Government rows back on compensation scheme for child sexual abuse victims
Sunday 4 May 2025 01:20, UK
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
'Home Office urged return to Syria – but my kids face death threats'
Chafik Kazkaz, who is seeking asylum in the UK, said officials encouraged him to go back to his birthplace of Hama during a government 'pause' on Syrian asylum applications that began in December 2024 after the fall of the despotic regime of Bashar al-Assad. The pause was lifted in late July, and Chafik said the situation in Syria had worsened during that time. However, he said the Home Office had called and emailed his family and other Syrians during the pause 'to try and encourage you to go back'. READ MORE: Syrians in Scotland 'scared and in limbo' as Labour pause asylum claims Chafik said: 'I think they have this strategy: he [the Home Office agent] said 'there are thousands of Syrian people going back, why don't you go back?' 'I'm sorry but I shouted at the phone. They can't understand. For them, it's a case. Just standard. OK, OK, no, no [he mimes box ticking]. The result is no or yes. 'But for us it's not a case, it's life. It's a decision for my kids, maybe for their kids. 'You can't imagine how bad it is nowadays. Every day we have these cases happen in Syria, in Hama, kidnapping, asking for money, killing, torturing. It has reached an inhumanity. There is no law.' Chafik alleged that the Home Office call came despite death threats against his wife, Shaima, and their three children: Ahmad, 14, Habib, 12, and Hashem, who's 10. 'Can you imagine this?' he said. 'My father-in-law, my wife's father, threatened his daughter, my kids also: 'You moved to the country of the people who don't believe – infidels, or something like this. We can just kill you'.' Shaima with Ahmad, Habib, and Hashem (Image: Supplied) Asked if he believed his wife could be killed by her own father, Chafik said: 'Yes. Yes. He threatened this, because many of his relatives are now in the 'police', the new police in Syria now. 'If you know somebody in the government, you can do anything,' he continued, saying that the 'new police' are predominantly young teenagers given just two weeks of training in Sharia law. 'They prefer to get people young, 17, 16, because they grow up in the camps,' Chafik said. 'They have no education, no learning. They just know war. 'They have the right to arrest you, and to give you a punishment directly. Maybe they kill you. Maybe they fight you. Maybe they degrade you in front of your family. Maybe they take your car, your money, anything.' He said that the police were one of 'many, many different militia struggling together', adding: 'You have to be under one of these militia. You can't be free with your ideas, you're thinking, no. You have to be one of these.' READ MORE: David Pratt: Must the West fear Syria – or Syria fear the West? In Syria, the former head of militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Ahmed al-Sharaa, holds the presidency. His new government is reportedly finding it difficult to exert authority over the country, with many religious and ethnic minorities resisting rule from Damascus. Chafik said that the situation is worse than when he fled Syria in June 2024 – despite the UK Government 'thinking we're going to become Switzerland in a few years'. 'In Syria, people are all talking about two things: every day they discover a new mass grave, thousands of bodies. And the other thing is about revenge. 'Everybody has guns, everybody,' he said. 'It seems crazy, but there are WhatsApp groups just for selling different kinds of weapons.' Chafik showed two groups he joined to get 'an idea of what's happening there'. 'For example, this $475,' he said, pointing to what looked to be a Kalashnikov. 'They give you the whole description about it – it's semi-automatic, like new – and there is a free delivery service.' Two screenshots of Syrian WhatsApp groups allegedly selling guns with 'free delivery' (Image: NQ) Chafik said he is worried about taking his children into that violent environment – and that if it weren't for a stroke of bad luck, his family might already have leave to remain in the UK. 'It's funny, somehow,' he said. 'I had my first [Home Office] interview, then they gave me another appointment. But they moved me to Scotland, Glasgow, and they gave me an appointment in London. 'I had no money at that time at all and it was just 24 hours' notice. So I missed my interview. 'So, they gave me another – and it was here in Glasgow – but the day before, they cancelled it. Then they gave me another interview, and it was supposed to be December 12 last year. The regime fell on the 8th, so they cancelled again.' Chafik, a dentist by trade who served in the Syrian army due to conscription laws, first left his home country in 2011 after arriving at his dentist clinic one October to find 'five bullets in my chair, like a sniper'. A friend working in intelligence warned him to 'go outside the country as fast as you can because your name is on the list'. READ MORE: David Pratt: Israel's expansionism is the clear and present danger He moved to Saudi Arabia, where he worked as a dentist for a full decade before circumstances changed and the family moved to Turkey, where Chafik worked in another Syrian dentist's clinic. 'I had many patients from European countries because, you know, it's cheaper,' he said. However, two years passed, and in 2023, the family took a vacation to Istanbul, where they were lifted from the street by Turkish authorities and sent back to Syria. 'They gave me a paper to sign. I refused. They said 'OK' and they signed for me,' he said. 'From the street they took us, me and my family, and they sent us to north Syria, to Idlib. 