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markjoselin.bsky.social @markjoselin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Finally, @stellacreasy.bsky.social raised the need for the left to shape the debate, criticising the dysfunction and wastefulness of the asylum system and pushing for a focus on root causes. She also emphasised the contribution refugees make in the UK, and the need for that to be part of the story.

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markjoselin.bsky.social @markjoselin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Imran Hussain, from @refugeecouncil.bsky.social, talked about positive steps the Government has made - scrapping the Rwanda deal and processing asylum claims more quickly. But he also emphasised the need to make sure decisions made are of a high quality, and for the Govt to provide a new narrative.

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markjoselin.bsky.social @markjoselin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

@robfordmancs.bsky.social highlighted the need for public consent for the asylum system, the Govt's success at getting small boats numbers down and closing asylum hotels, and the value of safe and legal routes in building support for refugees.

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markjoselin.bsky.social @markjoselin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

With @anooshc.bsky.social as our chair, we heard first from @johnmct.bsky.social who talked about the problem created if the Government appears to not have control of its borders, but also the need for the Government to be telling a better story, one aligned with Labour values.

Picture of audience and speakers at Refugee Council Labour Party Conference event

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Act Build Change @actbuildchange.com · 29/09/2026

💼 Policy and Advocacy Manager at @4refugeewomen.bsky.social actbuildchange.com/opportunitie... We’re looking for a Policy and Advocacy Manager to join our small but mighty Campaigns team.

actbuildchange.com

Policy and Advocacy Manager at Women for Refugee Women

We’re looking for a Policy and Advocacy Manager to join our small but mighty Campaigns team.

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NACCOM @naccomnetwork.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

‘Moving Forward’ with @homelesslink.bsky.social highlights our national and local recommendations to improvxe the move-on process and prevent refugee homelessness. Read it now ➡️ naccom.org.uk/moving-forwa...

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Home Secretary talking about "reopening" the UK Resettlement Schemes. I assume she means she'll allow UNHCR to make referrals again. There were 296 arrivals on UKRS in the first half of the year, so people have still been coming. In the last year, arrivals on UKRS dropped by around a half.

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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Chancellor John Healey praises the RNLI, "risking their lives to save others on the sea" - part of "the quiet patriotism that makes Britain great"

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Safe and legal routes are a good thing, and welcome that Mahmood is going to be saying this later today. But, has to been seen in the context that arrivals will be in the hundreds, and the Government have shut down the Afghan scheme and refugee family reunion. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

UK to open new refugee resettlement routes for Afghan women and Palestinians

Exclusive: Move by Shabana Mahmood comes after closure of Afghan scheme last year but experts say numbers too small to deter Channel crossings

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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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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hampshire police say man was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or endangering their safety under the Aviation & Maritime Security Act 1990, criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, & conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Merchant Shipping Act 1995

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Helen Bamber Foundation 🧡 @helenbamber.org · 23/09/2026

These are mums, dads and children. Families just like ours. They deserve the chance to live with dignity, stability and hope. Our clients speak to @thetimes.com about the realities of life for families living in asylum hotels. 🗞️ Read here: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

5. After around 30 hours at sea, the dinghy was intercepted by the RNLI and those on board transferred to two lifeboats. Two lifeboat personnel tried to secure the empty dinghy. Thomas yelled abuse and knifed the dinghy to deflate it - with a rescuer still on board.

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Interesting report by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee on how the Home Office managed to accidently delete a section of the immigration rules, and the workaround that highlights the lack of parliamentary scrutiny of the Home Secretary's powers publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5902/ld...

publications.parliament.uk

House of Lords - Twelfth Report - Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Earlier this week I gave evidence to the public bill committee scrutinising the Immigration and Asylum Bill. One topic covered was the proposed "refugee tax", and @refugeecouncil.bsky.social's concern that it will force people into destitution (thanks @4refugeewomen.bsky.social for the clip)

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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.

