Head of Asylum Advocacy @FreefromTorture. Interests are asylum & international refugee protection, human rights. All views are personal.

Joined November 2010
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Our new report exposes the true reasons torture survivors and refugees arrive in the UK & proposes some alternative solutions to save lives and preserve access to refugee protection Read the report now.... freedomfromtorture.org/why-t…
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FfT's new report, 'A Place to Heal' centres the voices of those in asylum housing & exposes the devastating harm it causes to survivors. The solutions are simple: ✅Better quality & faster asylum decisions to manage numbers ✅ Locally-tailored, well-resourced housing
This morning, we appeared in @DailyMirror exposing the reality of the UK’s asylum accommodation: Asylum hotels are awful places to live for people fleeing torture. We didn’t rely on them to house asylum seekers 5 years ago – so why is our govt using them? mirror.co.uk/news/politics/a…
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I'm just gonna pop this here for any Sun readers who are interested in why refugees actually come to the UK... from @FreefromTorture report Fleeing a Burning House: freedomfromtorture.org/sites…...
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Cooper will shortly be providing a statement to parliament on her plans for asylum reform, including changes that restrict access to refugee family reunion and speeding up processing of asylum appeals parliamentlive.tv/Commons

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New immigration rules will be published this week to temporarily suspend any new applications under Refugee Family Reunion route until a new scheme can be brought in. Refugees will be covered by the conditions and rules that apply to everyone else.
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We are watching concept of refugee family reunion, built on principle of sanctity of family, importance of family unit to enable integration & opportunity to rescue refugees directly from danger, being cynically spun into politically expedient 'pull factor' exploited by smugglers
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No real update on hotel closures except to say that they must all be closed.
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Have just heard from Chris Murray MP that Home Affairs Select Committee will publish the report of their inquiry into asylum accommodation shortly. @FreefromTorture provided evidence to the committee of the harmful impact of hotels on survivors of torture in UK asylum system
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Sile Reynolds 🧡 retweeted
Grim spectacle. Many of the family reunion applications will involve women and children living in precarious environments - camps, war zones, places where their health and liberty is at risk, etc.
BREAKING: Yvette Cooper says she is suspending all applications to bring family members to the UK under the asylum system.
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Sile Reynolds 🧡 retweeted
27 Aug 2025
🧵Yesterday a good e.g. of the danger of the politics of 'can't'. If Govt want to effectively challenge Reform policies the worst approach is to say 'we can't do them' - instead set out why your alternative better & make positive case for things you might believe in like ECHR
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When asked what drives people to abandon their principles & humanity & engage in torture @RoryStewartUK & @campbellclaret focus on responsibility of individual perpetrators rather than a political & social environment in which torture is permitted @FreefromTorture @aaliyahmburns
Question Time: Assad’s People - Torture, Justice, and Forgiveness New episode alert 🚨 This week on Question Time @RoryStewartUK and @campbellclaret discuss: 🇸🇾 What drives someone to torture 📰 The latest in Gaza 🇬🇪 Democracy under threat in Georgia and Venezuela ...and much more. Tune in now 👇 lnk.to/TheRestIsPoliticsTW
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Perhaps @RestIsPolitics team could speak to anti-torture campaigners like @FreefromTorture and the survivors who lead the movement to uphold the global anti-torture ban like @haoussou & @ntunasi to better understand what drives people to commit such unimaginable acts of horror
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Some helpful clarifications from Home Sec Yvette Cooper's appearance before Home Affairs Select Cttee on Monday: the immigration White Paper coming in new year will focus on reform of labour migration routes to UK & enforcement on illegal working parliamentlive.tv/event/inde…

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Home Affairs Cttee just launched an inquiry into asylum accommodation. This is such an important inquiry at a critical time in the life of the current contracts. @FreefromTorture & @SSOonline will be putting in our evidence of the impact of asylum housing on survivors of torture
We have launched an inquiry into asylum accommodation. We are examining: ✅ how asylum accommodation is currently delivered ✅ what needs to change as the Government seeks to reset its approach to asylum accommodation Find out more via the link in the reply.
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Tho it was accepted that people on DG needed in-person assessment by medical experts these hadn't been facilitated & so protection claims stalled. The reason behind this was a HO concern that allowing experts to visit might set precedent for Rwanda scheme: tinyurl.com/48f26kw3
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Sile Reynolds 🧡 retweeted
WARNING: Young torture survivors are being put at risk due to this government's age assessment policies. Their voices are often left out of the conversation, so this #WorldChildrensDay hear our Young Outspoken Survivors important message to this government. @YoungSurvivors3
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