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Braverman fumes over ‘just stop oil’ protests

Activists, from London to Paris to Berlin, have resorted to gluing themselves to streets to disrupt traffic, spraying famous paintings, and disrupting major sporting events…reports Asian Lite News

Home Secretary Suella Braverman expressed outrage on Monday over ongoing eco protests in the country led by the Just Stop Oil (JSO) group, which have inflicted significant costs on British taxpayers in recent months.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the daily slow march protests conducted by climate activists in London over the past six weeks have resulted in costs of millions of pounds and thousands of officer hours.

The police stated that the protests have cost over £4.5 million in expenses and approximately 13,770 officer shifts associated with maintaining order.

Taking to Twitter, Braverman also slammed the Labour Party for voting against the Conservative Party’s measures that would grant police new powers to prevent and end such slow-walking demonstrations.

“The cost to the taxpayer of policing selfish protesters is an outrage. More than 13,000 police shifts were wasted and could have been spent stopping robbery & serious violence. Labour voted against our measures tonight & instead backed the eco-zealots,” she tweeted.

The Home Secretary’s anger arose as British MPs debated on Monday regarding new police powers to restrict the Just Stop Oil demonstrations.

According to the Daily Mail, the £4.5 million is in addition to the £7.5 million spent on policing the series of protests JSO staged between last October and December.

Activists, from London to Paris to Berlin, have resorted to gluing themselves to streets to disrupt traffic, spraying famous paintings, and disrupting major sporting events.

Last month, two Just Stop Oil protesters were charged with aggravated trespass after briefly bringing Saturday’s Rugby Premiership final at Twickenham Stadium in London to a halt by hurling orange powder on the pitch during the match.

Samuel Johnson, 40, from Suffolk in southeast England, and Patrick Hart, 37, from Bristol, were charged after taking to the pitch to throw orange powder around, according to the capital’s Metropolitan Police.

Earlier, Just Stop Oil also disrupted the World Snooker Championship in April and the British Formula One Grand Prix last July.

ALSO READ-Boris Johnson condemns fresh ‘Partygate’ claims

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Migration bill cruel, Sadiq Khan tells Braverman

Of those arriving illegally via small boats, Indians form a sizable chunk with the country recently witnessing a spike in their numbers…reprorts Asian Lite News

Calling the Illegal Migration Bill “cruel” and “unworkable”, London Mayor Sadiq Khan told the UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman that more than 50,000 people will be at risk of homelessness in the British capital if it becomes a law.

In a letter to the Indian-origin Home Secretary, Khan said the bill “would do significant damage to vulnerable people seeking sanctuary and put already-stretched services in London on crisis footing”, the Evening Standard reported.

Proposals under the Illegal Migration Bill, introduced in Parliament this year, would stop people entering the country in unauthorised boats across the English Channel.

In addition, they will be detained and then promptly removed — either to their home country or to a safe third country.

While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought to frame the bill as a move to stop traffickers from taking advantage of prospective immigrants, the Mayor warned that it could “end up handing power to human traffickers, undermine crucial child protections, and leave people in immigration limbo, rather than have their requests for sanctuary heard”.

“It is clear that the current asylum system is broken and this bill will serve only to deepen the challenge, which could result in 50,000 people over the next three years left in London, unable to access support, work or legitimate avenues to fend for themselves,” Khan wrote to Braverman.

Of those arriving illegally via small boats, Indians form a sizable chunk with the country recently witnessing a spike in their numbers.

The Home Office data showed that 683 Indians arrived in the UK on small boats in 2022, as compared to 67 in 2021.

The majority of “irregular arrivals” from India were men in between the ages of 25 and 40, out of a total of 45,755 in 2022, which included Albanian, Afghan, Syrian and Iraqi nationals.

According to an assessment by UK-based charity Refugee Council of the consequences of the first three years of implementation of the Illegal Migration Bill, over 190,000 people could be locked up or forced into destitution under the government’s new crackdown on desperate people seeking safety and sanctuary.

