For 14 years Mark Fomenko has been following immigration rules to gain settlement in the UK, but the rules keep changing. Recent changes have wiped away the records of Ukrainians who made a home in the UK long before the conflict with Russia began. And Labour’s “earned settlement” proposals are about to make things even harder.
The Labour government’s “earned settlement” scheme is part of a raft of hardline immigration reforms. But critics say lengthening the time it takes for visa holders to earn settlement from five years to 15 will hit the UK’s care workers hard and go against Andy Burnham’s vision for a National Care Service. This feature recounts stories of isolation, sacrifice and self-deportation from Britain’s social care workers – and explores alternative solutions.
In Gurez Valley, in the remote mountains of Kashmir, winter turns childbirth into a dangerous journey, with snow-covered roads and an acute lack of healthcare forcing expectant mothers to leave their homes months in advance. Women from one of the Himalaya’s oldest Indigenous communities, Dard-shin, speak of displacement, financial strain and risking their lives to become mothers.
When recounting these stories, Pillay smiles, almost flippant. “It is true I have been called terrible names. Someone asked me to look at my pictures on Google images; many were super imposed with the face of Osama bin Laden. There are a lot of people who don’t understand human rights.” Pillay’s steadfastness in the face… Read more »
Angola has one of the highest fertility rates in the world, and in some rural regions the rate of teen pregnancies is more than double that in urban areas. In the Moxico region of Angola, teenagers, young mothers, nurses and NGO workers share their stories.
Abrupt cuts to HIV funding, sparked by Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, could result in 6 million new HIV infections and up to 4 million HIV-related deaths by 2030. Archibong Bassey finds the cuts are devastating the global goal to end AIDS as a public health threat in the next four years.
In the 1960s, the Black Supplementary School Movement opened voluntary Saturday schools to address the gaps in an education system that were leaving Black children behind. Sixty years later, more than 3,000 grassroots supplementary schools are still supporting minoritised children across the UK. In Leicester, teacher Julie Walters-Nisbett says the community’s Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School is as relevant as ever
Spain’s Canary Islands have become one of Europe’s main arrival points for unaccompanied migrant children. One in five people dies on the Canarian migration route with ocean crossings that take several days. Teenagers Mariama and Mohamed describe their own journeys and their hopes for the future.
“How can I focus on the laws of physics or the rules of language when the sound of gunfire or raids fills the classroom?” As conflict tightens its grip on the West Bank, classrooms are becoming frontlines of a quieter crisis: the erosion of education. For students like 17-year-old Ahmad Haje, daily life is shaped by checkpoints, raids and fear, forcing learning under constant violence, disruption and uncertainty.
Agnes Wanjiru went missing 14 years ago. Two months later, her body was pulled from a septic tank. Now, Robert James Purkiss could become the first British soldier in history to face trial abroad for the killing of a civilian. Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, says the case goes far beyond one unresolved murder, uncovering an arrangement that has ensured British military presence in Kenya since independence and shielded British soldiers from the reach of Kenyan law.
Many people dream of a human rights career, helping others and creating change, but how do you take the first steps? We asked human rights lawyers, humanitarians and journalists to tell us about essential qualifications and experience, and offer valuable advice to students just starting out.
