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Home Office Resisting Calls To Vet Asylum Seekers Work In The UK

Asylum Seekers

Home Office resisting calls to let asylum seekers work in the UK

Priti Patel’s department is resisting growing demands to allow asylum seekers to work following a public intervention from her cabinet colleague Dominic Raab to say that he would be “open-minded’ about the proposal.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, Conservative MPs and refugee charities have all called for the Home Office to allow 70,000 current claimants to seek employment after the justice secretary said a rule change could help to solve the UK’s current labour shortage.

But in testy comments that reveal frustration at Raab’s words, a senior Whitehall source said that if applications to seek employment were allowed, it would “create a pull factor for illegal immigration like never before”. “It would drive a coach and horses though our legitimate immigration system. We would see people who want to come here to work avoiding the system by just arriving and claiming asylum, before starting work the next day,” the source said.

Most asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their case is considered and instead rely on the government for housing and essential living needs. The Home Office has been reviewing the rules around allowing asylum seekers to work for three years.

The latest data shows that over 70,000 people were waiting for a UK decision on their initial asylum application – up 73% over the past two years despite a decline in the number of applicants.

Meanwhile, resettlement of refugees has not increased at the same rate. Only 308 refugees were resettled in Q2 2021, compared to a quarterly average of over 1,400 from 2016 to 2019.

MPs including the leader of the opposition increased pressure on Patel on Thursday to be as open-minded as Raab. Starmer told the Guardian the government should consider changing rules which “defy the common sense test”.

“I met a Syrian doctor who … was unable to work, because the claim hadn’t been properly processed. He desperately wanted to use his skills to help the community that made him very, very welcome and he was prohibited from doing so. That defies the common sense test,” he said.

Reacting to Starmer’s comments, a Whitehall source said: “Allowing asylum seekers to work will see more people making dangerous journeys to enter our country illegally. It’s as simple as that.”

Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said he would also allow asylum seekers to work because their claims are taking too long – in some cases more than a year – to process. “They should be allowed to work because the system is not working properly. I would like to see their applications to be processed a lot faster,” he said.

The Tory MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, David Simmonds, has been at the forefront of a campaign to allow asylum seekers to work and aid integration. “Because asylum seekers cannot work whilst they wait for a decision on their claim, and if successful are given just 28 days to move into new accommodation and find work or apply for universal credit, there are currently significant barriers to successful integration,” he wrote in PoliticsHome in April.

The former foreign secretary was asked by the Spectator magazine on Thursday whether he would support the measure given the current labour shortage. “I would be open-minded about it,” he replied.

“If [asylum seekers] learn the language and they can work, they integrate much better and they make a positive contribution.”

Responding, Stuart McDonald, the SNP’s home affairs spokesperson in parliament, wrote on Twitter: “A very rare but welcome occasion on which I can agree with Dominic Raab! How can Priti Patel continue to resist the overwhelming logic?”

UK policy is more restrictive than those in most comparable countries. EU law requires member states to grant asylum seekers access to work after they have been waiting for nine months for a decision on their claim. Canada and Australia allow asylum seekers to work immediately. In the USA, they are eligible to work after six months.

In 2020, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants in the EU, with 122,015 applicants. France received 93,475 applicants. In the same period, the UK received the fifth largest number of applicants, 36,041. This represents only the 17th largest intake when measured per head of population.

Dr Peter William Walsh, researcher for the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: “The backlog in processing asylum claims has increased sharply in recent years and is currently nine times higher than it was a decade ago. For almost all of these people, it would be illegal for them to take a job – 80% of cases are not addressed within six months, and many people wait more than a year.”

Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said: “Thousands of skilled and talented people live on limited financial support in limbo awaiting a decision on their asylum claim for months or years on end desperate to be able to work to contribute to our communities. It’s vital they’re given this chance.”

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NCAA sanctions Kenya Airways over passenger complaints

UAE

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has sanctioned Kenya Airways for several consumer-related violations involving three passengers, including one Gloria Omisore.

This is contained in a statement on Friday by Michael Achimugu, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Achimugu stated the NCAA issued a sanction letter on Wednesday to Kenya Airways regarding the passengers’ complaints

“The infractions include failure to provide care, lack of transparency in carriage terms, poor communication with the Authority, and mishandling refunds and baggage.

“In accordance with the NCAA Regulations 2023, Kenya Airways must pay fines and compensate each affected passenger with 1,000 special drawing rights.

“The airline has seven days to comply. Failure to do so will result in more severe penalties,” Achimugu said

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Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding – IMF

Nigeria has repaid $3.4 billion in emergency funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday.