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CJ McKinney @cjmckinney.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A committee of MPs heard evidence on the Immigration and Asylum Bill this week. This is one important concern about the proposed new appeal system with non-lawyers as judges:

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Abena Oppona-Asare has been elected chsir of the housing, communities and local government select committee

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Catherine Atkinson has been elected to chair the Justice select committee

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marleymorris.bsky.social @marleymorris.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Today @ippr.org we're calling for a major overhaul of citizenship policy. Our new report argues that new migrants to the UK should be seen as potential citizens. This means the process of obtaining citizenship should be both more accessible and more meaningful. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

theguardian.com

Applicants for UK citizenship charged more than five times the admin cost

Fee of £1,709 compares with an estimated administrative cost of just £324, according to Home Office data

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

New tribunal stats out this morning - at the end of June there were 90,741 asylum appeals outstanding, around 117,000 people. That's around three times the size of asylum backlog now. A year earlier it was 60,000 cases. The average time to disposal of an appeals increased again to 72 weeks.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The membership of the bill committee for the Immigration and Asylum Bill is up now. Evidence sessions take place next Tuesday committees.parliament.uk/committee/84...

committees.parliament.uk

Immigration and Asylum Bill - Membership - Committees - UK Parliament

Committee membership for the Immigration and Asylum Bill.

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Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Incidents like this have happened with increasing regularity over the past couple of years, with many triggered by local misinformation about the arrival of non-white people at hotels But it has also happened elsewhere, including a church gathering in a park and a Scout trip to an activity centre

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In an article about the number of asylum refusals that are being overturned at appeal, the Home Office response boasts that "The asylum grant rate has been slashed from 77 per cent in 2022 to 38 per cent this year". No concern about whether decisions are correct. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

thetimes.com

Two thirds of rejected asylum claims overturned on appeal

The number rises to more than eight in ten for Afghans. Almost 5,000 migrants who have had appeals dismissed are still living in taxpayer-funded accommodation, data shows

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

England's young people performing esp well, putting UK in the top ten for maths, reading and science. One driver of bucking trend is better integration: closing white/minority attainment gap for children of migrants, where west European countries lag www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

England’s teenagers outperform peers in most countries in maths, reading and science

OECD test sees results dip in almost all member nations and warns of ‘digital distractions’ eroding academic skills

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Lauren Starkey @laurenhstarkey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Men will send me emails like this and then go rampaging on the streets of Dover and Portsmouth claiming they want to keep refugees out in order to “PROTECT OUR WOMEN!” Not a single one of the young male refugees I’ve worked with has ever spoken to me with such violent misogyny.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sarah Jones, the Home Office Minister who made the statement on the Dover and Portsmouth far right activity, claimed that the drop is asylum grant rates is a “marker of progress”. So fewer people being recognised as refugees is a good thing, no matter whether those decisions are correct?

Screenshot of Sarah Jones comment: We also need to do more to reduce the incentives for people to come into the country. The asylum grant rate, which is a statistic that I have not mentioned yet, has fallen from 77% in 2022 to 38% this year. That is another marker of progress, and we are reforming the asylum system more widely.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

If the principle of people contributing towards asylum support costs is so important, why not let people work while they're waiting for a decision? Better yet, why not make sure those decisions are right first time, so that millions aren't wasted waiting for incorrect refusals to be overturned?

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CJ McKinney @cjmckinney.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Potentially quite a significant change for people who've lost their work visa sponsorship because of employer misconduct, although tied to formal recognition through the modern slavery system questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

There’s a statement of changes to the immigration rules due at some point today.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

A year ago today, the then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, stood up in parliament and announced the temporary "pausing" of refugee family reunion. 12 months on, the route is still shut, and @refugeecouncil.bsky.social estimates more than 20,000 people have been prevented from applying.

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FPL Focal @fpl.page · 28/08/2026

Dorgu captained himself again! fpl.page/real-players

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

And this comes with a huge cost to the taxpayer. @refugeecouncil.bsky.social estimated the Home Office could spend over £1bn supporting people while they wait for an appeal who will then end up getting refugee status www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/press-office...

refugeecouncil.org.uk

Analysis shows that the backlog of asylum appeals will cost hundreds of millions to resolve - Refugee Council

Poor quality decisions from the Home Office could cost up to £1.2 billion.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The number of refugees arriving on safe and legal routes continues to plummet. Across family reunion and resettlement schemes, it's down 40% to 16,846 people in year to June 2026. That's after the Government "paused" family reunion and stopped applications to the Afghan schemes.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Lots of good news for the Government in the asylum stats - applications down, initial decision backlog down, hotel numbers down. But, initial decision backlog progress hides problems at appeals stage, which is now 3-times the size. Tribunal data shows 2/3rds of processed appeals are successful.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Another Home Office quarterly asylum stats release, another Home Office quarterly stats release without any appeals statistics. They now haven't updated those stats since March 2023 - yet are ploughing ahead with the huge reforms of the appeals system, replacing the existing judge-led tribunal.

