Irene Tsherit
@irenetsherit.bsky.social
Immigration and asylum lawyer. Own views, mainly immigration law and policy.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
We cannot allow toxic rhetoric to replace human rights. ATLEU will continue to fight for a system that protects survivors, upholds the law, and recognises the humanity of those seeking refuge. We urge the government to rethink its approach. #EndTrafficking #ATLEU
November 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
We cannot allow toxic rhetoric to replace human rights. ATLEU will continue to fight for a system that protects survivors, upholds the law, and recognises the humanity of those seeking refuge. We urge the government to rethink its approach. #EndTrafficking #ATLEU
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
This is the cycle that fuels populist. It perpetuate policy failure while encouraging a narrative of scapegoating. The prime minister came to power promising to address it. Instead he now supports it.
November 18, 2025 at 8:58 AM
This is the cycle that fuels populist. It perpetuate policy failure while encouraging a narrative of scapegoating. The prime minister came to power promising to address it. Instead he now supports it.
The days of"Lite" are far behind us at this point. They're being cheered on by Reform, this was the goal it seems.. 🤦♀️
Absolutely shocking. This government won’t achieve ‘decency’ over ‘division’ by trying to be Reform Lite
The Home Office confirms that its plans for forced returns will include families with children.
If they refuse to leave then "we will escalate to an enforced return"
If they refuse to leave then "we will escalate to an enforced return"
November 17, 2025 at 10:19 PM
The days of"Lite" are far behind us at this point. They're being cheered on by Reform, this was the goal it seems.. 🤦♀️
A dark, shameful day indeed. Absolutely unacceptable to treat people with such contempt and cruelty.
Latest post from us: Home Secretary announces major asylum and other changes in new policy paper: “Restoring Order and Control” | Sonia Lenegan
Home Secretary announces major asylum and other changes in new policy paper: "Restoring Order and Control" - Free Movement
Following a plethora of media briefings and coverage over the past few days, the Home Secretary has officially published her policy paper on "Restoring Order
freemovement.org.uk
November 17, 2025 at 9:42 PM
A dark, shameful day indeed. Absolutely unacceptable to treat people with such contempt and cruelty.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
And it’s not immigration that has caused this. These problems AND the immigration crisis are the result of government inertia and slow and bad decision making, wasting money on unworkable policies and austerity policies.
November 17, 2025 at 8:26 AM
And it’s not immigration that has caused this. These problems AND the immigration crisis are the result of government inertia and slow and bad decision making, wasting money on unworkable policies and austerity policies.
100% this!
Human rights are universal - if we start stripping away basic human rights from any section of society then none of us has rights – just privileges that can be taken away by people in power whenever they want
November 16, 2025 at 11:28 AM
100% this!
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
Her portrayal of asylum seekers doesn't just respond to the racist narratives of the Far Right: by othering asylum seekers as unworthy winners of riches, in implicit contrast to struggling families, Shabana Mahmood actively promotes and feeds those Far Right lies.
For Shabana Mahmood to attack some of the most cruelly treated people in the world as having won a "golden ticket" because they manage to get to and claim asylum in Britain is unforgiveable.
A new, far right, low for which I can think of no precedent, by any UK Government.
A new, far right, low for which I can think of no precedent, by any UK Government.
November 16, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Her portrayal of asylum seekers doesn't just respond to the racist narratives of the Far Right: by othering asylum seekers as unworthy winners of riches, in implicit contrast to struggling families, Shabana Mahmood actively promotes and feeds those Far Right lies.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
This is the politics of blackmail. The alternative is not a Reform government. The alternative is maintaining our international commitments to being a compassionate nation
November 15, 2025 at 6:50 AM
This is the politics of blackmail. The alternative is not a Reform government. The alternative is maintaining our international commitments to being a compassionate nation
The underlying idea is that a normal life, where you can feel safe, settled and plan for future, is a luxury that only some deserve. An awful slippery slope of inhumanity. Which of our rights will crumble next? I never want to hear anything about a 'proud history of blah blah blah' ever again. 🤦♀️😞
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The underlying idea is that a normal life, where you can feel safe, settled and plan for future, is a luxury that only some deserve. An awful slippery slope of inhumanity. Which of our rights will crumble next? I never want to hear anything about a 'proud history of blah blah blah' ever again. 🤦♀️😞
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
This vital new report sheds light on the horrific conditions in asylum hotels.
While families live in crowded, mouldy hotel rooms and are served substandard food, private companies pocket millions.
It’s time to end the use of asylum hotels and invest in communities.
While families live in crowded, mouldy hotel rooms and are served substandard food, private companies pocket millions.
It’s time to end the use of asylum hotels and invest in communities.
🚨🚨🚨
Our new report on hotel accommodation drops today.
These hotels are not 5*. Here's the proof.
Relying on testimony from clients, photos & medical evidence, you can now see the awful reality of hotel life.
More updates throughout the day so watch this space.
www.ramfel.org.uk/asylum-hotel...