IMF resident representative to Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a statement that, as of April 30, the country had “fully repaid the financial support” it received under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that provides urgent balance of payments funding to member nations.

“Nigeria is expected to honour some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about US$30 million annually,” Ebeke added.

The most recent data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria last year spent $4.66 billion to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion was to the IMF. (PL/REUTERS)

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IMPI rejects IMF, World Bank’s 3% economic growth forecast for Nigeria

The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has questioned the rationale by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for downgrading its economic growth projection for Nigeria in 2025 from 3.2 percent to 3.0 percent on the back of the global oil slump.

This according to the think tank is because the Nigerian economy has not, of late, been solely about oil especially with the substantial growth in the country’s non-oil export year-on-year as a result of ongoing economic diversification and the impact of government policies.

In a policy statement signed by its Chairman Dr Omoniyi Akinsiju, IMPI argued that it was more favourably disposed to the 7 percent growth forecast by Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy Wale Edun.

It said, “In its economic outlook, the IMF downgraded Nigeria’s economic growth forecast for 2025 by 0.2 percentage points to 3.0 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent, while growth for 2026 was also revised downward by 0.3 percentage points to 2.7 per cent.

“The IMF justified this forecast by citing projected lower global oil prices as a significant risk to the country’s fiscal and external balances. We wonder how a single factor can be responsible for the projected massive decline in the size of an economy, moreso, when Nigeria is moving away from its dependency on crude oil earnings.

“However, the World Bank’s projection, on the other hand, offers a more optimistic view. In its report, the World Bank projected that Nigeria’s economy would grow by 3.6 per cent in 2025, building on an estimated 3.4 per cent expansion in 2024 and, thereafter, strengthening to 3.8 per cent by 2027.

“The bank credited the federal administration’s possible sustenance of economic reforms with the gradual stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment. Critical to the World Bank’s projection is the expected improvement in the performance of the non-oil sectors, mainly services such as financial services, telecommunications, and information technology, as well as easing inflationary pressures and improved business sentiment.”

IMPI also argued that it was not unusual for countries to pick holes in IMF’s projections while citing the examples of Mexico and Zambia where it was proved wrong.

“IMF’s GDP data discrepancies are not unique to Nigeria. At different times, its country members worldwide have had cause to dispute the body’s projections on various grounds. Mexico, for instance, has also disagreed with the IMF on its forecasts.

“In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecasted a 0.3 per cent contraction in Mexico’s economic growth for 2025, down from the Fund’s January forecast of a 1.4 per cent expansion, as U.S. tariffs bite into exports.

“In dismissing the IMF’s forecast, the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declared, “We do not know what it is based on. We disagree. We have our economic models, which the finance ministry has, that do not coincide with this projection.”

“She added that public investments would prevent the economy from contracting. She touted her government’s “Plan Mexico,” an effort to boost domestic industry amid tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump imposed on some imports from Mexico.

“From the foregoing, it is clear why Nigerians should not take the recent IMF’s negative economic projections very seriously. Experience has shown that several IMF projections on developing economies, such as ours, often prove inaccurate.

“In 2008, the IMF predicted that Zambia would be hit by the fall in copper prices during the financial crisis. The IMF was proven wrong as the Zambian economy survived the global downturn.

“We find comfort in the submission of the US Department of State, which described Nigeria as an economic miracle while commending the federal government’s ongoing reforms,”IMPI added.

On concerns by both the World Bank and IMF on poverty in Nigeria, the think tank posited that the incumbent federal administration is better placed than its predecessors to tackle the issue.

“We acknowledge the concerns the World Bank and the IMF raised about the limited impact of the policies on reducing poverty among everyday Nigerians.

“But the truth is that before 2023, the country had been a site for endemic poverty, with the number of people living in absolute poverty defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, healthcare and shelter, reaching a high of 99,284,512 people in 2010, about 60.9 per cent of the population at that time.

“In 2004, NBS estimated the poverty rate to be 54.7 per cent in 2004 and this was despite Nigeria experiencing economic growth, with crude oil prices ranging between $100 and $120 per barrel and a daily production of 2.3 million barrels.

“When the dynamics of the years, especially the oil boom era between 2010 and 2014, are compared to the evolving characters of the present-day economy, we see sufficient indicators of the impact on the average Nigerian in the near term.

“In other words, if there is ever a possibility of reducing the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line, it is under the current federal administration.

“For instance, the recently released Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) March 2025 economic report indicated continued expansion in economic activities across Nigeria. The composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), at 52.3 percentage points, indicates economic expansion for the third consecutive month in 2025,” it concluded.

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