Britain’s recent history. Colin Yeo, author of #WelcomeToBritain and @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social, author of #AnywhereButHere, discuss Britain’s broken asylum system on the #OnPolitics podcast: bit.ly/48SICpq

🔴I wrote about far-right attacks against refugee charities and why some are choosing to leave the sector to protect themselves. It's awful but understandable. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

Don't forget to subscribe. It's free! Next one will be about what I've learned from spending time with the far-right. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

What is critical to underscore is that at present this is ramping up but I’ve been having security briefings since 2015. Insisting on human dignity of people who don’t look or sound like me apparently means I need to be attacked. Many of us are well used to dealing with it. It’s still wrong

Many charities dealing with marginalised people - disabled, refugees, those living in poverty are finding themselves targeted as a whole organisation and individual staff. It's particularly acute for refugee charities of any size but smaller charities are particularly vulnerable.

"Hey Siri, show me a world leading welcoming & caring & generous country where charities are being terrorized by people with genuine concerns"

‘I think Keir Starmer – somebody who has spent their entire career defending international human rights law – politicising this issue is really worrying. It only emboldens voices on the right.’ @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social on migration politics, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

This really shouldn’t be a difficult thing for politicians to condemn. Instead we get the same tired, lazy and dangerous BS about ‘activist lawyers’, which puts people’s safety at risk and now stops charities from even operating.

You should all listen to this excellent discussion of the UK's migration system with @piercepenniless.bsky.social @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social & @colinyeo.bsky.social . Shorter: Trying to reduce numbers by making lives of immigrants worse will not work, but it will damage them and everyone else

Just awful. Solidarity with everyone in the sector.

Trump thinks immigrants will destroy Europe. The truth is the opposite. This column is about the long arc of population change, the hybridity of European cultures, and the widely-misinterpreted results of demographic momentum. Big issues we need to understand. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“I’m no stranger to targeting by the far-right - if anything, it’s getting worse the more I look into it. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t questioned my role in the sector and how useful it is” @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social speaking for many of us in this vile time

So, responding to popular demand, but very much still reality-based, we've gone for something a bit more uplifting in our New Year edition of @BylineTimes Subscribe to get it delivered to your box or on digital subscribe.bylinetimes.com

🔴I wrote about far-right attacks against refugee charities and why some are choosing to leave the sector to protect themselves. It's awful but understandable. open.substack.com/pub/nicolake...

90,000 people have been pushed from one queue to another. Rather than waiting for an initial decision, they are now waiting to appeal. More time in costly hotels, more targeting from the far-right, less chance to move on with their lives.

The politics of migration look set to dominate the next general election. In the latest episode of On Politics, @piercepenniless.bsky.social, @colinyeo.bsky.social and @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social explain how Britain’s asylum system works. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

A must listen. With @colinyeo.bsky.social & @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social

Much thoughtful commentary in this podcast, which was sensitive to both the evidence and the politics. One thing that struck me is that the Gastarbeiter model is one that may appeal to quite a lot of people who are not generally unwelcoming to immigrants, and we seem to be moving that way.

But the question remains: why is Keir Starmer not making the case for the ECHR and what protections it brings to British people? He spent his entire career defending it. He wrote a 900 page book on it! A prime minister who left his principles at the door the minute he got into power.

When I was in Brussels last month I visited the Council of Europe. They told me UK's proposals to change the ECHR are nothing new. There has long been a coalition of nations, led by Meloni, to reinterpret the convention. Everyone accepts it needs updating, they don't need to be told by Britain.

How many times do we need to point this out? By appeasing the far right, you do not weaken it. You strengthen it. While weakening your own position. There's a vast amount of academic research showing this. But Labour will not listen. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec...

20+ influential figures, including Nish Kumar & Stephen Fry send a message to the UK government this Human Rights Day: “To send anyone back into the hands of their torturers would not be reform, but a profound betrayal of who we are and the values we proudly claim as British”. bit.ly/4pU6UWS

“Human rights were never meant to be optional or reserved for comfortable and secure times. They were designed to be a compass, our conscience, when the politics of fear and division try to steer us wrong. To weaken ECHR protections now... is not reform. It is moral retreat." @amnestyuk.bsky.social

And what, if not international human rights, does he stand for?

When I was in Brussels last month I visited the Council of Europe. They told me UK's proposals to change the ECHR are nothing new. There has long been a coalition of nations, led by Meloni, to reinterpret the convention. Everyone accepts it needs updating, they don't need to be told by Britain.

🎧I'm on this week’s @lrb.co.uk podcast alongside @colinyeo.bsky.social talking about my book, the Home Office, migration, politics and the people at the sharp end of it all. Thanks to @piercepenniless.bsky.social for having me. open.spotify.com/episode/4V06...

Enjoyed doing this quite wide ranging @lrb.co.uk podcast with @piercepenniless.bsky.social and @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/4V06...

On the pod: Colin Yeo, a barrister and author of ‘Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System’, and Nicola Kelly, author of ‘Anywhere But Here: How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All’, join James Butler to explore the politics of migration. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

🎧I'm on this week’s @lrb.co.uk podcast alongside @colinyeo.bsky.social talking about my book, the Home Office, migration, politics and the people at the sharp end of it all. Thanks to @piercepenniless.bsky.social for having me. open.spotify.com/episode/4V06...

Violent borders: @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social on the impact of British-French attempts to reduce 'small boat' crossings @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/12/09/k...

🔴Keir Starmer’s Government Is Funding ‘Violence and Death’ on the French Border, Say Human Rights Groups Billions are being spent on anti-migrant measures which campaigners warn are contributing to dozens of deaths of people seeking to come to the UK @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social reports