As many as 45,000 children could be locked up in the UK, after having their asylum claims deemed inadmissible, and around 9 billion pounds will be spent over three years on locking up refugees in detention centres and accommodating people who can’t be removed to other countries.

While provisions in the bill say that people who arrive illegally will be detained for 28 days before they are deported, Braverman had said there will be a few exceptions for children, people who are medically unfit to fly, or those who are at risk.

Once deported, the individuals will be banned from returning to the UK or applying for British citizenship in the future.

The Refugee Council said there is little to no evidence to suggest this new plan will be an effective deterrent to people crossing the Channel in small boats.

ALSO READ-Taliban planning to relocate refugees alongside Durand Line

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Sunak gives Braverman clean chit on driving fine row

She eventually decided to take a driving penalty after assessing that a speeding course was not compatible with her security, privacy and political concerns…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday he had decided not to investigate interior minister Suella Braverman over her handling of a speeding offence last year, ruling that her actions did not breach the ministerial code.

Sunak’s decision came after he took four days to consider his response to a Sunday Times report that Braverman had asked officials to help arrange a private driving-awareness course to stop her speeding violation from becoming public knowledge. “My decision is that these matters do not amount to a breach of the Ministerial Code,” Sunak said in a letter to Braverman, referring to the rules governing ministerial behaviour.

“As you have recognised, a better course of action could have been taken to avoid giving rise to the perception of impropriety.” Opposition parties had called on the prime minister to investigate whether Braverman breached the ministerial code over her handling of the incident. Ministers are barred from using government officials to help with their personal affairs.

Braverman said in a letter to Sunak she had asked officials whether doing a speeding course was appropriate given that her new role as interior minister meant she was a protected person, and that she had a “lack of familiarity with protocol”. She said her discussions were in order to maintain her privacy and security, and that she had stopped discussing them with officials after receiving advice that it was not an appropriate matter for civil servants to look into.

She eventually decided to take a driving penalty after assessing that a speeding course was not compatible with her security, privacy and political concerns. She apologised for the distraction she had caused. “In hindsight, or if faced with a similar situation again, I would have chosen a different course of action. I sought to explore whether bespoke arrangements were possible, given my personal circumstances as a security-protected minister,” she wrote to Sunak.

“I recognise how some people have construed this as me seeking to avoid sanction – at no point was that the intention or outcome.”

ALSO READ-Braverman pledges to curb migration

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Braverman under fire for bid to dodge speeding fine

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called it “shocking” that Braverman had reportedly tried to bend the normal process for speeding drivers…reports Asian Lite News

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under pressure as it was claimed in a media report on Sunday that she attempted to dodge a driving fine after being caught speeding outside London when she was Attorney General of the country last year.

‘The Sunday Times’ reported that the Cabinet minister asked civil servants to help her avoid a speeding fine and points on her driving licence by arranging a private one-to-one driving awareness course.

In the UK, anyone caught speeding is handed a fine and penalty points on their licence unless they sign up to an awareness course held in group sessions or online.

A spokesperson for the Home Secretary said she “accepts that she was speeding last summer and regrets doing so”.

“She took the three points (on her licence) and paid the fine last year,” the spokesperson said.

However, the issue has been dominating headlines in the UK as Opposition parties demand an independent investigation to determine if Braverman broke the ministerial code and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s G7 news conference in Japan was also overshadowed by the issue.

“I don’t know the full details of what has happened nor have I spoken to the Home Secretary,” said Sunak, in response to a media inquiry.

“I think you can see first-hand what I have been doing over the last day or so but I understand that she’s expressed regret for speeding, accepted the penalty and paid the fine,” he said.

But Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called it “shocking” that Braverman had reportedly tried to bend the normal process for speeding drivers.

“As Home Secretary, Suella Braverman is responsible for upholding the law, yet this report suggests she has tried to abuse her position to get round the normal penalties,” said Cooper of the newspaper report.

