"It's the start of a gruesome week. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has just announced that refugees could have their status revoked at any time if the country from which they fled is deemed safe; the pathway from being granted asylum to getting citizenship would increase to 20 years; AI would be used to establish a refugee's age; and a strikingly nasty idea the jewellery of those arriving in the UK could be seized."
"We thought Rwanda was the worst it had ever been, he says. You remember Rwanda former Conservative home secretary Priti Patel's wheeze, where no one arriving on a small boat would ever get the right to settle in the UK, a scheme which cost 700m and deported four people to east Africa, all of them voluntarily. Then Solomon and his team worked in the Rotherham hotel where people were almost burned alive by a far-right mob in 2024."
"Nevertheless, he concedes that to hear this week's plans from a Labour government, which people working in the refugee and asylum sector had hopes for, makes it more of a letdown, more of a disappointment. He mentions Alf Dubs' radio appearance earlier this morning the Labour peer who himself ran the Refugee Council in the early 90s, and came to Britain thanks to the Kindertransport,"
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced measures allowing refugee status to be revoked if the country of origin is deemed safe, extending the asylum-to-citizenship route to 20 years, introducing AI to determine refugee ages, and proposing seizure of jewellery from those arriving in the UK. Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, recounts past policies including the costly Rwanda scheme that deported four people to east Africa and involvement in the Rotherham hotel incident where people were almost burned alive and violence was livestreamed to staff. The new measures are described as a letdown for the refugee and asylum sector, with references to Alf Dubs and the Kindertransport.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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