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Blair Melville

@blairmelville.bsky.social
72 followers 248 following 23 posts

Human Rights and Immigration with some boats and mountains at the weekend ⛵️🗻

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Reposted by Blair Melville
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Also under current proposals they won't be allowed to be social care workers after 2028. Ministers still don't seem to understand their own plan.
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Incredible fact! Worth reminding the ‘‘they’ come over here and don’t contribute’ brigade
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Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Everyone should read this article. I'd rather not think about how much money we've already spent for my wife's spouse visa, her visa renewal, my citizenship application and how much more we'll spend for her ILR and citizenship.
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Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“The idea that you could be here for the next 10, 15 years and you’d still have no legal right to remain in the country … how the hell do you plan?..It cuts across any effort to integrate at all.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Fundamentally unfair’: Burnham must overhaul migration reforms, says TUC general secretary
Paul Nowak says changes to immigration rules risk overstretching social care and fuelling far-right sentiment
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Some wee needed context and explanation of what has happened at Ceuta recently
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the3million @the3million.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Have you received a "grant in error" on your EUSS application? We are currently compiling cases to identify what action needs to be taken to ensure that the rights of EU citizens in the UK which were guaranteed under the Withdrawal Agreement are protected.
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Reposted by Blair Melville
James Bowes @jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
This is telling. Work visa main applicants for entry only (excludes Apr-Sep 24 because of limited data). This would be even worse if student/graduate visa switchers, dependants, refugees and family/private life route included. (Countries assigned to ethnicity most immigrants from there belong to).
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
This is absolutely spot on from Emily Thornberry 👏
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
The Prime Minister’s plan to offer rapid routes to settlement for those earning six-figure salaries whilst punishing and making lower-paid workers wait up to 15 years appears to be based on the notion that care workers are “low-skilled” because they are low-paid - its a disgrace
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Take two seven year olds in a primary school in the Prime Minister’s constituency. His Dad is a banker Her Mum is the cleaner at that bank Is the Government’s Ipoproposal that richer child gets permanent status at age 10 while in primary school & working class classmate not until they are 22?
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
No time for messing about
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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Worth remembering that the settlement changes can all be made in the immigration rules - so not even an automatic debate and no real power for parliamentarians to stop them. Huge changes to people's live, with very little automatic parliamentary scrutiny.
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Alf Dubs @alfdubs.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Children need their families. Refugee children are no different. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Pulling up the drawbridge’: Alf Dubs criticises Shabana Mahmood’s plans for child refugees
Exclusive: Labour peer, who came to UK as a refugee, says some ministers try to show they won’t ‘just do things because of their background’
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
First post from me for a while on my occasional Substack, about Labour's earned settlement proposals and the damage they will do. open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Important speech in the debate around extending the length of time people need to wait before settlement - the proposals are a terrible idea which lacks any long term planing
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Matt Goodwin and the end of England: How one man's career explains our public life iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...
iandunt.substack.com
Matt Goodwin and the end of England
How one man's career explains our public life.
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
This is the content I am here for!
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Another practical issue with the ETA roll-out this year, dual British citizens will need to travel on valid British passports if they plan to enter the UK www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
independent.co.uk
Dual citizen Britons without UK passport could be refused entry under rule change
British citizens will no longer be able to return home on non-UK passports due to new entry requirements coming into force in February
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Work Rights Centre @workrights.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Getting ILR means the difference between being able to change jobs freely, and being tied to one employer with ultimate control over your life. Doubling the wait for ILR means doubling the time in precarity. Here's how to speak out against the plans⬇️ www.workrightscentre.org/our-campaign...
workrightscentre.org
Oppose ILR changes | Work Rights Centre
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
No surprise that migrant workers to the UK are net contributors! We need to stop demonising and scapegoating the health and social care migrant workforce. They are doing important work all while contributing to our communities (as well as to the exchequer)
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Mark McGeoghegan @markmcgeoghegan.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
But what if I were to cover up the obvious gender discrimination by disguising the overwhelmingly female case study as a middle-aged white man?
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Ricky @paddington82.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Slides from a Home Office presentation for employers on “earned settlement” — note the case studies: they explicitly play the “good migrant” versus “bad migrant” narrative. Guess which category Sarah, the American, is placed in?
