Immigration news

The controversial Title 42 US immigration rule, which allows US immigration authorities to quickly remove migrants and asylum seekers in the interests of protecting public health, will be scrapped by the Biden administration on May 23. The policy was enforced under the Trump administration following the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Two million EU citizens are reportedly at risk of deportation from the UK because of their temporary immigration status, according to the Oxford Migration Observatory. Based at Oxford University, the Migration Observatory has warned that EU citizens with pre-settled status face removal from Britain.

 

The Biden administration has announced three key measures to help combat a rising US visa and immigration application backlog that has left millions of people in limbo. A senior official at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said: “The backlog of applications has crippled our ability to effectively process them in a timely fashion. That needs to change.”

 

Positive Action in Housing, a charity supporting Ukrainian refugees, claims that not a single UK visa has been issued to people that they are helping. Despite the launch of a new scheme nearly two weeks ago, which allows individuals, charities, community groups and businesses to provide refuge for those seeking safety, many have been left to find help elsewhere.

 

Chinese officials have been hit with US visa sanctions amid its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, including repressive acts against Uyghur Muslims. 

 

The officials denied access to US visas are understood to be responsible for, or complicit in, acts of religious oppression, while also targeting ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders and more.

The UK government has sparked fury by insisting on visa controls for non-Irish EU citizens crossing the border into Northern Ireland. The Conservatives recently voted to reinstate a US-style visa waiver system that requires EU citizens, who are not Irish, to apply for pre-travel clearance – also known as Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) - before entering the UK.