Connect with us

Published

on

An MP has written to the home secretary after a committee discovered 56 asylum seekers, including babies and young children, “packed into a small waiting room” at an intake unit.

Chair of the home affairs select committee Yvette Cooper said in a letter to Priti Patel that she was writing to “raise serious concerns about the shocking conditions” found by MPs during a visit to the Kent Intake Unit in Dover.

The facility, where “detained asylum seekers wait for onward placement and screening”, was described as “wholly inappropriate” by the MP.

Letter from Yvette Cooper to the home secretary
Image:
Yvette Cooper has written to the home secretary

She wrote: “There were 56 people packed into the small waiting room. The space is clearly unfit for holding this many people.

“Most people were sitting or lying on a thin mattress and those covered almost the entirety of the aisle between seats.

“Sharing these cramped conditions were many women with babies and very young children alongside significant numbers of teenage and young adult men”, she added.

The MPs also found that despite 24 hours being the “maximum period of time” a person should be held in the holding room, some had been kept there for “periods of up to 36 and 48 hours”.

More on Migrant Crisis

Yvette Cooper MP
Image:
Yvette Cooper said the facility was ‘wholly inappropriate’

Concerns about COVID-19 outbreaks have been raised as well, with Yvette Cooper saying in her letter that MPs saw the holding room had “no ventilation, no social distancing and face masks are not worn”.

According to the MP, adult asylum seekers must have a lateral flow test and receive a negative result before entering the intake unit.

“However, it is well known that lateral flow tests are not 100% accurate and will not pick up cases that develop over the subsequent 48 hours,” she said.

The committee also said it “did not observe any COVID-19 mitigation measures” and “could not see how the facility could be COVID safe” given the levels of overcrowding.

The MPs went on to visit the atrium facility as well, “where people wait when they are no longer in detention and awaiting onward travel”.

In the letter, it is described as “essentially an office space with a large central room and several adjoining offices”.

In June this year, Kent County Council stopped accepting unaccompanied child migrants and MPs heard that since then there have been “five stays of over 200 hours (10 days) in this office space and increasing numbers of multiple-day stays.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Migrants rescued from dinghy in Channel

Ms Cooper noted that the permanent secretary had confirmed to the committee that an unaccompanied child was one of the individuals held in the facility for over 10 days.

She added: “One girl was sleeping on a sofa in an office, as the only available separate sleeping accommodation.

“For children, this kind of accommodation for days on end is completely inappropriate”.

“It is extremely troubling that a situation has been allowed to arise, and persist, where vulnerable children, families and young people are being held in this manifestly inappropriate office space for days and even weeks.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

New laws threaten asylum seekers

Over 170 children have been transferred from Kent to another local authority since 14 June 2021.

A government spokesperson said: “The asylum system is being exploited by criminal gangs who facilitate dangerous, unnecessary and illegal small boat crossings.

“Our Nationality and Borders bill will fix this broken system and deter these dangerous and illegal crossings.

“To meet our legal duties temporary accommodation is being used to house asylum-seeking children in safe and secure accommodation before placements can take place through the National Transfer Scheme.

“The Home Office continue to work with all local authorities as well as the Department for Education to ensure needs are met.”

Continue Reading

Politics

5 highlights of Sam Bankman-Fried’s first day of trial

Published

on

By

5 highlights of Sam Bankman-Fried’s first day of trial

The high-profile trial of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried kicked off on Oct. 3 with plenty of activity both inside and outside of the cramped Manhattan courtroom.

Journalists, crypto influencers and other gawkers reportedly gathered in a media overflow room to take notes on the day’s events. Here are some of the most colorful observations about the day.

Noticeably leaner, signature haircut gone

The defendant, Bankman-Fried, appeared noticeably leaner, according to multiple reports.

Flanked by five defense lawyers, he was dressed in a navy suit that seemed bigger on him in previous appearances, and his signature unkempt curly locks were subbed for a shorter hairstyle.

Unchained Crypto’s Laura Shin noted that Bankman-Fried was noticeably “less jittery than normal.”

“I did not see him shake his leg at all,” she said in an Oct. 3 podcast.

The only time he spoke was to say “yes” to the judge and occasionally look at the jurors. Other times, he conferred with his lawyers or was seen typing and scrolling on his air-gapped laptop.

SBF has spent the past seven weeks or so locked up at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. When his lawyers unsuccessfully argued for his release, they claimed that he was subsisting on “bread and water” and lacking vegan meal options.

Crypto influencer Tiffany Fong said, “He kind of looks more criminal now.”

Journalists, influencers and skeptics come to “crypto prom”

The first day of the trial was described as feeling like “the first day of school,” according to some journalists in attendance.

“I’ve never seen the courthouse like this,” remarked an unnamed member of the press, according to The Slate.

“While waiting to access the media overflow room, I spotted practically anyone and everyone who’s had something to say about decentralized currency over the last few years,” said The Slates’ Nitish Pahwa.

He described it as a “crypto prom” crammed with a hodgepodge of paid media participants, crypto influencers, obsessives, skeptics and more.

Cointelegraph reporter Ana Paula Pereira is also in attendance and will give daily updates on the most significant developments throughout the trial.

Jurors get whittled down, and some share sad crypto stories

Judge Lewis B. Kaplan told the burgeoning crowd of potential jurors: “You are to do no research. You are not to read press coverage”; however, he lightened up when it came to questioning the crowd, reported Cointelegraph.

Potential jurors were asked if they had prior knowledge about FTX and Alameda, with one saying they learned about it from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, according to a partial transcript from Inner City Press.

One juror said they worked with a company that invested in (and lost money on) FTX and Alameda. Another potential juror said:

“I invested in crypto. I lost money.”

One juror shared that he wasn’t sure if he could be unbiased with crypto: “I’ve felt negatively about it since I learned about it.” He was later dismissed from the pool of potential jurors.

Another juror even asked the judge whether a death sentence could be imposed for Bankman-Fried, to which the judge answered:

“We’ll get to it in a minute or two, and my answer will have to suffice. Anyone unwilling to accept that punishment is up to the court? No one.”

At the end of the session, Judge Kaplan said, “We now have a sufficient group of qualified jurors, 50.” He added that 18 people will be selected in total, 12 of whom will be jurors with six alternates.

He added that on the next day (Oct. 4), a microphone will be passed around for each juror to speak for a minute. “Then the lawyers will confer, and the final selection will be made,” he concluded.

Witnesses for the prosecution

An assistant U.S. attorney read out a list of potential witnesses for the prosecution. This included some expected names, such as former company executives Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Ryne Miller and Constance Wang; family members Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried; and even Anthony Scaramucci.

Several institutions were also listed, including Jane Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, BlockFi, Genesis, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Binance, Nexo, Guarding Against Pandemics (the nonprofit of SBF’s brother) and Voyager Digital.

Six-week trial expected

Judge Kaplan said that the trial was expected to take about six weeks, but he also noted that it could be over in a much shorter time.

Related: What has Sam Bankman-Fried been up to in jail?

However, by the end of the day, he had not succeeded in finalizing the jury. Kaplan predicted that this would be completed by the morning of Oct. 4, after which both sides are expected to give opening arguments totaling around 90 minutes.

Magazine: Can you trust crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX?