A temporary injunction that was set to block asylum seekers from being housed at an Essex hotel has been overturned at the Court of Appeal.

Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel in Epping, and the Home Office challenged a High Court ruling that would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed there beyond September 12.

In a ruling last week, Mr Justice Eyre granted Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) an interim injunction after the authority claimed that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules by using the Bell as accommodation for asylum seekers.

After a hearing on Thursday, three Court of Appeal judges ruled in favour of Somani Hotels and the Home Office on Friday, stating that Mr Justice Eyre’s ruling was “seriously flawed in principle”.

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Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/epping-justice-home-office-nigel-farage-bell-b2816572.html

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The latest Home Office statistics show that almost two-fifths of those who claimed asylum in the UK in the 12 months to June 2025 arrived via small boat.

Under a new agreement between the British and French governments, some people who come to the UK this way will be detained and sent back to France.

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xgkx20dyvo

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According to a regular tracker of voters’ concerns, immigration has overtaken the economy as the biggest issue amid anger over record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel, including more than 27,000 this year.

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Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/uk-faces-more-protests-legal-092431126.html

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The far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is leaving the Netherlands’ government over its policy for asylum-seekers, its leader Geert Wilders said on Tuesday, toppling the governing coalition.

“I signed up for the strictest asylum policy, not for the downfall of the Netherlands,” Wilders told reporters Tuesday morning. “And our responsibility for this cabinet therefore ends here.”

Wilders’ decision to withdraw support for the most right-leaning government in Dutch history has plunged the country’s politics into chaos. It leaves the government, led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, with just 51 out of 150 seats in parliament.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the decision “unnecessary and irresponsible.” But speaking with reporters after a Tuesday afternoon cabinet meeting, he offered few details on his conversations with Wilders.

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/03/europe/netherlands-government-collapse-geert-wilders-intl

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Since Taliban authorities seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, they have imposed an austere interpretation of Islam and progressively driven women out of public spaces.

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Provisional data from the Home Office, or interior ministry, showed on Wednesday that 4,644 people had been detected arriving across the Channel on small boats such as inflatable dinghies up to March 26 this year.

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The Rwanda bill, which is accompanied by a treaty with the African country, forms a key part of Sunak’s pledge to stop people illegally reaching the south coast of England in small boats.

The government quickly introduced the legislation in an attempt to side step international human rights obligations after the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that proposals to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful, further stalling the Prime Minister’s hope of enacting the policy ahead of the general election, which must be called before the end of next year.

The Bill, which seeks to declare Rwanda is a safe country, has opened up severe dividing lines in the Conservative party, with those on the right wing of the party keen to shut off all routes to asylum seekers to challenge deportation to Rwanda, while Tory moderates are less keen on disapply elements of the Human Rights Act in order to achieve that.

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Source: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/rishi-sunak-rwanda-bill-tory-divide-2024-amendments

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Finland’s government said on Tuesday that Russia has recently been allowing asylum seekers to enter its territory without the necessary travel documents, calling it an “international crime.”

According to the Finnish border service, 91 undocumented migrants, many lacking visas, have arrived in Finland and applied for asylum since August; they are nationals of third countries who were transiting Russia, the authorities added. While the country’s interior ministry acknowledged in a Tuesday statement that the numbers are relatively low, it underlined that they have spiked within a short period.

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Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/finland-tighten-border-russia-spike-asylum-seekers/

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More than 24,000 asylum seekers from about one-third of the world’s countries could face removal to Rwanda by the UK Home Office in the future, even though the scheme was found to be unlawful in the court of appeal on Thursday.

Home Office data obtained under a freedom of information request shows that, between January 2021 and March 2023, 24,083 asylum seekers were issued with letters warning them that they were being considered for forcible removal.

A notice of intent letter is issued after the Home Office has declared an asylum claim inadmissible. This means the case cannot be determined in the UK because the asylum seeker previously passed through a safe country before reaching Britain.

The notice of intent is to send the person to a safe third country instead to have their claim determined there. The only country the UK has an agreement with to do this is Rwanda, but because of the continuing legal proceedings these cases have become part of the Home Office’s record backlog.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/30/over-24000-uk-asylum-seekers-could-be-sent-to-rwanda-despite-court-ruling

The post Over 24,000 UK asylum seekers could be sent to Rwanda despite court ruling first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“This paper is very important. Don’t forget to bring it back to me.” These are the words that Isiaka is told as a young charity worker from the Kisa NGO waves a document in front of him and slips it into a plastic pouch. Isiaka nods as he readjusts his cap and starts to leave the office. At the door, he quickly turns around to pick up a large carton of orange juice he had left there.

“I mustn’t forget this. It is my only meal of the day,” he explains.

Each day, more and more people just like Isiaka come through the doors of the charity, which specializes in legal aid for asylum seekers. In recent years, Cyprus has become a key destination for thousands of migrants from Syria, Bangladesh, India, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

For the past two years, arrival numbers have increased considerably after hitting a low during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. According to official figures, nearly 14,000 asylum applications were registered in the country in 2021 — compared to 7,821 in 2019. Those figures could still even be “far exceeded in 2022,” chief of staff at the Ministry of Interior, Loizos Michael, says.

