The Illegal Migration Bill is now on Britain’s statute book. A total of 289 MPs voted in favour of the bill, giving the Home Secretary unprecedented powers to make arrangements for the detention and deportation of migrants, while 230 MPs voted against. Sensationalism rather than ‘virtue’, in Aristotle’s use of the term, has won again. […]
The asylum bill introduced by the UK Government, in its current form, compels the Home Secretary to deny those refugees who arrive ‘irregularly’ access to the UK asylum system. If the bill passes, and it may, these asylum seekers, rather than being provided with protection, would be subject to detention in the UK and — […]
One of the UK’s largest grocery wholesalers, JJ Foodservice, is offering support to Ukrainian refugees arriving in the UK over the coming months. The award-winning North London headquartered business, founded by Turkish Cypriot immigrant Mustafa Kiamil, has contacted Enfield Council and other local authorities where its branches are located to discuss employing those fleeing the […]
A rescue mission was mounted off the eastern coast of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) in the early hours of Saturday, 21 March, after a boat carrying 175 Syrian refugees hit rocks and started to sink. The Turkish Cypriot emergency services were able to rescue all those trapped at sea, including 69 children, […]
The country hosts around 1 million refugees of school age and has committed to including them in its national education system by 2020, a UNESCO study said. In contrast countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Thailand were slammed for making “no such promises”. UNESCO’s 2019 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, entitled Migration, Displacement and Education: Building […]
In 1939, when London was being relentlessly bombed by Nazi Germany, the British Government put into place one of the largest evacuation plans ever seen, moving over 1.5 million children from London to rural locations around the country considered to be safe from bombing. Strangers opened their doors to these children and welcomed them, away […]
The race was on to save dozens of refugees after the alarm was raised that a boat carrying 150 passengers was capsizing in the East Mediterranean, 16 miles north of the Karpaz Peninsula. 105 people were helped to safety by Turkish air and sea rescue teams on Tuesday morning. However, 26 people remain missing, […]
A community of ethnic Greek Muslims who were exiled from Greece to Syria in 1897 seek to return to their homeland in Crete. Yet despite presenting the deeds for properties seized by the Greek Orthodox Church 120 years ago, they once again find themselves victims of public resentment and institutional discrimination. “Wherever we go, we […]
There were tragic scenes along the Karpaz coastline yesterday, Monday 14 May, as bodies of 11 refugees washed up on the shore or were found in the sea by the TRNC Coastguard. On Monday morning, a local villager saw the bodies of two males on a beach in Dipkarpaz and alerted the authorities. A […]
Iran has much in common with neighbouring Turkey: a gloriously rich culture and civilisation, and a preoccupation with family, food and tradition. Both also share a murky history of persecuting political dissidents – one of the drivers behind their large diasporas. So I was already curious about how CITIZEN, a new play written and […]
