64 m. ago First person removed to France under ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal, says UK

Agreement reached with France allows for removal of asylum seekers who arrive on small boatsUK politics live – latest updatesThe first Channel migrant has been deported to France under the controversial one in, one out deal, the Home Office has confirmed.It follows three days of cancellations of tickets of asylum seekers due to fly and a high court challenge that halted the imminent removal of a 25-year-old Eritrean man to France on Tuesday evening. He was granted more time to gather evidence relating to his claim that he is a victim of trafficking. Continue reading...

Economics

1 hour ago First person removed to France under ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal, says UK government

Agreement reached with France allows for removal of asylum seekers who arrive on small boatsThe UK has returned the first asylum seeker to France under a “one in, one out” agreement to remove people who arrive on small boats, the Home Office has confirmed.Keir Starmer and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, agreed the pilot scheme, under which Britain will deport to France undocumented people who arrived in small boats in return for accepting an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with British family connections. Continue reading...

Politics

28 h. ago Ebony & Ivory review – definitely not Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder in silly, surreal indie comedy

A pop icon and a musical legend meet on the Mull of Kintyre in 1981 and dress up as sheep in Jim Hosking’s daft, deadpan offeringJim Hosking is the wacky deadpan surrealist of indie cinema who has now created another bizarre stoner comedy, a two-hander and a bit lower budget than his earlier works such as The Greasy Strangler and An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. It is like an epic-length Mitchell and Webb sketch in fact, the kind of film you find yourself laughing along to, just a bit, in a spirit of throwing in the towel – a spirit of not quite being able to believe that two actors, mugging and gurning at each other, really are saying these same lines to one other, over and over again.The setting is Mull of Kintyre in 1981, and a pop star called Paul, with a strangely familiar but also entirely ersatz Liverpool accent, is welcoming a visitor, who arrives implausibly by rowing boat through the choppy grey sea. This is a blind Black pop legend called Stevie, who appears nonetheless...

Events

31 h. ago Voices: It is deluded to slash foreign aid in refugee hotspots without expecting more boats to arrive

Prevention is always better than cure, writes Sarah Champion, so investing in ways for people to feel secure and earn a living in their home country through aid is important

Events

40 h. ago Eritrean man wins High Court bid to block removal in latest blow to Government's ‘one in, one out’ drive

Ministers agreed the pilot scheme with the French government in July as part of efforts to deter the number of arrivals by small boat crossings

Politics

42 h. ago Man wins High Court bid to block removal to France under ‘one in, one out’ drive

Ministers agreed the pilot scheme with the French government in July as part of efforts to deter the number of arrivals by small boat crossings.

Events

46 h. ago No 10 denies ‘one in one out’ migrant deal with France is ‘shambles’

Plans to forcibly remove people who arrived in small boats abandoned for second dayDowning Street has denied that the government’s returns deal with France is in chaos after plans to forcibly remove from the UK people arriving in small boats were abandoned for a second day.Asked by reporters if the latest delay meant the so-called “one in one out” agreement was “a shambles”, the prime minister’s spokesperson said “No”. Continue reading...

Economics

49 h. ago Sex work and abuse: the women trapped in Malawi’s growing refugee camp

With the US no longer accepting refugees, Dzaleka’s residents have no prospect of relocation. Three women tell us what life is like in a camp designed for 10,000 people but which now holds more than 58,000• Photographs by Amos Gumulira for the GuardianTears stream down Francine’s* face as she pulls her glove off. Her right hand is covered by a pale, mottled burn scar. Her fingers are stiff and unnaturally bent. Francine turned to sex work to survive soon after she arrived alone at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp in 2015, having travelled there from Burundi.On Christmas Eve in 2022, a client refused to pay. When she blocked the doorway, he grabbed a boiling-hot saucepan of beans and threw it at her, scalding her hand and chest. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago First asylum seekers will be sent back to France in days as ministers 'straining at the bit'

Asylum seekers who arrived in small boats will be sent back to France as soon as Monday under a one-in one-out deal Keir Starmer struck with French President Emmanuel Macron

Politics

7 d. ago How the 1,097 migrants who arrived on small boats last Saturday will cost British taxpayers £44million in a single year... including free dental care, legal aid and even swimming lessons

On Saturday, the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood's first full day in office, 17 dinghies arrived on the shores of Britain carrying a staggering total of 1,097 migrants.

