On gloriously sunny Saturday 14 May, These Walls Must Fall campaigners from Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire joined forces with others in Durham to say NO to the new immigration detention centre in Derwentside.

The Home Office has decided that, from April 2022, most people who have a reporting condition attached to their immigration bail are to report by telephone instead of in-person.

Today is our Coordinator, Lisa Matthew’s last day at Right to Remain. For 11 years, Lisa has been our inspiration and energy that made everything at Right to Remain possible.

The government has announced plans of ‘offshoring’ which will send some people seeking asylum in Britain to Rwanda where their asylum claims will be processed.

Many legal experts have expressed their concern over the legality of this provision. It is also expensive: it is reported that the Rwandan trial, which will target single men, will cost £120m.

Of course, morally, this is unacceptable.

The Home Office is conducting many substantive (big) asylum interviews via video call instead of in-person. The asylum substantive interview is the big interview in the asylum process when the Home Office interviewer will ask you in detail about your reasons for claiming asylum. For suggestions on how to prepare, have a read of our blogpost.

The Migration Justice Project at the Law Centre NI has drafted a guide to help people seeking asylum understand how and whether they can apply for permission to work while their claim is pending.

The Ukraine Advice Project UK has been set up by a group of volunteer lawyers and legal professionals in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The project offers a free service which connects Ukrainian citizens and individuals who are fleeing Ukraine with qualified and regulated lawyers who can provide basic legal advice on UK immigration. The group can also provide advice on visa extensions and claiming asylum from within the UK.

Yumna has started at Right to Remain this week as our new legal education officer. Yumna will be working on our resources about the asylum and immigration system, including the Right to Remain Toolkit. She will be delivering our legal workshops and working with asylum and migrant groups across the UK.

Right to Remain is delighted to announce that Eiri Ohtani will be joining the organisation as our new Director.

Eiri has over twenty years experience in the migration sector, covering a wide-range of roles. Eiri previously set up and ran the charity Asylum Support Appeals Project, and is well-known for setting up and running the Detention Forum for ten years.

In January 2021, the UK government introduced new rules through which they can decide that an asylum claim is “inadmissible”, meaning it won’t be considered in the UK.

A year on, we have some more information about how these rules are working (or not working) in practice.