City Hall launch of ICAR research on disabled refugees and asylum seekers

ICAR’s new research into levels of support for disabled refugees and asylum seekers was launched at London’s City Hall on 14 November. The research was commissioned by the Metropolitan Support Trust (MST) and supported by the Greater London Authority (GLA).
 
A full house of 100+ participants including many of the organisations and individuals who participated in [...]

Asylum Update – July 30th 2008

Research
Good Intentions: A review of the New Asylum Model and its impact on trafficked women claiming asylum is a new joint research report by the POPPY Project and Asylum Aid.
Birmingham: A City in Need of Hope? analyses the situation of asylum seekers and refugees living in the West Midlands, using the Independent Asylum Commission’s Interim [...]

Asylum Update – 25th June 2008

Research
The UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database  provides data and trends on the “Population of concern to UNHCR” at country, regional, and global levels. Updated along with the recent 2007 Global Trends report, data up to 31 December 2007 can be downloaded.
Structure and Operation of the KhAD/WAD in Afghanistan 1978-1992 is a recent UNHCR Note examining [...]

Asylum Update – 18th June 2008

Research

UNHCR has released its annual report “2007 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons”, showing refugee numbers rising for second year running.

See also: UNHCR press release, Guardian interview with the High Commissioner, 2007-8 increase in Afghan minors at Dover

The Red Cross have publicized the findings of a survey of British perceptions of refugees [...]

Asylum Update – 11th June 2008

Research
Destitution in the Asylum System in Leicester is a new report commissioned by the Leicester Refugee and Asylum Seekers Voluntary Sector Forum and co-ordinated by Refugee Action, which surveys 135 destitute asylum seekers.
The Children, Youth and Migration Network is an international network of researchers and professionals set up following the recent Children and Migration conference in Cork. Anyone [...]

Asylum Update – 14th May 2008

Research
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is gathering evidence for its Human Rights Inquiry into how human rights works in Britain. The deadline is 21 June for both employees and users of the public and voluntary sectors to submit evidence.
Journal article: The Human Rights of Failed Asylum Seekers in the United Kingdom by J.A. Sweeney [...]

London elections – impact on asylum and refugee policy?

What are the likely effects on asylum seekers and refugees in the capital, particularly for the future of London’s refugee integration strategy, of a victory by the main candidates? While the subject of asylum and refugees is not a clear campaigning issue and is unlikely to appear explicitly in candidates manifestos, they are impacted upon [...]

Independent Asylum Commission launches interim findings

Last week the IAC launched its interim findings at the House of Commons from a year’s consultation and research with asylum seekers, immigration officials, policy-makers and the general public. The commission is a laudable exercise: to independently assess the efficacy of the asylum system from the perspective of a range of citizens and taxpayers in [...]

Defining Britishness

Last night, Bernard Crick and Anne Phillips spoke at the LSE on Britishness and ‘British values’. If you are familiar with the work of either you will not have been surprised about the content of proceedings. Crick laboured, with validity, the point about the historically multi-national nature of Britain and the confusion this has caused; [...]

Earning citizenship (2) – why now?

I didn’t pick this up at the time of my previous post on this, but why are the government making these proposals now, just a few months before Lord Goldsmith reports on the findings of his independent citizenship review for the Ministry of Justice? Is it pre-empting the findings? What if the findings are contradictory [...]