David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator on a post-Brexit trade deal on Sunday (6 September) upped the ante ahead of a crunch week of negotiations, warning that Boris Johnson’s government was not “scared” of walking away from talks without a deal to govern trade from 2021.
Frost will host EU counterpart Michel Barnier for the eighth round of talks in London, starting on Tuesday, with both sides under pressure to break a lengthy log-jam on regulatory alignment and fisheries.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Frost also pinned the blame for the impasse on the team of Boris Johnson’s predecessor as Prime Minister, Theresa May, who he said had “blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments” during negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement that took the UK out of the EU this January.
As a consequence, Frost said that the EU had “learned not to take our word seriously”.
That prompted an angry reaction from Gavin Barwell, chief of staff for May, who accused Frost of “brass neck”, pointing out that 95% of the Withdrawal Agreement signed off by Johnson was negotiated by May.
“The 5% that was new involved giving in to the EU’s key demand,” said Barwell, a reference to Johnson agreeing to the EU’s ‘backstop’ proposal to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Although the post-Brexit transition period ends on 31 December, the window for agreeing a new trade pact with sufficient time for it to be ratified by national parliaments and the European Parliament is steadily closing.
In a BBC interview on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also sought to put the pressure on Barnier, warning that this week’s round would be “a wake-up call for the EU” and repeated that a deal was “there for the taking” if the two sides could broker a compromise on state aid and fisheries.
Fisheries appears to be tougher to resolve. The EU has demanded fishing arrangements that gives EU trawlers access to UK waters comparable to that offered by the Common Fisheries Policy, while the UK wants the EU’s 40 year old fisheries agreement with Norway to be the model for its own settlement.
Boris Johnson’s government is expected to outline its plans for the UK’s future state aid regime later this month, a move which officials hope could pave the way to a compromise. Barnier has stated that the EU cannot agree to a trade deal without knowing what the UK’s subsidy regime will look like, though Barnier’s team have indicated that this does not mean that the UK must necessarily mirror EU state aid rules.
“I think this week is an important moment for the EU to really effectively recognise that those two points of principle are not something we can just haggle away,” said Raab.
The two sides’ positions have hardened in recent weeks. Last week, Barnier said that he was ‘worried and disappointed’ by the UK’s refusal to offer compromises, while French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian blamed the lack of progress on “the UK’s uncompromising and, to be frank, unrealistic attitude”.
Now they have data to back up their claims—from secular research.
According to a newsurvey of 50,000 Iranians—90 percent residing in Iran—by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based research group, 1.5 percent identified as Christian.
Extrapolating over Iran’s population of approximately 50 million literate adults (the sample surveyed) yields at least 750,000 believers. According to GAMAAN, the number of Christians in Iran is “without doubt in the order of magnitude of several hundreds of thousands and growing beyond a million.”
The traditional Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Iran number 117,700, according to the latest government statistics.
Christian experts surveyed by CT expressed little surprise. But it may make a significant difference for the Iranian church.
“With the lack of proper data, most international advocacy groups expressed a degree of doubt on how widespread the conversion phenomenon is in Iran,” said Mansour Borji, research and advocacy director for Article 18, a UK-based organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom in Iran.
“It is pleasing to see—for the first time—a secular organization adding its weight to these claims.”
The research, which asked 23 questions about an individuals’ “attitude toward religion” and demographics, was run by professors associated with the respected Dutch universities of Tilburg and Utrecht.
“We do not regard it as remotely plausible that there are as many as 1 million people secretly practicing Christianity in Iran today,” wrote a UK judge in a March ruling establishing best practice guidelines, following a case that ultimately denied asylum to an Iranian convert.
“The huge numbers of converts claimed by various evangelical missions must be viewed in light of the fact that … the more converts they can claim, the greater the incentive for co-religionists to donate.”
Yet despite the widespread skepticism, research conducted by Christian advocacy organizations has begun to produce results.
In 2005, the United Nations created the Geneva-based Universal Periodic Review to evaluate the human rights status of every nation every 4.5 years. During its review session in February, for the first time recommendations for Iran included its treatment of “Christian converts,” issued by Norway and the Netherlands.