She called for an “urgent investigation”, starting with Prime Minister Sunak’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Laurie Magnus, assessing whether the Home Secretary’s behaviour breached the ministerial code. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael has also called for Braverman to be “urgently investigated”.

‘The Sunday Times’ reported that instead of signing up for an in-person course with other motorists, or completing one online that would show her name and face to other participants, Braverman allegedly asked civil servants to arrange a private one-to-one course.

When the civil servants refused, she is said to have sought help from a political aide, who requested the private course organiser to provide a private session, or allow her to use an alias or turn her camera off. When the provider refused, Braverman opted to take the three points on her licence, the newspaper reported.

Sources close to the minister believe the case was settled by her taking the penalty points, which are wiped off over time unless additional points accrue for other road safety penalties. Accumulating 12 or more points on a licence could result in the driver losing their licence and being disqualified from driving over time.

“The Cabinet Office was made aware of the situation as requested by Mrs Braverman. She was not and is not disqualified from driving,” a source close to Braverman was quoted as saying.

“It would not be appropriate to comment on the existence or content of advice between government departments,” a UK Cabinet Office spokesperson said.

Sunak refuses to back Braverman

Rishi Sunak has said he hasn’t spoken to the Home Secretary about her speeding fine – but understands that she’s “expressed regret” for the offence and accepted the penalty.

When asked about the row at the end of G7 meeting in Japan, a seemingly frustrated Sunak asked the reporter whether he had any questions about the summit before answering.

“I don’t know the full details of what has happened nor have I spoken to the Home Secretary,” he said. “I think you can see first-hand what I have been doing over the last day or so but I understand that she’s expressed regret for speeding, accepted the penalty and paid the fine.”

He did not say whether he would launch an investigation into the Cabinet minister. However, a No 10 spokeswoman later insisted he does “of course” have full confidence in her.

Meanwhile, environment secretary Therese Coffey said it was “perfectly normal” if people are given points for speeding. Coffey added that she is unaware of all the details “referred to in the newspaper.”

She continued: “It is perfectly normal nowadays if people are found speeding to be offered points or to go on a course of some kind.

“As I say, I don’t know the details that are referred to in the newspaper but I think, as far as I’m aware, the Home Secretary has decided to take the points, pay the penalty and to keep focused on her main job of security, but also tackling illegal migration.”

Coffey, pressed on why she had not contacted her colleague about the reports in order to find out more details, said: “Because it is the case that there is some speculation in the newspaper, I’m not going to get into individual details.”

ALSO READ-Braverman pledges to curb migration

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Tory peer accuses Braverman of ‘racist rhetoric’

On 2 April, when outlining government measures to tackle grooming gangs, Braverman singled out British-Pakistani men as a major source of concern…reports Asian Lite News

A senior Conservative peer has urged Rishi Sunak to distance the party from Suella Braverman’s “racist rhetoric” or risk ruining his legacy as the first Asian prime minister.

Sayeeda Warsi, the first Asian person to chair the Tory party, said Braverman’s ethnic origin has “shielded her from criticism for too long”, claiming Conservatives had been “hesitant to hold an ethnic minority MP to account in the same way they would a white MP”.

Lady Warsi said it was time for the party to realise that “black and brown people can be racist too”, adding how “painfully disappointing” it had been to hear the home secretary single out British-Pakistani men as being of special concern in relation to child sexual cases, as part of the most diverse cabinet in history.

Warsi told Gurdian, “I do not believe Sunak shares Braverman’s extreme views. In his own statement on government plans to tackle child sexual exploitation, he did not use the same language as Braverman and looked uncomfortable when questioned about it. But as head of the party, the responsibility stops with him. As the first prime minister from an ethnic minority background, he should not want to be remembered for presiding over a government that engaged in racist rhetoric. The prime minister must now reach out to the people who have been harmed by Braverman’s comments – those diverse communities who are suffering the direct impact of her inaccuracy. He must address the concerns raised by those diverse and varied leaders and organisations who have written him letters in their hundreds calling for an end to this irresponsible and divisive language. His legacy depends on him having the strength to stamp out this rhetoric, and stop it becoming a part of this government’s identity.”

