‘If I go, I know they will detain me’: Asylum seekers consider skipping Home Office meetings over Rwanda fears
In June 2022, Kidus, 30, from Eritrea, came to the UK in a small boat with around two dozen other people.
He still has the video on his phone showing everyone – including some women and children – clinging on to the dinghy wearing identical red lifejackets.
Back then, the government had already announced plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Despite being sent a letter warning he’s being considered for removal, he’s never thought it could really happen until now.
Kidus – not his real name – says before he left France, one of the people smugglers reassured him the government wouldn’t go through with it: the Rwanda policy simply wouldn’t affect him.
But earlier this month, one of his friends from Eritrea, who was on the same boat across the Channel, was detained when attending a routine appointment with the Home Office at a site in Liverpool.
As a result, Kidus is now considering not going to his next fortnightly meeting, even though attending the appointments is a condition of his immigration bail.
“If I didn’t go there, I know they’ll drop my case,” he tells us, concerned his asylum application will be cancelled.
But he adds: “If I go I know they will detain me. So, I’m just confused what I’m going to do.”
Kidus says he fears being deported to Rwanda
A document drawn up by Home Office officials revealed only 2,143 of the 5,700 asylum seekers Rwanda has agreed to accept actually attend check-ins and “can be located for detention”.
If people like Kidus stop attending, they will join the remaining 3,557 migrants who are currently missing.
The shared house Kidus lives in is paid for by the Home Office – so his address makes it almost impossible to disappear. But this means he knows he could be detained at any time.
“I’m always just frightened here. So, they might come at night or day and I’m always thinking that they’ll come and they’ll take me to detention. I’m not feeling safe here,” he says.
Kidus has stopped attending college where he was learning English and carries the phone numbers of legal firms with him at all times.
He speaks to his friend on the phone – who is now being held in a detention centre near Heathrow.
Nahom, not his real name, 26, estimates he’s among around 40 asylum seekers there who’ve been told they’ll be sent to Rwanda.
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“It’s like a nightmare, it’s like a prison and I don’t like it here. I’m really stressed and panicked about the situation,” Nahom tells us from the site almost 100 miles away.
He admits he has been able to meet his solicitor but says he’s feeling increasingly desperate about being faced with the prospect of being sent to Rwanda.
“They can send my body, but not me alive,” he says. “I’m just giving up.”
In west London, we meet Nura, in her 20s, whose real name is withheld and who has made the decision to keep attending meetings with the Home Office because she doesn’t want to be kicked out of her taxpayer-funded hotel.
Nura says she will keep going to the appointments
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But each time she goes to sign in she’s terrified of being detained.
“Sometimes I say ‘why me’?” she asks tearfully, looking at her “notice of intent” letter warning her she’s being considered for removal to Rwanda.
“It’s not a safe country,” she adds. “What is the difference from Eritrea? It’s the same.”
Nura says when she came to the UK by small boat, she believed women wouldn’t be sent to Rwanda. She says she wouldn’t have come if she’d known she was at risk.
The notice of intent letter
Kidus says the same thing: “If I’d have known this I’d have never come here.” He added he’d have instead gone to “Belgium or France, or Germany maybe”.
Now they’re here, their only hope is they won’t be chosen for detention.
The government remains determined to get the first flights to Rwanda within weeks.
Ahead of a general election, the plan has become a clear dividing line between the Conservatives and Labour, which has vowed to scrap the scheme if it comes to power.
MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales.
The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, abolishing the prosecution of women for terminating their pregnancy at any stage, passed by 379 votes to 137.
It represents the biggest shake-up in reproductive rights for almost 60 years.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who tabled the so-called “New Clause One” (NC1), said it would ensure women do not face investigation, arrest, prosecution or imprisonment in relation to any pregnancies.
She said the current “Victorian” laws had been used against vulnerable women, citing cases such as Nicola Packer, who was prosecuted on suspicion of having an illegal abortion. She was found not guilty in May.
“Nicola’s story is deplorable, but there are many others,” Ms Antoniazzi said.
Abortion in England and Wales is currently a criminal offence but is legal with an authorised provider for up to 24 weeks after conception. The procedure is allowed after this time in very limited circumstances.
It is also legal to take prescribed related medication at home if a woman is less than 10 weeks pregnant.
Ms Antoniazzi said NC1 was “a narrow, targeted measure” that would not change how abortion services were provided or the rules under the 1967 Abortion Act.
Pro-choice campaigners demonstrating for decriminalising abortion in the UK
She said: “The 24 [week] limit remains. Abortions still require the approval of signatures of two doctors, and women would still have to meet the grounds laid out in the Act.”
The MP said that meant healthcare professionals “acting outside the law and abusive partners using violence or poisoning to end a pregnancy would still be criminalised, as they are now.”
She added: “This piece of legislation will only take women out of the criminal justice system because they are vulnerable and they need our help.
“As I have said before, and I will say it again, just what public interest is this serving? This is not justice, it is cruelty and it has got to end.”
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Should abortion be decriminalised?
The change will not come into effect immediately as the Crime and Policing Bill is still making its way through Parliament.
A separate amendment, put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy, went further with a measure to “lock in” the right of a person to have an abortion while protecting those who help them.
However, her amendment was not voted on because Ms Antoniazzi’s passed, as expected.
Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh, speaking against both amendments, described them as “not pro-woman” and argued they “would introduce sex-selective abortion”.
How did MPs vote?
MPs were given a free vote on the amendment, as is typically the case with so-called matters of conscience.
A breakdown of the vote showed it was passed overwhelmingly by Labour and Lib Dem MPs.
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Just eight Conservative MPs voted in favour, while all Reform UK MPs opposed the amendment, with the exception of the party’s leader Nigel Farage, who abstained.
Sir Keir Starmer was not present for the vote as he is currently in Canada for the G7 summit, but said earlier that his “longstanding in-principle position is that women have the right to a safe and legal abortion”.
The issue of women investigated by police over suspected illegal abortions has been in the spotlight due to several recent high-profile cases.
Ms Packer was cleared by a jury last month after taking prescribed abortion medicine at home when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks.
In the Commons, Ms Antoniazzi cited another case of a young mother who was jailed for two years after she was forced to take illegal abortion medication by her abusive partner. He was never investigated.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
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