“We try to build relations with diplomats as much as they allow,” said Wissam al-Saliby, advocacy director for the World Evangelical Alliance.
“Without such reporting, news of Christian persecution will not filter into Geneva circles, and nations will not feel any pressure.
“It is important for Iran to hear the distinction between its traditional Christian communities, and its converts to the Christian faith.”
But according to the GAMAAN survey, there is another distinction Iran must make.
“The real news is not the number of Christians,” said Johannes de Jong, director of the Sallux (“Salt-Light” in Latin) think tank, affiliated with the European Christian Political Movement.
“It is the massive secularization of Iranian society as a whole.”
Only 32 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as Shiite Muslim. Officially, Iran puts their number at 95 percent.
“The Islam in Iran is a political system, not a faith embraced by any majority,” said de Jong, who has worked with Iranian asylum seekers and opposition politicians over the last 20 years.
“A free Iran would see an implosion of Islam, and a very significant rise of Christianity, Zoroastrism, and atheism.”
The survey already bears this out.
Atheists poll at 9 percent of the population (and nones, or no religious affiliation, overall at 22%); Zoroastrians at 7 percent. The 2011 census numbered Zoroastrians at only 25,000. Extrapolating the percentage from this survey, which GAMAAN stated is 95 percent accurate, that would now be 5.6 million. (Sources said this may indicate a non-Islamic Persian nationalism rather than a true system of belief.)
Nearly half (47%) said they used to be religious but are no longer.
Only 6 in 10 Iranians surveyed said they were born into a religious family. But 6 in 10 also do not say their daily prayers. And 7 in 10 do not want legislation based on religion (68%); state-funded religious institutions (71%); or mandatory head covering (73%). A majority (58%) do not believe in wearing the hijab at all.
And according to a 2019 survey by GAMAAN, 79 percent of the population would vote against an Islamic republic.
While this might seem a fertile field for Christian witness, David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries warns against the “clay feet” of secularism. For example, almost 4 in 10 Iranians (37%) drink alcohol—which is forbidden in Islam.
“Iranians are attracted to Christianity because they think it is part and parcel of the free, secular, and democratic West,” he said. “It is important for Christian agencies to pry Christianity away from that mould.”
He was also cautious about endorsing the survey statistics as a true estimate of the body of Christ. In a secular survey, “Christian” can imply anything from a “vague attraction” to a “genuine love of Christ and a growing knowledge of the Scriptures.”
Yeghnazar believes the house churches’ lack of governing structure will harm the growing movement. False teaching, financial irregularity, and pastoral dictatorship may begin to plague them.
Borji agrees.
“There is a very real risk that church growth is outpacing discipleship,” he said. “But the problem is exasperated by the fact that many leaders are now in prison, or have been forced out of the country.”
The impact, said Mike Ansari, president of Heart4Iran, is that the church is “highly marginalized, scattered, and segmented.”
Ansari believes personal evangelism is the most effective method for spreading the gospel and the reason behind much of Christianity’s growth in Iran. But given that it is “extremely risky,” satellite television has become the leading factor.
Ansari’s Mohabat TV noticed a surge in conversions during COVID-19. Whereas the channel was informed of 324 conversions through its ministry in March 2019, there was a tenfold increase one year later, with 3,088 new believers.
And if the exponential growth of house churches fails to keep up with conversions, satellite TV must fill in the gap.
Mohabat TV does its best. Elam Ministries’ Safar [Farsi for “journey”] program also helps.
Is it enough?
“Without meaningful face-to-face fellowship and discipleship, the future of the Iranian Church remains uncertain,” Ansari said.
“Isolation is the biggest enemy of church growth.”
It may prove a more effective foe than the Iranian government.
Wybo Nicolai of Open Doors International, based in Holland, noted that rapid church growth began in 2004, when the state put pressure on officially registered churches ministering through the Farsi language. (Iran’s traditional Christian communities use the Armenian and Assyrian languages of their ethnic communities.)
Consequently, ministry was forced underground where it “spread like wildfire” through cell groups and house churches.
“The Iranian authorities lost oversight of it,” said Nicolai. “There was nothing they could do to stop the spread of the gospel.”