Warsi admitted she had found it difficult criticising Braverman because she was a party colleague but also because she was a woman of colour.

“I am cautious about the language I use in speaking about Braverman’s comments,” she added. “As someone who’s faced racism all my life, I recognise it when I see it. And however difficult it may be, I will not let cultural sensitivity and the colour of the home secretary’s skin stop me from speaking out.”

Albie Amankona, a Tory campaigner who co-founded the race relations group Conservatives Against Racism For Equality, said on Twitter: “I don’t understand how it’s possible for one person, Suella Braverman, to find themselves almost weekly at the centre of so much racial insensitivity. I’ve said it before, there is something not right there.”

Warsi’s comments follow letters sent to Sunak calling for him to act over Braverman’s rhetoric, including from the British Pakistan Foundation, which accused the home secretary of seeking to portray all British-Pakistani men in a “divisive and dangerous way”.

On 2 April, when outlining government measures to tackle grooming gangs, Braverman singled out British-Pakistani men as a major source of concern.

ALSO READ-Healthcare professionals seek apology from Braverman 

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Healthcare professionals seek apology from Braverman  

It is important to look at the evidence, they have asked the PM who has backed the racist comments of Suella Braverman…reports Asian Lite News

Thousands of healthcare professionals have called on UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman to apologise to British Pakistanis for making false, racist and Islamophobic allegations against them and creating dangers for them in Britain.

Dozens of healthcare organisations – with a collective membership in thousands consisting of healthcare professionals from multiple backgrounds — have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to take notice of racist and false allegations by the Home Secretary about Pakistanis linking them to sex grooming gangs, against the government’s own evidence.

National organisations of healthcare professionals have told the PM about their “profound disappointment with the recent comments made by the Home Secretary to stereotype, stigmatise and discriminate against the British Pakistani community with false accusations”.

It is important to look at the evidence, they have asked the PM who has backed the racist comments of Suella Braverman.

The professionals have referred to a report commissioned by the Home Office in 2020 which concluded that “research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white” and that it was not possible to conclude that one particular ethnic group was disproportionately over-represented.

The letter to the PM office read: “It is unacceptable for the Home Secretary to use inflammatory and divisive rhetoric that is sensationalist and contradicts her own department’s evidence. Critically, it enables these heinous crimes to continue by focusing on political exhibitionism instead of implementing impactful action that is evidence-based and requires a whole system response rather than singling out one particular ethnic group.

“As health and care professionals, we are committed to working in multi-agency partnerships to protect vulnerable young people who may be at risk or victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE). We are also acutely aware of the impact that cuts in the public sector and community services under the current government have had on young people in increasing their vulnerability and reducing access to support for CSE.”

The healthcare professional stated that these facts are being conveniently overlooked and replaced with “discriminatory and racist scapegoating”.

“It also overlooks insensitively, the immense contribution of healthcare professionals from different ethnic backgrounds (in this case British Pakistanis) contribution towards wonderful British intuitions like the NHS. This was very evident recently during COVID-19.”

“We demand an apology from the Home Secretary and an honest commitment to meaningfully tackling this vital issue which has ruined the lives of thousands of young people. We must also remind the Home Secretary that words have consequences; in 2014, Boris Johnson’s comments on women in niqabs resembling letterboxes directly resulted in a 375% increase in hate crimes targeting Muslim women,” the letter further stated.

“Language that empowers racist hate crime has no place in modern British society. We urge the Home Secretary to reflect on her grossly irresponsible framing of this complex and serious issue and commit to working with members from all communities to address the urgent issue of CSE together. A retraction of her statement and apology is sought.”

