Detention Forum

UK Home Office drops ‘racist’ algorithm for visa applicants after migrants’ rights campaigners launch legal challenge - London Daily The UK has agreed to stop using a computer algorithm to help decide visa applications after migrants’ rights campaigners launched a judicial review of the "racist" system, which they say enabled "spee...

The Home Office is scrapping its “visa streaming” algorithm, after a legal challenge by JCWI + Foxglove. Though the Home Office denies bias, the algorithm created a “fast lane” to allow “speedy boarding for white people” from nations favoured by the UK.
londondaily.com/uk-home-offi...

Explainer: statement and consultation on “earned settlement” — Praxis On Thursday 20th November, the government published a statement and a consultation on their planned changes to  settlement in the UK (also known as indefinite leave to remain or ILR). In sh...

Last week the Government announced changes to settlement, turning the lives of millions of people upside down. Here's what we know so far 👉 www.praxis.org.uk/news/explain...

Created with @gmiau.bsky.social

The government’s plan to review refugee status every 30 months is unworkable and extremely costly - and applying it retrospectively to people already granted protection will make an unmanageable system even worse.

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik ‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

"In her telling, racism and xenophobia seem not themselves objectively bad things that must be combatted, but a natural outcome that occurs when too many rights are given to immigrants and asylum seekers." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Imagine if 2000 children had gone missing from boarding schools. How much outrage there would be. Imagine how quickly there would be demands for inquiries and actions. Instead because these are unaccompanied asylum seeking children they will either be ignored or blamed for being trafficked.

Our politics are still defined by resentment & hatred of these people.

We still believe that they can be perpetually denied all the safety & comforts that we have always taken for granted.

We dehumanise ourselves & our society by treating their lives like they're worthless.

Today is the 4th anniversary of the worst ever tragedy in the Channel.

At least 27 men, women & children drowned in the freezing water, & 4 more have never been found.

Since then, neither we nor the French have done a thing to offer people in this situation with real solutions.

New research shows almost 2 our of 3 people detained can't access legal representation, let alone legal aid
www.biduk.org/articles/new...

Since August, we’ve witnessed how this government’s UK–France deal puts people in danger. Their new asylum reforms will only push more people — including the most vulnerable — into detention and expose them to serious risks of harm. Our full statement: detentionaction.org.uk/2025/11/21/o...

Earned settlement The government is consulting on how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented.

The UK government's proposals on changes to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) rules have now been published in a consultation paper, ahead of a statement from the Home Secretary to MPs shortly www.gov.uk/government/c...

The government have opened a consultation on drastically limiting the Indefinite Leave to Remain system.

Presumably they're hoping not many people will notice that it's taking place.

So if you have views or know anyone who does, please take the opportunity to respond.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Labour’s Indefinite Leave to Remain plans "immoral" and "dangerous" for patients, says nursing union "Our international colleagues deserve clarity over their futures, not to be used as political footballs by politicians"

The @rcn.org.uk has called Labour’s plans to double the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain “immoral” and “a betrayal” of migrant workers in the NHS

leftfootforward.org/2025/11/labo...

Up to 50,000 nurses could quit UK over immigration plans, survey suggests Exclusive: union leaders say proposed changes are immoral and could threaten patient safety if there is staff exodus

This is shocking. Up to 50,000 nurses could quit the UK over the government’s immigration proposals, plunging the NHS into its biggest ever workforce crisis, research suggests

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

In this legal update @right-to-remain.bsky.social seeks to explain what is known about the Govt’s proposals, and what they would mean for anyone affected by the UK asylum system.
It aims to show the real impact of these plans, and why they are harsh, unrealistic, and unlikely to work.

Christopher Bertram | ‘Core Protection’ Refugeehood is not supposed to be like this. The ideal envisaged by the Refugee Convention is that refugee status should...

Excellent piece in the @lrb.co.uk by @crookedfootball.bsky.social about the Labour government's asylum plans www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...

Labour has given up on integration Shabana Mahmood's latest asylum plans prioritise return at the expense of integrating newcomers

Remember integration? That thing voters "really, really" care about? Where's that in the latest plans?

