Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to implement a permanent framework for refugee students to study in the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Immigration White Paper published on 12 May announced a review of the UK’s existing refugee resettlement and sponsorship schemes. This will ensure that there is a framework which allows businesses, universities and communities to sponsor refugees to live, work and study in the UK. Further details will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing independent modern slavery advocates for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government recognises the role of Independent Modern Slavery Advocates (IMSAs) in empowering victims of exploitation. IMSAs can play an important role in helping victims understand their rights and navigate complex systems.
Under the Home Office funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), adult victims are provided with a dedicated support worker who also offers tailored assistance across social, legal, psychological and health domains. The support will continue under the new Support for Victims of Modern Slavery (SVMS) contract, when the MSVCC ends in 2027.
In developing the SVMS contract, we have engaged extensively with frontline practitioners and individuals with lived experience. We assessed the merits of different support models, to inform enhancements to the training, partnership working, and access to specialist resources for support workers, ensuring that they are well equipped to meet the complex and evolving needs of victims and to support a smooth transition from contracted support to wider services.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for the consideration of Administrative Reviews of immigration casework.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The allocation of resources across competing demands within the immigration system requires that prioritisation decisions are made, but the Home Office continues to work hard to meet the timescales set out in public guidance for the processing of AR applications.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for administrative reviews relating to immigration casework.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The allocation of resources across competing demands within the immigration system requires that prioritisation decisions are made, but the Home Office continues to work hard to meet the timescales set out in public guidance for the processing of AR applications.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Departments plans to implement transitional arrangements for people impacted by the proposals outlined in her Department's White Paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, announced new measures on a wide range of issues.
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year. Further details will be set out in the normal way in due course, and where necessary, will be subject to consultation.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that home delivery drivers are protected from abuse within the Crime and Policing Bill.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is determined to tackle all forms of hate crime.
We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity, and we back the police in taking strong action against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
The Government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We are also continuing to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime, providing expert advice to police to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.
The Government is carefully considering how best to strengthen the response to hate crime going forward so we can continue to tackle this offending head on.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department considers Afghanistan to be a safe country for asylum returns.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Our assessment of the general situation in Afghanistan is set out in the relevant country policy and information notes, which are available on the GOV.UK website.
All asylum and human rights claims from Afghan nationals are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims from Afghans were refused in 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions on asylum claims by nationality is published in table Asy_D02 the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
The latest data relates to the year ending September 2024. Data for October to December 2024 will be published on 27 February 2025.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring forward legislation to make all hate crime an aggravated offence.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is determined to tackle all forms of hate crime. We have committed to changing hate crime legislation to bring parity of protection for LGBT+ and disabled people under the aggravated offences and we are currently considering how best to implement this.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the feasibility of Palestinians in Gaza seeking to make a UK visa application enrolling their biometrics in a Visa Application Centre in (a) Ramallah and (b) Jerusalem.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Biometrics underpin the UK immigration system to support identity assurance and suitability checks on foreign nationals who are subject to immigration control.
In most circumstances, foreign nationals who are required to apply for entry clearance to come to the UK are required to enrol their biometrics in the form of a facial image and fingerprints as part of the application process at a visa application centre.
We will accept applications from those in Gaza, at any of the UK’s Visa Application Centres. Customers can visit Welcome to VFS Global | vfsglobal for an up to date list of Visa Application Centres in the region.