The letter seeking an apology from the controversial Home Secretary has been signed by the following healthcare organisations:

British Pakistani Psychiatrists Association (BPPA);

Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe (APPNE);

Muslim Doctors Association and Allied Health Professionals CIC (MDA);

British Indian Psychiatrist Association (BIPA);

British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO);

British Indian Doctors Association (BIDA);

British Indian Nurses Association (BINA);

Black women in health UK; British Pakistani Ophthalmic Society (BPOS);

TEAMS Charity, Radio Ramadan;

British Egyptian Medical Association;

Association of Pakistani Physicians and Surgeons UK (APPSUK);

Association of Pakistani Physicians & Surgeons of Scotland (APPS);

Sudanese Psychiatrists Association UK; Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association UK;

British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA);

Asian Professionals National Alliance (APNA) — South Asian NHS Staff Network;

British Bangladeshi Psychiatrists Association (BBPA);

Allama Iqbal Medical College Association UK;

International British Urology Society IBUS; Bangladeshi Doctors in UK;

National Overseas Doctors Family Association UK (NODFA);

Rawalpindi Medical University Alumni UK;

Nishterians Medical Alumni UK;

Dow Graduates Association of Northern Europe (DOGANE);

Sri Lankan Psychiatric Association of UK;

Cameroon Doctors in the UK (CamDocUK);

Medical Association of Nigerians Across Great Britain (MANSAG);

NHS Muslim Women’s Network;

Muslim Doctors Cymru;

B-ME Health UK;

Association of South Asian Midwives;

Alchemy Arts UK;

UK Pakistan Science and Innovation Global Network (UPSIGN);

British Pakistani Nurses and Midwifery Association (BPNMA);

NHS Muslims Network;

Uganda Nurses and Midwives Association UK (UNKA-UK);

Faisalabad Medical University UK Alumni;

King Edward Medical College Alumni Association UK (KEMCAUK);

Association of Black Psychiatrists UK (ABP-UK);

Sindh Medical College Graduates Association UK (SMCGA-UK);

Ghanaian Doctors & Dentists Association (GDDA-UK);

Cardiff University PakSoc.

ALSO READ-Thousands expected to march in support of NHS

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Braverman wins party seat selection

The fight had been labelled by media commentators here as the “Battle of Waterlooville”, after the town in Hampshire at the heart of the redrawn boundaries…reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s Indian-origin Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has won a key contest with a fellow Conservative Party member of Parliament to be selected as the candidate for her redrawn constituency.

The 43-year-old senior Cabinet minister, of Goan and Tamil heritage, had a face-off with fellow Tory MP Flick Drummond in an internal party vote on Wednesday over who gets to contest from a new proposed constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire in the next general election – expected in 2024.

Under the Boundary Commission of England’s changes, Braverman’s original seat of Fareham in south-east England is being re-carved and Drummond’s Meon Valley is being scrapped under the new parliamentary boundaries.

“I am honoured and humbled to have been adopted by Conservatives members to be their Parliamentary Candidate for the new Fareham and Waterlooville constituency,” Braverman tweeted soon after the vote – which she reportedly won 77 to 54.

“I thank my Parliamentary colleague Flick Drummond MP for her excellent work for the people of Meon Valley,” she said.

The fight had been labelled by media commentators here as the “Battle of Waterlooville”, after the town in Hampshire at the heart of the redrawn boundaries.

Drummond said she was “incredibly disappointed” by the election result but said she would “continue to be Meon Valley MP” until the next election, a position she has held since 2019.

The selection vote comes as a number of constituency changes have been proposed across England as part of the 2023 Boundary Review, the final recommendations of which are due to be presented to the UK Parliament by July 1 to be adopted ahead of the next general election. The Boundary Commission for England says it has closed its “final consultation” and that it is analysing the feedback received.

Braverman’s victory came soon after the UK Home Office announced that it would be using a barge, or a docked vessel at Portland Port in Dorset, south-west England, to accommodate illegal migrants and asylum seekers in the UK.

The move is aimed at reducing the reliance on “expensive hotels” and to deliver what the government says would be a “more orderly, cost effective and sustainable asylum accommodation system”. The UK government says it costs the British taxpayer over GBP 6 million a day to house illegal migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed and want to find alternatives to cut down on costs.