My column:

Headline: "Home Office to deport refugees already granted asylum in the UK"

Quote copied from the article (which is paywalled): "Under the new rules, if a refugee is already in the country and has been granted five years of leave to stay, the Home Office will not shorten their current leave. However, at the end of the five years, the government will review if their country is safe, and return the migrant if it is. If their country is not deemed safe, the migrant will not receive automatic lifetime settlement but will move to the Home Office’s new model. They will get 30 months more leave to remain before their next review, with lifetime settlement only available 20 years after their arrival."

The i Paper is reporting that once the changes are brought in, the 20 year route will be applied to refugees who are already here.

I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.

The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum.

UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours

No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands)

UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany)

Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.

Asylum seekers only allowed to stay in the UK temporarily, Mahmood to announce Shabana Mahmood promises ‘the most significant changes to our asylum system in modern times’ in Monday speech

📢 @minnierahman.bsky.social “Stripping migrants of basic human rights isn’t 'reform', it’s the first step down a dangerous slope. Today it’s migrants. Tomorrow it’s anyone who becomes politically inconvenient”.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

🔈 We’re recruiting: Learning & Strategy Partner (MEL Focus)

We're looking for a Learning & Strategy Partner to support our monitoring, evaluation and learning for migrant-led organising and capacity-building in London.

Find out more: buff.ly/iCWVKS7

Visit visa application wrongly refused four times by Home Office - Free Movement Decision making in visit visa applications is consistently awful and refusals very difficult to challenge given the remedy is an expensive judicial review.

These visit visa refusals and repeat judicial reviews are maddeningly frustrating. Family visits are one of the most serious and important immigration applications but are treated as trivial. freemovement.org.uk/visit-visa-a...

Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #95 - Free Movement Welcome to the weekly Free Movement newsletter! 

Latest post from us: Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #95 | Sonia Lenegan

Politicians are tearing Britain apart. Instead of fixing our NHS, making housing affordable and reducing wealth inequality they are rolling out the red carpet for the far right. This racist package of hostility against people seeking safety will further divide our communities and create a two-tier society divided into people who are told they belong, and those who are told they don’t. Survivors of war, persecution and torture can’t properly rebuild their lives and feel settled in our communities with the constant threat of deportation looming over them. Deterrence policies like these may be a great distraction for a government worried about next week’s budget and wracked by political infighting, but they won’t stop Channel crossings nor build inclusive, thriving communities.

Our statement on the government’s abhorrent plans for people seeking safety.

Politicians are dividing communities, when they could be building affordable homes and strengthening them.

🧵: The Government’s dehumanising new asylum proposals – what are they, and why it matters.

It's worth us saying, none of these plans are in force yet. They require new rules or legislation. And in many areas, the details are still unclear.

Shabana Mahmood is wrong Another cowardly attack on immigrants does not hide the incompetence of the Starmer government

Shabana Mahmood is wrong - Another cowardly attack on immigrants does not hide the incompetence of the Starmer government.

Me, for the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

so much for 'evidence-based' policy making … more like knee jerk

Tommy Robinson backs Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms Welcoming the proposals, the far-right activist posted to social media: ‘The Overton window has been obliterated, well done patriots’

If your policy gets a public thumbs-up from a far-right extremist, you know something has CLEARLY gone wrong.

This isn't who we are. Tell the Home Secretary to stop tearing refugees' lives & families apart: act.safepassage.org.uk/email-home-s...

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

More evidence of how hate is being monetised.
As @emily4mk.bsky.social says, "whether it’s individuals or foreign non-state actors, foreign state actors or domestic actors, we need to look at how we improve + tighten up" regulation.
Tech companies, politicans + regulators must work together now.

Predictable from the full press releases. New routes to settlement through work and study were mentioned, subject to paying fees. It's still a terrible policy.

Just wilful performative cruelty that is entirely out of step with the majority of British people.

How many Labour MPs got into politics in order to vote for stealing jewellery off of people seeking refuge from war and persecution?