Michael adds that asylum seekers now represent a total of 5% of the island nation’s population, which compares to 1% or less in other European Union (EU) countries. Between January and March 2022 alone, 5,066 asylum applications have already been filed in Cyprus.

Elizabeth Kassinis, head of the Caritas migrant center in in the capital Nicosia, agrees that in the past three years, “the situation has changed. There are many more arrivals in Cyprus. Especially because of the regulations in Greece and the closure of the Balkan route.”

“The administration was not prepared for this, it is completely overwhelmed,” she adds.

‘Living hell’
The vast majority of refugees and migrants coming to Cyprus arrive through Turkey. After usually obtaining a student visa for Turkey, they take a flight to Ercan, which is a town in the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island. They then cross the Green Line, a UN-controlled buffer zone, to enter the internationally recognized southern part of the island, which is a member of the EU.

Then they have to spend a few weeks or even months spent at the Pournara reception center to get to lodge their application. Once that is done, they have to leave the camp. This is where asylum seeker say their ordeal begins — which many of the refer to as a “real hell.”

“The first problem is housing,” Kassinis explains, highlighting that when the asylum seekers leave Pournara, they have nowhere to go. The government in Cyprus does not provide accommodation for asylum seekers. There is only space for a few families and single women at the Kofinou reception center in southern Cyprus.

Some of them eventually manage to find some kind of roof over their heads by calling on members of the local communities to help them. But many others, like Isiaka, end up sleeping rough on an empty stomach.

“For the past few days, he has been returning to Pournara every night just in order to not spend the night alone. “I take the bus from Nicosia and go there for the night. I sleep on the ground, near the entrance of the camp, with other Africans. And then the next morning, I go back the other way,” he told InfoMigrants.

Six months ago, Isiaka left Nigeria’s central Kogi State to migrate to Cyprus with hopes of finding a better life away from persecution. Now, he walks the streets of the capital looking for a job all day long, without hope or much available to eat.

“I feel like I will never make it. When I apply for a job, they don’t even let me speak. They just say, ‘Leave, leave, leave!’ It’s because I’m black,” he says, adding that even animals are treated better that that.

‘I don’t eat often. I’m always thirsty’
In Cyprus, asylum seekers are allowed to work while their cases are being processed. But the criteria for obtaining a work permit are “very selective,” Elizabeth Kassinis explains.

“You have to be able to prove that you have an address. But that’s a catch-22 situation: you want a job to pay for housing, but they ask you to have housing to work.”

The only help they receive from the Cypriot government is monthly payment of €261 as an allowance. But faced with the exponential increase in applications in recent months, authorities are overwhelmed and seem to be slow in reacting.

Many asylum seekers have to wait months before receiving any cash. Each day, there are long queues of migrants waiting for their payment in front of the social services office in Nicosia. The office opens at 6 am, however, to be sure they manage to get in before it closes again at 2 pm, many migrants spend the night sleeping on the sidewalk in front.

Read more: Cyprus: ‘Miserable’ conditions for children in migrant camp

Christelle is one of many who camp out outside the office doors night after night. The 42-year-old Congolese national has not received any benefits since January because of the administrative backlog.

In constant survival mode
“Without government aid, I have no income, nothing, because it is impossible to find a job here. So I don’t eat very often, except for rolls which cost two euros. I am always thirsty, which is making me feel sick,” she told InfoMigrants.

“I am really in deep misery, I don’t even have enough to buy a sanitary napkin. Instead, I use toilet paper.”

Many asylum seekers in Cyprus face similar predicaments — for two, three or in some cases even four years while their asylum application is being processed. The government announced last year that it was working towards reducing the wait to 50 days — but to no end, thus far.

The Cypriot government has turned to the EU, looking for help to cope with the situation. First it requested permission to suspend asylum applications for a certain amount of time so it could catch up with the backlog. However, the European Commission refused this idea.

On February 21, Cyprus finally managed to sign a memorandum with the EU, guaranteeing support. The agreement will free up EU funds to expand capacity at the Pournara reception center and build new accommodation centers as well as to launch a recruitment drive to attract more immigration officials.

Read more: EU, Cyprus strike ‘milestone’ deal on asylum seekers

Heavy patrols along the Green Line
While this sounds like there will be improvements to migrant reception in Cyprus, the majority of direct measures taken in recent months by the Cypriot government tell a different story.

For the past year, the government has erected barbed wire fences at certain points along the 184-kilometer Green Line. Loizos Michael explains that the government decided that “it was time to deal with this zone.”

Further fortification are also planned there, including a monitoring system — developed in collaboration with Israel — which will be deployed starting August 2022. As part of the overall measure, cameras will also be installed along the border, while security forces will be added to patrol the Green Line.

Source: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/40167/migrants-live-in-misery-as-cyprus-suffers-overwhelm-with-migrant-influx

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