Now the barge, called the Bibby Stockholm, will accommodate about 500 single adult males whilst their asylum claims are processed. The Home Office says it will provide basic and functional accommodation, and healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security will be in place on board, to minimise the disruption to local communities. People whose claims are refused and have exhausted their appeal rights will be removed from the UK.

ALSO READ-Pakistan warns Braverman over remarks

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Pakistan warns Braverman over remarks

FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, in a press briefing, warned that such comments would give “rise to dangerous trends”…reports Asian Lite News

Condemning Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “discriminatory and xenophobic” remarks against Pakistani men, the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) has warned of the serious repercussions of such comments, media reports said.

The British minister has been accused of “peddling extremist far-right lies” about Pakistanis after she singled out British Pakistani men over concerns about grooming gangs as she accused authorities of turning a “blind eye” to signs of abuse involving young people, Geo News reported.

In a recent interview with Sky News, the UK minister said that the “systematic and institutional failure to safeguard the welfare of children when it comes to sexual abuse” was one of the biggest scandals in British history.

“What’s clear is that what we’ve seen is a practice whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British-Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks,” she had stated.

FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, in a press briefing, warned that such comments would give “rise to dangerous trends”.

Braverman had also been warned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) that sexual predators do not just come from “one background” and that a focus solely on race could create new “blind spots” when tackling child abuse, Geo News reported.

The NSPCC had criticised the UK Home Secretary and expressed its shock at her hatred towards Pakistanis and for singling out Pakistanis.

ALSO READ-World Bank lowers Pakistan’s growth forecast

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Braverman targets Pakistan-origin men

The government has set up a specialist task force under the police to catch perpetrators who have been involved in the horrific crimes…reports Asian Lite News

By saying that “almost all” members of ‘grooming gangs’ – a British euphemism for paedophile gangs, were British Pakistani men whose attitudes were incompatible with British values–British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has stirred up a hornets’ nest.

Despite coming under scathing criticism from the Left parties and British Muslims, the government intends to frame new laws over “the culture of silence around British Pakistani male gangs involved in such crimes”.

“There have been several reports since about the predominance of certain ethnic groups – and I say, British Pakistani males – who hold cultural values totally at odds with British values, who see women in a demeaned and illegitimate way and who pursue an outdated and frankly heinous approach in terms of the way they behave,” said the Home Secretary while talking to Sky presenter Sophy Ridge.

The government has set up a specialist task force under the police, plans to bring in tougher sentencing, establish a new hotline and use data analytics to identify and catch perpetrators who have been involved in the horrific crimes that have scarred thousands of white British girls for lifetime.

Understandably, the Conservative Party government has been attacked for its choice of words. The British media has panned the government for being offensive and racist. Defending the government, Sunak told the media that perpetrators of sexual abuse of girls “were ignored was due to cultural sensitivity and political correctness”.

British society is divided on the issue of whether British Pakistani men should be singled out for cases of sexual assaults on girls as young as 11 that have rocked cities like Newcastle, Keighley, Rotherham, Rochdale, Peterborough, Aylesbury, Oxford and Bristol. The issue of girl child abuse has been going on since at least 1997 but has been kept hush hush by the British due to political correctness, pressure from Left and for fears of being labeled racist, or Islamophobic.

In most cases, the men convicted of exploiting under-age girls were found to be Pakistani Muslim men besides two Africans. Cases of exploitation differ from place to place and victim to victim but most involved trapping underage white girls for rape and prostitution by supplying them with cigarettes, drugs and money.

Despite attempts to brush off the racial identities of the perpetrators as white men or camouflaged under the term ‘Asian men’, the issue has kept simmering under the surface. Recently British channel GB News released a documentary, ‘Grooming Gangs: Britain’s Shame’, in which it spoke with girls who had been repeatedly abused and charity workers who relentlessly worked to support the abused children.

The documentary unearthed what was already known – ethnic identity protected the abusers from law.

The documentary also highlighted how the media, care workers, policemen, counsellors and the entire British system collapsed against the might of political correctness and let down the exploited children to protect the abusers.