'Actually, when they sent me back to Syria, I had no money at all. I'd paid for my home rent for one year [in Turkey]. 'The inhumanity dealing with us was so bad, but I saw many people worse.' They began rebuilding in Idlib – Chafik found work and they rented a 'partly destroyed' house (he did not know who bombed it) – until a cousin offered to help them claim asylum in Europe. Chafik pictured with his oldest son Ahmad (Image: Supplied) Settling on the UK and smuggled illegally back into Turkey, Chafik and his family flew to Stansted and claimed asylum. Asked which passports they used, he said: 'I don't know. I was not allowed to see. It was blue. 'Even when we went to go in the plane, at the gate, he [the cousin] took us. So we went on the plane without passports.' After two months in an asylum hotel, the family was relocated to Glasgow, where Chafik said they would like to stay. Unable to work due to Home Office restrictions on asylum seekers, Chafik instead volunteers with four different charities – the Maryhill Integration Network, the Red Cross, the Scottish Refugee Council, and Debra – as well as teaching Arabic on the weekends and taking English classes himself. 'I'll tell you a secret,' he said. 'For this volunteering, we get some money for transportation. I'm sorry to say that sometimes I walk and save this £6, so I can pay, you know, you think about food. Can we eat today or not? READ MORE: 1400 killed in sectarian violence in coastal Syria in March, committee says 'As a father, you can't let your children down, even if you cut from your own body.' He added: 'I want to mention this: we were not poor before. When I worked in Saudi Arabia, my home was like a villa. I had a big car. I worked hard and earned good money. We didn't come here for money – or for the weather. 'I think the Home Office – I'm sorry for this – think that we've come here after a discussion at the coffee table. It's not just, 'Oh, let's go to Glasgow'. It's not like this at all.' The Home Office is currently processing Chafik and his family's application, and the uncertainty is making life difficult. 'What will happen, nobody knows,' Chafik said. 'Maybe you have the power to kick me out of this country, but you do not have the power to make me go back to Syria.' The Home Office was approached for comment.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Labour accuse Farage of wanting a 'Wild West' internet over 'dangerous and irresponsible' plans to scrap online safety laws
Nigel Farage 's 'dangerous and irresponsible' plans to scrap online safety laws would have let 90 vile criminals off the hook, Labour claimed last night. Home Office Minister Jess Phillips cited new details of people convicted under the Online Safety Act to claim that Reform UK's pledge to scrap it would ensure 'the internet remains a Wild West'. She referred to official figures showing that between January and December 2024, at least 90 people had been convicted – including at least 22 custodial sentences - under offences set out in the Act. That included the first-ever conviction for 'cyber-flashing' when a 39-year-old man was given a jail sentence of 66 weeks after sending indecent unsolicited photos to two women . And a 22-year-old man became the first person under the new law to be charged with encouraging self-harm online. Ms Phillips, who is Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, claimed that Mr Farage was 'risking the safety of women and girls with his dangerous and irresponsible plans' to scrap the existing legislation. 'More than 90 criminals have already been convicted, with many put behind bars - leaving women and girls safer as a result. 'These vile and misogynistic crimes have no place in our society.' But the attack comes just weeks after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle suggested that by opposing the Government's online safety laws, the Reform party leader was on the side of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile. And last night, Reform leader Mr Farage – who has already demanded an apology over the Savile remark – angrily accused Labour of 'now getting desperate'. He told the Mail on Sunday: 'There are no depths to which they will not sink to attack me personally - because they know we are destroying them electorally in the Midlands and the North of England.' Mr Farage said that if Labour really cared about women's safety, they would tackle the migrants' crisis and not allow each week for 'hundreds of young males from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, who regard women as being mere commodities' to be put in hotels 'free to wander our streets'. He admitted that no-one had yet found a solution to policing the internet. But he said that a future Reform government would put 'tech experts' like the party's former chairman Zia Yusuf in charge of getting the answers. The online safety came into force during the last Tory government in 2023. However, Labour claimed that since it came to power last year, the number of convictions under the Act had rocketed by 270 per cent. Mr Farage said that if Labour really cared about women's safety, they would tackle the migrants' crisis and not allow each week for 'hundreds of young males from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, who regard women as being mere commodities' to be put in hotels Labour pointed out that many of the crimes covered by the online safety laws disproportionately affected women. They referred to YouGov research which found that four in 10 young women aged 18-34 had been sent unsolicited sex images. And the Revenge Porn Helpline found that women had 28 times more intimate images shared than men. Labour said that the Online Safety Act makes the sharing of intimate images without consent a 'priority offence', the most serious class of online crime.
