LONDON: Hundreds of people arriving on the English coast in small boats are being immediately detained in immigration removal centers, raising fears that the Home Office has launched a new policy to deport migrants without fully assessing asylum claims.
Detainees include victims of trafficking and torture from war-torn countries where Britain has fought, such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Usually, migrants from these backgrounds are offered accommodation while their asylum claims are processed, but now they face immediate imprisonment and possible deportation.
Lawyers have accused the Home Office of incorrectly age-assessing children as adults, sending them directly to immigration removal centers.
Campaigners said several asylum seekers have been denied access to lawyers, describing the development as “not the act of a civilized and compassionate nation.”
Toufique Hossain, director of public law and immigration at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, described the new nationality and borders bill as a “grave abuse of power.”
He added: “They have effectively started bypassing the asylum system and saying to individuals with strong claims that their claim is weak, that they may not get an appeal and that they intend to remove them quickly.
“The whole starting point is to disbelieve people arriving from places where the Home Office knows individuals have a well-founded fear of harm and persecution.”
Detention centers have been rapidly filling following the suspected shift in policy, with Tom Nunn of Duncan Lewis saying they are “being filled with people who have just arrived but who are not being released into the community.”
He added that his law firm was aware of Iraqis and Afghans who bore signs of torture, but whom the Home Office had apparently sent to detention centers in breach of the legal asylum and detention process.
“There have been a few cases where medical advice from doctors in the immigration center is that they are victims of torture,” said Nunn.
“But we are seeing a lot of cases where the Home Office is pushing back on this, basically saying, ‘You’re a victim of torture but we believe we can remove you quickly and therefore we’ll keep you in detention’.”
This latest development follows policy changes by the Home Office last year, when it secretly shortened asylum screening interviews for arrivals in the UK.
This change meant that torture and trafficking victims are facing deportation much faster than under previous policies.
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Asylum seekers being immediately detained in UK
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Asylum seekers being immediately detained in UK
- Lawyers say they include Iraqis, Afghanis bearing signs of torture
- Fears that Home Office has launched new policy to deport migrants without fully assessing asylum claims
Burkina jihadist attacks on army leave at least 10 dead
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast: Suspected Islamist militants attacked an army unit in northern Burkina Faso Sunday, the latest in a series of alleged jihadist attacks that have killed at least 10 people in four days, security sources told AFP.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
The west African country, ruled by a military junta since a 2022 coup, has been plagued with violence from militants allied to Al-Qaeda or the Daesh group for more than a decade.
Social media has been awash with speculation that the spate of attacks may have killed dozens of soldiers, but AFP has been unable to independently verify those claims.
The junta, which seized power on the promise to crack down on the violence, has ceased to communicate on jihadist attacks.
On Sunday, militants carried out a major attack on a military detachment in the northern town of Nare, two security sources told AFP.
The previous day, the Burkinabe army’s unit in the northern city of Titao was “targeted by a group of several hundred terrorists,” one of the sources said.
While the source did not give a death toll for either attack, they said part of the military base in Titao had been destroyed.
The interior minister of Ghana, which borders Burkina Faso to the south, said the government had “received disturbing information from Burkina Faso of a truck carrying tomato traders from Ghana which was caught in a terrorist attack in Titao.”
Jihadist ‘coordination’
According to the same security source, another army base in Tandjari, in the east of the country, was also attacked Saturday, and several officers killed.
“This series of attacks is not a coincidence,” the source said. “There seems to be coordination among the jihadists.”
A separate security source told AFP that a “terrorist group attacked the (military) detachment in Bilanga,” in the east of the country, on Thursday.
“Much of the detachment was ransacked,” the source said, giving a toll of “about 10 deaths” among the soldiers and civilian volunteers fighting alongside the army.
A local source confirmed the attack, adding there was damage in the town of Bilanga, and that the assailants had stayed at the scene until the following day.
Despite the junta’s vow to restore security, Burkina Faso remains caught in a spiral of violence.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the unrest has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers since 2015 — and more than half of those deaths have come in the past three years.
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