Our new report on hotel accommodation drops today.
These hotels are not 5*. Here's the proof.
Relying on testimony from clients, photos & medical evidence, you can now see the awful reality of hotel life.
More updates throughout the day so watch this space.
www.ramfel.org.uk/asylum-hotel...
Asylum Hotels Report
Our new report, Profiting from People: Inside the UK’s Asylum Hotels , exposes the true horrors that refugees face whilst housed for years on end in asylum hotels. We’ve long known this, and now...
www.ramfel.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 3:28 PM
This vital new report sheds light on the horrific conditions in asylum hotels.
While families live in crowded, mouldy hotel rooms and are served substandard food, private companies pocket millions.
It’s time to end the use of asylum hotels and invest in communities.
While families live in crowded, mouldy hotel rooms and are served substandard food, private companies pocket millions.
It’s time to end the use of asylum hotels and invest in communities.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
(3) Long term leave is crucial to secure safety, rights and recovery. Yet, in 2024, just 4% of survivors received a grant of VTS leave. Without stable immigration status, non-British survivors experience constant fear and anxiety and are pushed into poverty and destitution.
November 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
(3) Long term leave is crucial to secure safety, rights and recovery. Yet, in 2024, just 4% of survivors received a grant of VTS leave. Without stable immigration status, non-British survivors experience constant fear and anxiety and are pushed into poverty and destitution.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
@ATLEU, in partnership with Voice of Domestic Workers and Southeast and East Asian Centre, are launching a new paid training opportunity for two people with lived experience of human trafficking/modern slavery and migration. Sign up for our Mailing list www.atleu.org.uk/rise-and-lead#signup
November 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
@ATLEU, in partnership with Voice of Domestic Workers and Southeast and East Asian Centre, are launching a new paid training opportunity for two people with lived experience of human trafficking/modern slavery and migration. Sign up for our Mailing list www.atleu.org.uk/rise-and-lead#signup
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
Costs of asylum accomodation are down to firms making vast profits off of providing poor quality for people seeking safety and Home Office cruelty and ineptitude. It is not the fault of those forced into using them by a system which doesn't give them a choice. #r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Home Office 'squandered billions' on asylum accommodation, MPs say
"Flawed contracts" and "incompetent delivery" left the department unable to cope with demand for asylum accommodation, a report by MPs suggests.
www.bbc.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
Costs of asylum accomodation are down to firms making vast profits off of providing poor quality for people seeking safety and Home Office cruelty and ineptitude. It is not the fault of those forced into using them by a system which doesn't give them a choice. #r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Finally!!! The real scandal of the asylum hotels. Why, instead of shining the light on these parasites, months were spent on demonising vulnerable people at their mercy?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Asylum hotel provider makes £180m profit despite claims of inedible food and rationed loo paper
Asylum seekers and charities tell BBC of
www.bbc.co.uk
October 7, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Finally!!! The real scandal of the asylum hotels. Why, instead of shining the light on these parasites, months were spent on demonising vulnerable people at their mercy?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
Once again, ideas which started on the maddest fringes of the far right are being normalised as the stuff of day-to-day political debate. Genuinely horrifying to think what might follow this into the mainstream by 2029
The Times finds it "unacceptable" that people who came here legally in 2021 and have been living and working here since should allowed to stay.
The sad decline of a once great newspaper into ignorant xenophobia and casual racism
archive.ph/TFZY9
The sad decline of a once great newspaper into ignorant xenophobia and casual racism
archive.ph/TFZY9
October 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Once again, ideas which started on the maddest fringes of the far right are being normalised as the stuff of day-to-day political debate. Genuinely horrifying to think what might follow this into the mainstream by 2029
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
New from Free Movement: Briefing: is the modern slavery identification system in the UK being misused? | Sonia Lenegan
Briefing: is the modern slavery identification system in the UK being misused? - Free Movement
The Home Secretary has claimed (as have many of the last several of them) that the modern slavery identification process is "being misused" and has used this
freemovement.org.uk
September 29, 2025 at 7:36 AM
New from Free Movement: Briefing: is the modern slavery identification system in the UK being misused? | Sonia Lenegan
💯 this, the suggestion that people who spend years working full time in shortage occupations, paying extortionate visa & health surcharge fees on top of tax/NI somehow have not 'earned' the right to settle here and must now do extra hours of unpaid labour is beyond insulting on so many levels 😡
Migrants already "earn the right to settlement" through extortionate visa costs, which can run into tens of thousands of pounds. They prop up key services, including through the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Pushing the hostile environment on steroids helps no-one.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pushing the hostile environment on steroids helps no-one.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Mahmood demands migrants earn right to settlement in UK
New tests will include learning English to a high standard, paying National Insurance and not claiming benefits.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM
💯 this, the suggestion that people who spend years working full time in shortage occupations, paying extortionate visa & health surcharge fees on top of tax/NI somehow have not 'earned' the right to settle here and must now do extra hours of unpaid labour is beyond insulting on so many levels 😡
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
The Home Office's own guidance recognises that survivors of #ModernSlavery often delay disclosing their experiences, yet policies still penalise them for doing so. Instead of treating this as a suspicion, the government should focus on protection, not punishment and hostility.