They tried, and are trying still. Contrary to official accusations of Christians being Zionist agents and a threat to national security, an Iranian official recently told clerics in the holy city of Qom that “these converts are ordinary people, whose jobs are selling sandwiches or similar things.”
He complained that conversion is “happening right before our eyes.”
But the evidence of Iran’s failure as a theocracy to protect Islam is seen far beyond the Christian tally in the GAMAAN survey. If its overall statistics are valid, only 1 in 3 Iranians claim their national religion. And 4 in 10 believe every religion should be free to propagate its beliefs.
“The hearts and minds of the Iranian people have been plowed and made ready by Iranian government behavior over the last 40 years,” said Borji.
“The people’s resistance to the gospel has been neutralized.”
(Photo: WFP/Marco Frattin)Aerial views from drones and World Food Programme rescue helicopters clearly show the scale of the devastation in Mozambique in April 2019. i
Conflict has ingrained itself in the people of Mozambique for many decades from the days of Portuguese colonial rule, to the ensuing civil war which only ended this century, and now Daesh along with the unseen enemy of COVID-19.
So, the churches have their hands full as peacemakers.
“Before and after Mozambique’s independence in 1975, the Christian Council of Mozambique contributed to national pacification in many unrecognized ways.
“This was possible because the ‘problem’ was known, therefore possible to deal with,” says Rev. Felicidade Naume Chirinda.
She is a Presbyterian minister and chair of the board of the CCM.
“These days, Mozambique is afflicted by three wars, namely the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado that started in 2017, the armed conflict in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala that started in 2019, and the coronavirus that is affecting the entire world,” she said.
ARMED CONFLICTS, NATURAL DISASTERS
Chirinda said that present armed conflicts have different motivations while he also noted that parts of Mozambique have also faced recent natural disasters.
(Photo: Juan Michel/WCC)
She quoted the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians 6:12-15. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”
“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day….and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
The minister said the actions of the churches these days fit into Paul’s verses that call for a deep understanding of the scriptures, courage and commitment.
“It took time for us as a church to understand this condition,” said Chirinda.
She issued his observation as the International Committee of the Red Cross on Sept. 2, said that attacks on towns and villages in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado have intensified.
The attacks had forced thousands of people to flee by foot, boat or road to the provincial capital, a COVID-19 hotspot where the Red Cross helped build the country’s largest treatment center.
“It is a sobering thought for Mozambique and Southern Africa as a whole that, at the time of writing, a growing insurgent army with links to Islamic State remains in control of Mocimboa da Praia in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province,” South Africa’s Daily Maverick newspaper wrote on Aug. 30.
The Mozambican National Resistance, also known as Renamo, the main opposition party in the country accused armed forces of the state of killing civilians in Cabo Delgado, so the conflict is becoming more complex, according to Deutsche Welle.
Formed in 1976, the Mozambican National Resistance was once backed by apartheid South Africa against the ruling Frelimo movement which it saw as Marxist. In recent years it has been the main opposition political party.
PEACE GROUPS
When the first attacks happened in 2017, the churches created peace groups composed by people of all faiths to prevent, help and create spaces of mutual support and contact with local leaders.
“These groups were recognized by the government and were able to prevent some attacks until December last year.
“This interaction with peace groups allowed the CCM and its partners to support those affected by the Cyclone Kenneth,” the strongest such storm known to have landed in the southern African nation, in April 2019.
“Our understanding of the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado changed this year due to the way attacks are organized, to the discourses and articles written by Mozambicans and foreigners, to mention just a few,” said Chirinda.
“As a church, we now understand that the conflict in Cabo Delgado is not only internal. Therefore, it is calling us to understand the Scriptures and to find support in God.”
Since the attacks became more frequent with “God’s people being killed, their homes and belongings destroyed and burned,” Chirinda said churches and civil society are collaborating.
She called for dialogue, distributing goods and providing comfort through the “Word of God.”
Rev. Dinis Matsolo, bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, Mozambique Synod said, “The big question is who are these people who create terror and havoc in Cabo Delgado—and what do they want?
“To date, the attacks of the so-called ‘insurgents without a face’ have claimed at least 1,059 lives since October 2017, destroyed a lot of infrastructure including many houses, and uprooted over 250,000 people.
