Winners of Columban Schools Media Competition announced Winners of our 2026 Columban Schools Media Competition for young people in Britain and Ireland have been announced.

Congratulations to Alf from St Thomas Aquinas School & Sixth Form who was the winner of the Columban Schools Media Competition this year, which had a focus on people seeking sanctuary. You can download his submission here:
tinyurl.com/yc682eyh
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social

Congratulations to St Clare's Primary in Birmingham for having been an awarded School of Sanctuary for TEN YEARS, which was celebrated this morning in a beautiful pupil-led assembly.
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social

Huge congratulations to Cromwell Primary on its THIRD Sanctuary Award. It is always a huge pleasure to visit Cromwell! For their reassessment they submitted lots of really beautiful evidence, some of which you can see below.
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social

Congratulations to Holy Family Primary School on their SECOND Sanctuary Award. What a lot of great work is going on at this school - congratulations to everybody!
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social @stbernsprimary.bsky.social @sabb28.bsky.social

Congratulations to St Columba's RC Primary School in Longbridge on their SECOND Sanctuary Award. Great kids, great staff, great work. What a pleasure it was to visit.

Robert Jenrick says UK asylum seekers should be held in ‘rudimentary prisons’ Shadow justice minister, seen as nurturing Tory leadership hopes, criticises Reform’s immigration plans as too weak

Jenrick now fully embracing AfD-style “remigration“

(“Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that.”)

Home secretary suspends refugee family reunion applications until new, tighter rules are put in place – UK politics live Yvette Cooper says rules were designed years ago to help families separated by war but are being used in a different way now

After years of advocating for family reunification, today Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has suspended all family reunification applications.

As she has pointed out many times before, this announcement will drive more people into the arms of smugglers.
www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

After some horrid things happening over the summer holidays (inflammatory misinformation campaign against our Schools of Sanctuary), we're looking forward to celebrating the work of all our wonderful and steadfast schools during this term!

While much of our media focuses on how many people claim asylum in the UK, there's one number that isn't even counted:

The number of people who die while trying to seek sanctuary here.

We know our asylum is killing people. Their deaths must not be ignored.

#KnowTheirNames

Every one of these protests is a terrifying experience for the asylum seekers - the wider atmosphere in the country is horrible & Labour’s reaction craven. But it’s worth remembering how much of this is generated by politicians & media openly desperate for broad unrest which simply isn’t happening

We had a great visit to St Bernadette's primary today and they are now our NEWEST AWARDED SCHOOL OF SANCTUARY in Birmingham! @stbernsprimary.bsky.social‬
Congratulations!

Processing of Syrian asylum claims to resume - Free Movement Following a statement made by the Minister for Border Security and Asylum earlier today, the Home Office is to resume processing of Syrian protection claims

New from FM: Processing of Syrian asylum claims to resume | Sonia Lenegan

Tribunals statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 Type and volume of tribunals cases received, disposed of or outstanding. This also includes statistics on the Gender Recognition Certificate applied for and granted by HMCTS Gender Recognition Panel

The number of outstanding asylum appeals is now two-thirds the level of the asylum initial decision backlog - more than 50k asylum appeals were pending at the end of March. That's nearly doubled in a year from 27k, and a 579% increase in the last two years. www.gov.uk/government/s...

Yemeni national refused humanitarian protection because he can return to China - Free Movement An appellant who is a Yemeni national who has lived in China since he was one year old ahs lost his appeal against the refusal of humanitarian protection on

From yesterday: Yemeni national refused humanitarian protection because he can return to China | Sonia Lenegan

Thank you to @jakerichardsmp.bsky.social who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee for raising the vital issue of refugee children being wrongly placed in adult asylum hotels. Many refugee children we and @helenbamber.bsky.social. @humansforrights.bsky.social work with are wrongly judged adult.

Pointing the finger at people seeking safety only divides us at a time when we need to come together.

Refugees & torture survivors need safe and dignified housing within our communities.

No matter who you are, or where you come from, we should ALL have the right to safe housing.

A nice question here from @timfarron.bsky.social, which has got the Home Office admitting that the potentially significant changes they are envisaging to family life claims in the immigration context are being planned without the slightest inkling of how many people are affected

Press release: Refugee charities call for an end to 'hostile politics' in open letter to PM - Together With Refugees Today more than 100 refugee charities have signed an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for united communities and an end to ‘hostile politics, racist rhetoric and demonising language of the pa...

Pleased to report that Birmingham Schools of Sanctuary and Birmingham City of Sanctuary are signatories to this letter to the Prime Minister, which was given exclusive coverage in today's Guardian.
togetherwithrefugees.org.uk/press-releas...

Starmer ‘angry’ over illegal migration as he reveals 24,000 deportations under Labour PM appealed to voters frustrated at the ongoing flow of migrants across the English Channel, saying he shares their ‘anger’ at illegal migration

More scapegoating of people seeking sanctuary. More failed, expensive border security measures. Still no talk of the only way to actually stop people smuggling: safe routes to get people to safety.
Isn't it about time to change the record?

Home Office axes asylum hotel contract and hands it to Bibby Stockholm firm Stay Belvedere Hotels, which manages 51 hotels and Napier barracks, is removed amid performance concerns

So we're going from paying millions to the private firm that oversaw appalling conditions in Napier Barracks to paying millions to the private firm that oversaw appalling conditions on Bibby Stockholm?

It's time to stop letting these companies profit from people's suffering.
#CommunitiesNotCamps

Reeves ‘absolutely certain’ welfare cuts will not push people into poverty The Chancellor denied there will be further tax rises or spending cuts at the autumn budget in order to balance the books.

The government’s own analysis of their social security cuts estimates that a further 250,000 people will be in poverty by 2030, including 50,000 children.

Windrush victims could have compensation reconsidered after ruling Denial of compensation for Raymond Lee, denied re-entry to UK in after 1999 trip to Jamaica, deemed ‘legal error’ by judge

Too often migrants are excluded from justice. During our conference at the end of February we looked at exactly this, including the Windrush and TOEIC scandals, where tens of thousands of international students were unjustly stripped of their right to study.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Labour reportedly considering offshoring asylum seekers’ claims Keir Starmer mulling ‘detailed plans’ to outsource process overseas as alternative to Rwanda plan

PS A source for my comment about the Blair government considering off-shoring asylum claims - and for the Starmer-led party doing the same more recently. (If this is just media speculation it seems awfully bad luck that they keep speculating about the same thing.)

Increases to most Home Office fees from 9 April 2025 - Free Movement The government announced increases to some Home Office fees, including for electronic travel authorisation, skilled worker and naturalisation applications,

From yesterday: Increases to most Home Office fees from 9 April 2025 | Sonia Lenegan

Congratulations to St Edward's RC Primary School in Selly Park in Birmingham who became our latest awarded School of Sanctuary after today's visit. What knowledgeable and compassionate pupils and staff!
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social @storiesofhome.bsky.social

Welcome to St John's & St Peter's Primary, the first Church of England school in our network to receive the School of Sanctuary award! They are blazing a trail for others to follow. Well done to staff and pupils!
@cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social

Delighted to accompany Independent MP Ayoub Khan on his visit to Core Arena School which provides a tailor-made programme for newly-arrived asylum-seekers of secondary school age as well as giving human rights a high profile in general @cityofsanctuaryuk.bsky.social @bradford-scos.bsky.social

Birmingham Schools of Sanctuary end-of-term newsletter is now available!
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Would love to see all our Schools of Sanctuary following us on Bluesky!