Still We Rise

In this episode, we confront a disturbing reality unfolding, the criminalization of people seeking asylum, Britain of course is still a signatory to the Refugee Convention, a document it once championed. A recent report published by the Centre for Criminology at the No Such Thing As Justice Here lifts the veil on this criminalization law. One key feature of this report is the seminal trial of a Senegalese National, Ibrahima Bah who...

This week we are joined by Dr. Emelie McDonnell, a human rights and refugee advocate, with experience and expertise in human rights, refugee, and international law more broadly. We look at Britain’s diminishing rights record through the lens of Human Rights Watch whose work across the world is well-established and respected. Britain has set itself on an extraordinary path with a raft of domestic legislation that criminalises people...

Over the last few months Nicola Kelly, a former Home Office Staffer and now journalist focused on UK immigration and asylum policy and human rights, has been looking at what’s going on at the Home Office and the department its’ become today. She reveals a culture of fear that emanates directly from Priti Patel's office, civil servants who feel morally compromised by strident policy positions, not least the Rwanda Policy. Morale i...

A Decade ago, the Former Prime Minister Theresa May introduced the most draconian internal border controls on people who she thought were living in Britain without permission. This onerous policy and accompanying legislation resulted in what we now know as the Windrush Scandal. British citizens, particularly those from former colonies were caught up in papers please checks at GP Practices, DWP Offices, in the NHS and landlords beca...

Clause 9- is the Deprivation of Citizenship. Who is a citizen in Brexit Britain or as we often hear, Global Britain? Well, Priti Patel has shown her hand and through the Nationality and Borders Act has Executive Power to exempt herself from notifying you if she deems that your continued enjoyment of citizenry is not conducive to the public good, that it is not in the public interest. With a stroke of a pen and time-limited appeal r...

Over the last six months, many a Guest have lamented the Offshoring proposals in the government's New Immigration Plan. What appeared remote and a figment of either Priti Patel or some home office bureaucrats' fertile imagination has materialised in the form of a memorandum of understanding with the Rwandan Government.

We speak to Dr Anne Neylon, a Law Lecturer at the University of Liverpool whose insight and analysis on the Rwanda...

The invasion of Ukraine has caused the largest displacement of people in Europe since the end of World War 2. Britain has responded to this tragic set of circumstances by using its best endeavours and asked its citizens to sponsor a Refugee whom they should house for at least 6 months. 200 000 people have signed up, at the time of recording, under 4000 visas had been processed. This social experiment in Human kindness and openness ...

The invasion of Ukraine has caught the UK public's gaze in a way that no other recent war has. Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen’s brutal wars have resulted in the displacement of millions of people, and yet some have had to seek sanctuary by risking their lives, not least on flimsy dinghies on the channel. Not only do they face a hostile welcome, but a Nationality and Borders Bill that seeks to criminalise them but not so for Ukrainian...

Back in 2012, the then Prime Minister Theresa May, when setting out a remarkable new policy position on Border Enforcement, said, ‘ The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants. This policy resulted in the deportation of British Citizens from the Windrush generation who came to this country to rebuild the NHS but could not provide paperwork to prove their legal status. This shameful pol...

What is life like as an Asylum Seeker?

Why does Britain have an inhumane Asylum system? Why will Britain not expend all the patience and care and thought she possesses to help people in fear for their lives? The dynamics of prejudice, dehumanisation and maltreatment are hardly without historical precedent, they can be traced back to centuries of the slave trade, colonialism and Imperialism authored on this island.

So it’s not so mu...

In this episode, we lift the veil on life inside the controversial Napier Barracks. Some members in society are systemically denied the right to basic rights, deprived of the right to a private space to sleep, denied the liberty to contribute economically, not seen as worthy enough to be protected from Covid infection, literally reduced to a Number!

Amir was known in Napier Barracks by his room Number, dehumanised in the land of Ma...

Will Priti Patel really Criminalise Asylum Claims?

Colin Yeo is unequivocal, Priti Patel plans to jail people who arrive through irregular means or without Pre Authorisation. The Nationality and Borders Bill currently going through Parliament and it makes the most extraordinary changes to how Refugees can claim Asylum in Britain. Stark and inconceivable! How will this affect the prison system?

Colin Yeo a Barrister at Garden Court ...

We speak to Bella Sankey, Director of Detention Action, in this episode, we discuss the harsh detention and deportation scheme the UK enforces on people seeking asylum. Last year 24 748 people were subject to indefinite Immigration Detention.  In the land of the Magna Carta, people can be held by the state in prison-like conditions with no time limit.  In the past 3 years, the British Government has paid out £24million to 914 peopl...

In this conversation with Sonya Sceats Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture, we discuss the Nationality and Borders Bill which makes the most far-reaching changes to the UK Asylum System.

Sonya is clear that these changes represent a fundamental challenge to the principle of Refugee protection as provided for by the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951.

She asserts that this Bill breaches International Law and its two-tier system i...

COVID‑19 vaccines are intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The COVID‑19 vaccines are widely celebrated for their role in reducing the spread, severity, and death caused by COVID-19 but some communities are still hesitant to take the vaccines. We speak to Dr Maisun Elftise a General Practitioner about Vaccine Education and hesitancy in our Communities. It’s informative and In...