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Helen Bamber Foundation 🧡 @helenbamber.org · 26/08/2026

A new report shows profound isolation contributed to the deaths of 100+ care leavers in England in 2025 — 11 of whom were children seeking asylum. It also exposes the devastating impact of wrongly assessing young people seeking asylum as adults. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

‘Immense drop-off’ in support contributing to care leaver deaths in England, review says

Death rate three to four times higher than among general population blamed on isolation of those leaving care

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Free Movement @freemovement.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Regulatory Policy Committee has rated part of the Home Office's impact assessment of the Immigration and Asylum Bill as "not fit for purpose" — specifically on Article 8 public interest and modern slavery rules changes. We dig into what that means in our latest newsletter.

freemovement.org.uk

Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #133 - Free Movement

Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter!

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

My @refugeecouncil.bsky.social colleague Imran Hussain has a letter in the Guardian today following up on Andy Burnham's pledge on ending rough sleeping. He highlights the importance of addressing the role that the Home Office has in making refugees homeless in the first place to meet that goal.

Text of the letter: he prime minister’s pledge to end rough sleeping is admirable, and he’s right about the importance of catching people “long before they hit the pavement”. But to succeed, the he must confront the Home Office’s role in creating homelessness. Last year, around 21,000 households in England needed homelessness help after eviction from Home Office accommodation.

Research by the Refugee Council and others has highlighted how delayed documentation, inadequate support and too little time to find accommodation leave refugees facing homelessness and destitution within weeks of a being given leave to stay in the UK.

Current plans making refugee status more precarious, putting refugees in thousands of pounds of debt and further restricting asylum support will only worsen this. Until the Home Office stops pushing refugees on to the streets, ending rough sleeping will be out of reach.
Imran Hussain
Refugee Council

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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Some thoughts on the LibDems suggestion that the UK sign up to the EU asylum pact - presented as a solution to the small boat crisis. In practice it seems to suggest signing up to the Dublin responsibility rules and Eurodac (there's more to the pact) 1/ www.libdems.org.uk/news/article...

libdems.org.uk

Restoring safety, order and fairness to our asylum system

We are calling for the UK to enter the EU's landmark new Migration and Asylum Pact to help implement an asylum system that is fair and effective for all.

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Free Movement @freemovement.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

🧵 1. ILPA are recruiting a Legal Officer to support their legal and policy work on immigration, asylum and nationality law. The permanent role offers up to £36,000 per annum with hybrid working. Applications close at 9am on 4 September 2026.

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

If the PM is going to achieve this, then he needs to have some serious words with the Home Office. Kicking refugees out of Home Office accommodation with only a few weeks' notice and no support leaves thousands facing homelessness after a positive asylum decision www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise | Andy Burnham

Today we begin our drive to get everyone in for Christmas. And it will be for local communities up and down the land to decide how best to do it, says prime minister Andy Burnham

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NACCOM @naccomnetwork.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The latest figures show 4,620 households faced homelessness when they left asylum accommodation between Jan-Mar 26. Further evidence that if the government really intends to end rough sleeping, they can’t ignore the link between the asylum system and homelessness. 1/2

refugeecouncil.org.uk

PM must fix the gap between asylum and housing support to end rough sleeping - Refugee Council

Analysis of new homelessness data demonstrates why better support for refugees leaving Home Office accommodation is needed to end rough sleeping.

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James Bowes @jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Then even the UK’s reunion scheme was scrapped. Now it’s only possible for refugees to sponsor family if they meet the criteria for sponsoring a family visa (eg £29,000 salary, spouse passes an A1 English test)

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Jon Featonby @jonfeatonby.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Better collaboration with the EU on migration is a sensible idea. Good to be clear on what this idea from the Lib Dems would include, which would be taking asylum applicants from EU countries with family in the UK, and being part of the new solidarity mechanism www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

independent.co.uk

Burnham urged to join EU pact to tackle small boats and fix Brexit ‘mess’

Lib Dems accused Nigel Farage’s Reform of preferring to claim they would ‘send in the Navy at taxpayers’ expense’ and than admit they’re responsible

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