Times
8 hours ago
- Times
Portsmouth blindsided by hundreds of hidden asylum seekers
A council that said it could not take any more asylum seekers has complained to the Home Office after it discovered that hundreds of migrants were being housed locally without its knowledge. Portsmouth city council discovered last week that 55 rental properties were being used to house at least three asylum seekers each, accommodation known as homes of multiple occupation (HMO). In 2023, James Hill, the city's director of housing, told the Home Office the 'system's capacity was such that we couldn't support additional asylum seekers'. However, at a public meeting in July hosted by Amanda Martin, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, figures came to light that revealed the number of private properties being used to house migrants had risen from ten at the end of 2019 to 58 in April 2024. Last week, the council confirmed with the Home Office that the number was 55. Martin unearthed the data after Clearsprings Ready Homes, a housing company subcontracted by the Home Office to provide accommodation for asylum seekers, wrote to a parliamentary committee in June as part of an inquiry into asylum accommodation. Portsmouth city council said it had since complained to the department that it had not been notified about this use of the properties. 'We were previously not aware of the number of properties being used in the city,' a spokesman said. 'We have made it clear that the processes [the Home Office] has are not adequate and they should be formally notifying a senior officer.' The Home Office routinely subcontracts private companies, including Clearsprings, to provide accommodation for asylum seekers via HMOs. These are classed as rented homes with shared facilities and at least three tenants from different households, which landlords require a licence to operate. While there is no legal obligation for the Home Office to notify local authorities when asylum seekers are housed in HMOs in their area, councils expect to be told. Local authorities say that when large numbers of asylum seekers are placed in their region without warning, it places a strain on resources and can lead to social problems. Dame Penny Mordaunt, who lost her seat as Conservative MP for Portsmouth North at the last general election, said she was not informed about the increase in HMOs for migrants in her constituency, despite sitting in the cabinet alongside Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time. Mordaunt said she wrote to Braverman in 2023 'pointing out the levels Portsmouth has taken over many years in comparison to other areas', adding: '[Braverman] assured me she understood that.' The former defence secretary said she was separately given assurances by the Home Office under Braverman that other buildings would not be used to house asylum seekers in the city. Braverman declined to comment. In July, Braverman wrote to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, about proposals to house asylum seekers in a former retail site in Waterlooville, near Portsmouth. Braverman called the plans 'inappropriate' and claimed facilities of that sort made town centres 'no-go zones for the patriotic, common-sense majority'. The data published in June by Clearsprings showed the number of HMOs used to house asylum seekers in London and the south of England was 731 in December 2019, increasing to 885 in August 2024. HMOs are increasingly seen as an alternative to housing asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels, a practice the Labour government has pledged to end. In June, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said the use of asylum hotels would end by 2029, saving the country £1 billion. The latest available data shows 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels at the end of March 2025, almost a third of all migrants receiving accommodation support in the UK. The rate of asylum seekers coming into the country has meant the number left in hotel accommodation is yet to drop below the level set when the Conservatives left office, when 29,000 asylum seekers were housed in hotels. This week, the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats since Labour came to power last July surpassed 50,000. Some local authorities have reported substantial numbers, including Swindon in Wiltshire, where there were 69 HMOs, and Colchester in Essex, where there were 52. The latest data from the Home Office shows 112 asylum seekers were housed temporarily in hotels in Portsmouth at the end of December 2024, up from 77 at the end of September. George Madgwick, the leader of the Reform UK group in Portsmouth, wrote to the home secretary this week raising concerns that the number of HMOs in the city was 'putting a strain on the local private and social housing situation'. He claimed using properties to house migrants 'will be directly responsible for putting up local rental prices'. Martin, who was elected to represent the Portsmouth North constituency last year, said she made 'no apologies for laying out the facts available to my constituents, including the Liberal Democrat-led council'. The Home Office said the government was 'continuing to expand the use of dispersal accommodation as part of our strategy to reduce reliance on costly hotels and deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum system'. A spokesman said: 'This approach is being implemented in close consultation with local authorities across the UK to ensure dispersal is balanced and community needs and concerns are taken into account.' Clearsprings declined to comment.