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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
A very useful guide from @alexinlaw.bsky.social at @freemovement.bsky.social
freemovement.org.uk
Briefing: the implications of the “earned settlement” proposals and what they might mean in practice - Free Movement
We’ve now had a few weeks to digest the “earned settlement” policy document, which outlines the proposed changes to the settlement system ahead of the public
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Listening to the Today programme on BBCr4 this morning and I’m depressed - the constant conflation of immigration and asylum and ‘illegal’ migration. The overwhelming number of people who take up refuge in the UK just want a safe place to live and work like the rest of us!
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
I know many people have been saying this for a while now, but really? This is a Labour Government?
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Your regular reminder that there is absolutely nothing "hard" or "tough" about targeting the poorest, most vulnerable, and least able to defend themselves groups of people on the entire planet
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Aside from the sheer misery it will inflict on many people, have they thought about how to staff the asylum team? Where will they find the resources to make more decisions and to be actively reviewing cases when they can barely clear the existing backlog?
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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶s̶t̶ it was not the optimal poll-tested message
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Strathclyde Law School @lawstrath.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
A reminder that, in partnership with the SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, a fully funded PhD opportunity considering private sector evictions in Scotland is now available at the @unistrathclyde.bsky.social Law School. Deadline: 2 May 2025 (with a view to starting in October 2025).
Man with glasses holding books, with SDSCT logo and text FUNDED PHD POSITION TO CONSIDER EVICTIONS IN SCOTLAND
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Migrants' Rights Network @migrantsrights.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
If you have witnessed or experienced an immigration raid since July 2024, pls get in touch anonymously by emailing policy@migrantsrights.org.uk, sending a Whatsapp/Signal message to 07534 488696, or by filling in our reporting tool at www.raids.migrantsrights.org.uk Please get in touch by 28 March.
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Migration Observatory @migobs.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
If you were listening to the Today prog this morning, you'll have heard the shadow Home Sec announcing new Conservative Party proposals to "bring to an end the era of mass low-skilled migration and clamp down on the large number of family visas currently being issued" - so, what are these proposals?
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Chris Philip on #BBCR4 today says that he wants the minimum salary threshold for spouse visas to increase to £38k. This is for the partners of British citizens who happen to fall in love with people who aren’t British.
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
So the tories are at it again targeting immigrants their families (and benefits claimants - just for good measure).
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
From yesterday: Increase to court and tribunal fees from 1 April 2025 | Sonia Lenegan
buff.ly
Increase to court and tribunal fees from 1 April 2025 - Free Movement
The Ministry of Justice has announced increases to court and tribunal fees, to take effect for applications made on or after 1 April 2025. I have pulled out
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Asylum Matters @asylummatters.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Share this incredibly useful guide from @right-to-remain.bsky.social with everyone you can. Knowing your rights, and how to protect others, is as important as ever as the Labour Government copies the hostile, anti-migrant tactics of the previous one.
buff.ly
Immigration raids: your rights, and what to do
We have put together this simple blog against the backdrop of an increasingly violent and Hostile Environment towards migrants in the UK. This is particularly important in light of the recently…
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Getting British citizenship for many refugees just got harder - changes to the good character guidance will block those who have ever used false documents or entered on small boats from *ever* getting citizenship
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
It’s is not only flights back to the UK, I’ve had clients have difficulty boarding flights from the UK the UAE as their BRP did not have validity for 3 months and the eVisa was not seen as evidence
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
It’s no longer surprising, but it’s still always depressing (and shouldn’t be normalised), to see Labour asylum policy - here wrt rights to work - made up on the basis of speculation & right-wing propaganda. 🧵
Labour has dismissed Bell’s proposal, saying it would fuel more migration.
A government source said: “Lifting the ban on asylum seekers work would only increase the pull factor of coming to the UK.
“We’d be playing into the hands people smugglers who could use it as a sales pitch – ‘come to the UK and claim asylum and you’ll get a job and free board in a hotel’”.
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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 09/12/2024
Austria has announced plans to deport Syrian migrants following the fall of the country’s dictator Bashar Assad to rebel forces after 13 years of civil war, while France, Belgium and Germany are also working to pause Syrian asylum applications.
politico.eu
Austria prepares to deport Syrian migrants after Assad regime falls
Belgium, Germany and Austria said they will halt Syrian asylum applications one day after rebel forces ousted the country’s dictator.
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Blair Melville @blairmelville.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The new eVisa system roll out is being delayed and BRPs which say that they expire on the 31st December will now be valid until 31st March Now all we need is every airline , all the banks, landlords and employers to be up to speed with the changes www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...
theguardian.com
UK delays full shift to digital immigration system amid eVisa flaws
People will be allowed to use expired identity documents amid ‘real fear’ of another Windrush-style scandal
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