Economics

1 week ago First small boat removals to France 'imminent' says Labour's new Home Secretary

Shabana Mahmood said the first removals of small boat arrivals to France are imminent after a 'one in one out' deal was reached between the two nations over the summer

Society

1 week ago Trash to transport: crossing Bass Strait in a boat made of Tasmanian fish farm debris

Samuel McLennan spent two years salvaging for his ocean-going vessel and has slowly made his way to Victoria. Otis Filley jumps aboard for part of the journeySign up for the Rural Network email newsletterWord spread through French Island’s WhatsApp group before we’d even docked – there was a boat made of rubbish heading their way. By the time Samuel McLennan secured his vessel built from marine debris at Tankerton Jetty, a small crowd had formed. Alan Pentland, editor of Off-the-Grid, the island’s newsletter, was already waiting to get a photo and eager for a story.A constant stream of people came down over the next two hours – to have a chat, come onboard, ask questions and share their excitement.French Island residents gather to inspect the unusual vessel after word spread through the islands WhatsApp group about the arrival of a boat made of rubbish. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Farage confirms he wants to deport female asylum seekers back to the Taliban in Afghanistan

Farage also backtracked on a promise to stop small boat arrivals within two weeks of gaining power

Events

1 week ago Nigel Farage says Reform WILL deport Afghan women back to the Taliban if they arrive in Britain via small boats

The Reform UK leader has promised to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if his party wins power at the next general election.

Politics

1 week ago The queue for Dover? Pictures show large group of men idling by notorious French people smuggling port as UK little boat arrivals pass 50,000 since Labour swept to power last year 

The milestone underscores the failure of Sir Keir Starmer 's 'smash the gangs' strategy, which critics have long insisted will not work without an effective deterrent for the migrants themselves.

Politics

1 week ago Brexit didn’t solve Britain’s woes, but no matter: leaving the ECHR definitely will. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? | Polly Toynbee

As Reform gathers for its conference, momentum builds for ditching the European convention on human rights. It would be a disasterSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreThere will be fireworks and celebration at Nigel Farage’s party conference this weekend. Burgeoning membership and council seats as Reform UK tops 30% in the polls. Immigration is the boat that sailed him here: the more small boats arriving, the broader his wolfish grin. Prime inflamer of foreigner hatred that he is, black and brown people report what they call the Farage effect in a wave of attacks: Mothin Ali, new deputy head of the Greens and a Leeds councillor, was attacked with bottles while with his family last week on Cromer beach in Norfolk, and racist abuse was hurled at them. He said that Reform rhetoric was causing people to blame immigrants and non-white people for Britain’s prob...

Politics

1 week ago Man whose arrest sparked asylum hotel protests found guilty of sexual assault

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu assaulted a woman and a girl days after arriving in the UK on a small boat

Events

2 w. ago I want more migrants to LEAVE the UK than come here... and I'll put boat arrivals in camps, pledges Robert Jenrick

The Tory justice spokesman also argued that the points-based system created under previous governments was the 'worst policy mistake' in his lifetime.

Events

2 w. ago Small boat arrivals in Britain see quietest August in four years

Despite small boat crossings continuing between France and UK shores, last month was the quietest August since the world was dealing with the Covid pandemic

Politics

2 w. ago Richard Tice hits back at C of E criticism of Reform immigration policy

Deputy leader says archbishop should stay out of matter after Stephen Cottrell calls policy isolationist and kneejerkReform UK has engaged in a war of words with the Church of England over the party’s plans to deport all asylum seekers who arrive in small boats, after the church’s most senior bishop called the proposal “isolationist, short-term [and] kneejerk”.Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, hit back against the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, on Sunday, accusing him of interfering in domestic politics. Continue reading...

Events