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Home secretary visits Lampedusa in Italy as National Audit Office says scheme could surpass £580m by 2030Several flights a month will deport asylum seekers to Rwanda “indefinitely”, the home secretary has said, as he argued that the £1.8m a person cost of the scheme was justified.James Cleverly, in his first interview since the government’s plan was approved by parliament on Monday, said he had...

Attempt to cross via overcrowded dinghy from Wimereux aborted after engine stalls and five people drownThey could have been on a school trip. Fifty teenagers from Vietnam, dressed for the biting cold in puffer jackets, smart trainers and woolly beanies, sat on the pavement by the bus shelter outside Gare Calais listening to music and watching videos on their smartphones.They were waiting for the...

International concern over new law increases as UN high commissioner for refugees says it marks ‘step away from UK’s tradition of providing refuge’Three men, a woman and a child were killed attempting to cross the Channel in the early hours of this morning, according to a French coastguard statement.Enver Solomon, the Refugee Council’s chief executive, said this was “another devastating human tragedy” that should...

French coastguard says small boat was carrying more than 100 people during failed crossing attemptFive people have died in an attempt to cross the Channel near the town of Wimereux, south of Calais, French police have said.A spokesperson for France’s national police told Reuters that five asylum seekers had died, while the French coastguard confirmed there was a failed attempt to cross the Channel...

Commissioner expresses grave concern after Rishi Sunak’s asylum policy passes parliamentary stagesThe Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog has condemned Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises “major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law”.The body’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, said the bill, expected to be signed into law on Tuesday after passing its parliamentary stages on...

In today’s newsletter: After months of wrangling, Parliament passed the government’s controversial plan to tackle small boats• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition Continue reading...

Lawyers prepare for legal battles on behalf of individual asylum seekers challenging removal to east AfricaHow the UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan was fought in courtRishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation bill will become law after peers eventually backed down on amending it, opening the way for legal battles over the potential removal of dozens of people seeking asylum.After a marathon battle of “ping pong” over...

PM to publicly warn peers to back down but treatment of Afghans remains a concern for the LordsSky News has broadcast a clip of Rishi Sunak addressing a meeting of the government’s illegal migration operations committee in the cabinet room at No 10 this morning. It is almost certainly a preview of what he will say at the press conference, which is due to...

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a recordA refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”.Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at...

Katherine Anne Rose spent months documenting the Scottish charity, which welcomes and supports forcibly displaced people with the help of the local communityRefuweegee is a play on the words “refugee” and “weegie”, affectionate slang for a Glaswegian. The charity was founded in December 2015 by Selina Hales, a Glasgow native who wanted to welcome displaced people in the city after seeing news coverage of...

Lords also press ministers to allow independent Rwanda monitoring as deportation bill returns to CommonsUK politics – latest updatesRishi Sunak’s government is considering concessions on the Rwanda deportation bill to allow exemptions for Afghans who served alongside UK forces, parliamentary sources say.Ministers are also being pressed to give ground to an amendment to the legislation so that the east African country could be ruled...

Families of those who helped British forces could be deported from Pakistan despite promise to resettle them in UKAfghan families who helped UK forces and then fled to neighbouring Pakistan are in danger of being deported back to the Taliban due to Home Office delays in bringing them to the UK.In the chaotic evacuation period in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in August 2021 some...

Meeting to discuss PM’s key policy overshadowed by reports of lack of housing for deportees or airline to remove them from UKRishi Sunak has welcomed the Rwandan president to Downing Street amid signs that ministers are struggling to find an airline or housing in Kigali to carry out their flagship deportation plan.The meeting on Tuesday was overshadowed by the former home secretary Suella Braverman’s...

Trhas Tesfay, who fled war in Ethiopia, says she suffers hunger headaches as she cannot eat Home Office hotel mealsOne of Ethiopia’s elite female cyclists will be pedalling at the front of one of London’s biggest bike races next month while living in an asylum seeker hotel on less than £10 a week.Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22, rode a bicycle for the first time when...

Five years after scheme’s launch, one victim’s daughter describes how father died before receiving payoutCompensation payments for people affected by the Windrush scandal should be speeded up and increased, victims and campaigners have said.The Windrush compensation scheme was launched by the Home Office five years ago this week after widespread outrage over the scandal, in which thousands of British people were wrongly classed as...

Exclusive: Charities say Home Office should allow 56 days after near 1,000% rise in rough sleeping among accommodation leaversLeading homelessness and refugee charities have called on the government to double the number of days that newly recognised refugees are given to find a home before being evicted from asylum hotels, after a near 1,000% rise in rough sleeping among Home Office accommodation leavers since...

Boat carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years old, along with girl’s pregnant mother, father and three siblings, sankA seven-year-old girl has died in a canal close to Dunkirk after a makeshift boat carrying 16 people from northern France to the UK capsized, the prefecture in France’s Nord department said.The boat, which was carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years...

Disclosure, calculated on basis of 300 deportations, called ‘staggering’ by chair of home affairs committeeRishi Sunak’s flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost taxpayers £1.8m for each of the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali, Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has disclosed.The overall cost of the scheme stands at more than half a billion pounds, according to the figures released...

University leaders accuse ministers of wanting to ‘diminish our success’ as figures show a plunge in visas issued to overseas studentsImmigration restrictions imposed on international students threaten to damage the UK economy, according to university leaders, with the number enrolling from overseas falling by a third.Universities UK (UUK), which represents mainstream universities and colleges, said the government’s new curbs, coupled with steep visa fee...

David Neal, who was fired for allegedly disclosing immigration failings at City Airport to the media, has urged James Cleverly to replace him to ensure proper scrutiny in Home OfficeThe UK’s sacked borders watchdog has urged James Cleverly to shake up the Home Office or risk further major security breaches amid warnings that key immigration policies including plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda...

Officials say 179 people trying to cross Channel were rescued after four French-led operationsOne person has died and two others are missing in the Channel after an incident involving a small boat, French rescue services have said.According to the Préfecture maritime Manche et mer du Nord, four French-led rescue operations took place in the Channel on Wednesday, coordinated by the regional operational surveillance and...

In today’s newsletter: Why David Neal lost his job, and what he had to say about the faltering immigration system• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. When then-home secretary Priti Patel appointed David Neal as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration in 2021, the Commons home affairs committee refused to endorse the decision. They were worried that the...

Government defends decision that opposition politicians say could put vulnerable people at riskA scheme allowing Ukrainians to join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed, in what opposition politicians described as a cruel and “below the radar” move days before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full invasion.The Ukraine family scheme is being shut but government officials said a separate Homes...

Successor unlikely to be appointed for six months – covering period when PM hopes flights will take offThe UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration has called it “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced.In a break with the treatment of his predecessors, David Neal has been told he will not serve a second term as...