September 26, 2025 at 10:40 AM
The Home Office's own guidance recognises that survivors of #ModernSlavery often delay disclosing their experiences, yet policies still penalise them for doing so. Instead of treating this as a suspicion, the government should focus on protection, not punishment and hostility.
Only person in politics actually talking sense 👏
The truth: we need migration.
The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it.
Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality.
Reject it. Draw the line.
The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it.
Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality.
Reject it. Draw the line.
September 22, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Only person in politics actually talking sense 👏
💯 this. Silence from government is absolutely deafening 🤦♀️
This is hugely problematic. The overwhelming majority in the UK reject the far right yet our views aren‘t being properly articulated in the public sphere: the papers largely support it, the BBC is a mix of supportive & supine, the government simply absent
Still absolutely nothing to say about far right thugs rioting and attacking the police while a US tech billionaire calls for a violent insurrection on our streets
September 14, 2025 at 10:13 AM
💯 this. Silence from government is absolutely deafening 🤦♀️
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
😡😡😡
Today is a day of national shame.
Every single politician who supports Labour suspending #familyreunion for refugees should hang their heads in shame.
We'll say it loud and proud, #refugeeswelcome
Today is a day of national shame.
Every single politician who supports Labour suspending #familyreunion for refugees should hang their heads in shame.
We'll say it loud and proud, #refugeeswelcome
September 1, 2025 at 3:24 PM
😡😡😡
Today is a day of national shame.
Every single politician who supports Labour suspending #familyreunion for refugees should hang their heads in shame.
We'll say it loud and proud, #refugeeswelcome
Today is a day of national shame.
Every single politician who supports Labour suspending #familyreunion for refugees should hang their heads in shame.
We'll say it loud and proud, #refugeeswelcome
Oh dear, it's even worse than I thought 🤦♀️ A very informative 🧵 here 👇. Once again, a merry-go-round of rejecting all common sense for useless (at best) headlines.
Hard to tell from this bland announcement just what the government plans for asylum appeals, so I’m trying not to speculate. But I’ve worked in the sector in various roles since 1987 & I’ve seen a lot of policy proposals come & go so I have Thoughts on the dysfunctional way we decide such things
1/🧵
1/🧵
Tribunal system reforms to speed up asylum decisions
A new independent body will be set up to speed up decision making on asylum appeal cases.
www.gov.uk
August 26, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Oh dear, it's even worse than I thought 🤦♀️ A very informative 🧵 here 👇. Once again, a merry-go-round of rejecting all common sense for useless (at best) headlines.
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
PS Exactly this - whether deliberately or otherwise the Home Office just fail to co-operate in trying to manage appeals fairly or efficiently until everyone else loses patience. But somehow it's the fault of asylum seekers, or the judiciary, that the system is so dysfunctional
I don't do loads of appeals nowadays but the last one I did the tribunal eventually gave up trying to get the HO to carry out the review and just moved us on to the rest of the directions...
It’s also worth pointing out that the existing tribunal system, though underfunded, has made progress in making appeals run more smoothly- see 👇- often by trying to make the HO co-operate better in case management. The HO’s reaction to this is probably most charitably described as recalcitrant 11/
August 25, 2025 at 2:56 PM
PS Exactly this - whether deliberately or otherwise the Home Office just fail to co-operate in trying to manage appeals fairly or efficiently until everyone else loses patience. But somehow it's the fault of asylum seekers, or the judiciary, that the system is so dysfunctional
I knew it!! No way those decisions could have been written by a human being and it's blatantly obvious. What is next? AI appeal determination? Seriously, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!! 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
www.ein.org.uk/news/home-of...
www.ein.org.uk/news/home-of...
Home Office to expand AI use in asylum decision-making after promising pilot results
Artificial intelligence will be deployed to support caseworkers to make swifter decisions on asylum claims
www.ein.org.uk
April 29, 2025 at 10:11 AM
I knew it!! No way those decisions could have been written by a human being and it's blatantly obvious. What is next? AI appeal determination? Seriously, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?!! 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
www.ein.org.uk/news/home-of...
www.ein.org.uk/news/home-of...
Reposted by Irene Tsherit
🧵👇👇👇
Numbers Labour could publish on foreign born people instead of criminal history:
😀Windrush without compensation
😀People who have experienced hate crime
😀Stats on NRPF that they refuse to publish
😀Stats on race/ethnicity that they refuse to publish
😀Visas denied due to racist decision making
😀Windrush without compensation
😀People who have experienced hate crime
😀Stats on NRPF that they refuse to publish
😀Stats on race/ethnicity that they refuse to publish
😀Visas denied due to racist decision making
April 22, 2025 at 12:13 PM
🧵👇👇👇