Charities working with refugees have strongly condemned Shabana Mahmood’s proposal to make some of them wait up to 30 years for settlement. (See 4.25pm.) Imran Hussain, executive director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: Refugees are being asked to rebuild their lives on a status that expires every 30 months for what could be 30 years. That is unfair and unworkable. These plans condemn refugees to decades of deep insecurity, unable to lay down roots in Britain and contribute their potential. And there is no evidence to suggest that harming refugee integration will act as a disincentive to refugees fleeing the Taliban or brutal conflicts like Sudan. It also creates another bureaucratic nightmare for a Home Office that already is struggling with poor quality initial decisions on asylum cases which is leading to avoidable costs and delays in the appeals system. And Flora Alexander, executive director of International Rescue Committee UK, said: A route to settlement that t
Charities condemn proposal to make some refugees wait up to 30 years for settlement – as it happened
Executive director of external affairs at the Refugee Council called the proposals ‘unfair and unworkable’ Downing Street has declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders’ summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up (see 10.28am), the Press Association reports. At the morning lobby briefing, asked if this was an appropriate use of public money, the PM’s spokesperson said: The prime minister’s travel arrangements are made on the basis of security, operational requirements, and value for money for the taxpayer. The prime minister