Recently, a review of the Prevent Report by the British government pointed out the fact that religious hate has been exported by Pakistan’s religious clerics to the UK through ideas like blasphemy laws. Rigid interpretations of Islam are seeping into the British Muslim society, bringing disharmony into an otherwise assimilating liberal British culture.

Her comments were condemned by many including Robina Qureshi, CEO of the refugee charity Positive Action in Housing (PAiH).

Qureshi asked the Home secretary to apologise for her “gross misrepresentation” of the British Pakistani community and defined her language as “unacceptable”.

In an unrelated news, The Guardian published an investigative report about how the Pakistani army perpetrated a genocide on Bangladeshi women during the 1971 war of Liberation. At one point, the report says: “Official estimates put the number of Bengali women raped at between 200,000 and 400,000, though even those numbers are considered conservative by some.

British society is in immense churn as it debates boat landings, its failed policy of cultural assimilation, the riots in Leicester as well as how young British girls were denied justice just because it could become a political issue. The latest is how families of British schoolboys are going into hiding for fear of being attacked over blasphemy and how a teacher has been in hiding due to threats to his life from Islamist radicals.

ALSO READ-Rights group raises alarm over minority abuse in Pakistan

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Braverman to discuss controversial migration deal in Rwanda

Opponents are seeking to appeal that verdict in April and it could yet go to Britain’s Supreme Court later in the year…reports Asian Lite News

The United Kingdom’s interior minister, Suella Braverman, has arrived in Rwanda to discuss an agreement in which the UK will relocate undocumented refugees and migrants there as she doubles down on a plan that has been mired in legal challenges and controversy.

Last year, the UK agreed to send tens of thousands of people more than 4,000 miles (6,400km) away to Rwanda as part of a 120-million-pound deal. No flights have taken off yet because opponents are challenging the policy in the courts.

The deal with Rwanda is a major part of Britain’s plans to detain and deport asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the English Channel.

Braverman met Rwanda’s foreign minister, Vincent Biruta, on Saturday and told reporters in Kigali that she had agreed extra support for the people whom the UK sends to the country.

“Many countries around the world are grappling with unprecedented numbers of illegal migrants, and I sincerely believe that this world-leading partnership … is both humanitarian and compassionate and also fair and balanced,” the home secretary said at a news conference with Biruta.

Biruta said the proposals “offer better opportunities for migrants and Rwandans alike” and would help with the British government’s goal to disrupt people-trafficking networks.

Braverman is expected to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Sunday.

The partnership was announced in April, but the first deportation flight was blocked by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.

In December, London’s High Court ruled the policy lawful, but its judges also said the government failed to consider the individual circumstances of the people it tried to deport, signalling further legal battles ahead.

Opponents are seeking to appeal that verdict in April and it could yet go to Britain’s Supreme Court later in the year.

Several asylum seekers, aid groups and a border officials union have filed lawsuits to stop the Conservative Party government from acting on the deportation agreement with Rwanda.

If the policy is upheld, asylum seekers would have to present their asylum claims in Rwanda. Those not granted asylum in Rwanda would, under the plan, be able to apply to stay on other grounds or try to get resettled in another country.

Opposition parties and charities have described the government’s plans on immigration as unethical and unworkable, saying the plan – known as the Illegal Migration Bill – criminalises the efforts of thousands of genuine refugees.

Rights groups have also argued that Rwanda is not a safe destination since the 1994 genocide there. Human Rights Watch issued a public letter warning, “Serious human rights abuses continue to occur in Rwanda, including repression of free speech, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture.”

Braverman has robustly defended her approach and described her opponents as “naive do-gooders”. The government insists the policy is needed to stop the all too often deadly crossings of the channel from France, saying the deal would undermine the business model of people-smuggling networks.

Since a record 45,000 people arrived in Britain last year on small boats, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that finding a solution is one of his top priorities.

ALSO READ-Braverman’s policies ‘heartless’: former UK Home Office adviser