The situation has worsened since then, affecting about 9 of the 17 districts of that province and it is now affecting neighboring provinces, especially Nampula that has become a refugee camp.”
In resource-starved Mozambique that neighbors Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia Eswatini and Tanzania, about 50 percent of the 30 million people are believed to be Christians while about 19 percent, mainly in the north, are Muslims.
Catholics are the biggest group of Christians.
“This war is above our earthly capacities, it calls for strong faith, order and prayers with hope but, above all, for God’s intervention,” said Matsolo.
The Mozambican Church has always been involved in peace processes in the country, having made a massive contribution to the process that led to the signing of the Mozambican 1992 Peace Accord held in Rome.
‘CREATING DIALOGUE SPACE’
“In Cabo Delgado, we have been working on creating ‘dialogue spaces’ by establishing inter-religious peace groups in affected districts.”
“And for the central region, we are working on approaching the leadership of the military junta to seek ways of taking part in constructive dialogue. So, the church is indeed playing its role, being part of the solution.”
Matsolo said he will soon visit both Cabo Delgado as well as the camps in Nampula for insight into recent developments and will report back to the churches.
He said the church encourages President Filipe Nyusi to continue the efforts at dialogue to put an end to the suffering of the people.
“We salute in particular his understanding that the solution to the crises is more than military when he declared that ‘the solution to the problem of Cabo Delgado is not just military. We recognize the need to boost socio-economic development and promote greater social harmony.
“This pronouncement opens wider the doors for our involvement in peacebuilding efforts and support to the uprooted families.
“We will certainly need a lot of prayers and support from the wider ecumenical movement,” said Matsolo.
DALLAS, United States — More than 3,000 people in North America and other parts of the world recently participated in the annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies (ABS), which was held virtually this year.
Originally planned for Dallas, Texas, the conference had to be entirely reshaped as a result of the public health crisis. The event, which usually lasts three or four days, took place over two weeks.
“The transition to a virtual conference prompted the Association to rethink its approach in which all participants would feel welcome and have the tools and resources to access materials and sessions, and to know that their contribution is needed and valued,” says Julia Berger, Secretary of the ABS executive committee.
This year’s theme was “Beyond Critique to Constructive Engagement.” Presentations and discussions looked at different issues in light of the Bahá’í teachings—including the implications of the pandemic for the world, scientific truth and objectivity, and the role of media in social transformation.
The question of how society can advance toward harmonious and equitable relations among its members of diverse racial backgrounds was at the forefront of discussions. Conference participants examined foundational concepts underlying constructive action to bring about a pattern of life that reflects the principle of the oneness of humanity.
An area of exploration was how prevalent conceptions of power as a means of domination, often seen in terms of contest, contention, division and superiority, can shape the discourse on racial justice, and how such conceptions must be re-examined in light of new notions of power.
A presentation at the conference, given by Derik Smith, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, looked at the experience of the American Bahá’í community, particularly those of African descent, in contributing over a century to racial equality in the country. Dr. Smith says that “In their effort to promote race unity in an American context badly corroded by racism, Black Bahá’ís have been avoiding modes of contest and conflict by calling upon the powers of the human spirit, such as unity, love, and service. These are subtle powers, but they are deeply transformative. In the Bahá’í teachings, we find perspectives and language that help us to describe and talk about this kind of power, associated with words such as ‘release,’ ‘encourage,’ ‘channel,’ ‘guide,’ and ‘enable.’”
Slideshow 6 images
Photograph taken at previous year’s conference. The aim of ABS is to create spaces where people can explore Bahá’í teachings, correlate them with the perspectives of humanity across diverse fields, and attempt to apply them to humanity’s current issues and challenges.
The aim of ABS is to create spaces where people can explore Bahá’í teachings, correlate them with the perspectives of humanity across diverse fields, and attempt to apply them to humanity’s current issues and challenges..
In response to circumstances this year, more than 20 “reading groups” were formed in the weeks before the conference to enable participants interested in a particular field of study to engage with relevant literature and consult together. Insights from these discussions were woven into the conference program and presentations.
“A key element of learning is bringing together different perspectives in a collaborative environment in order to advance understanding,” says Selvi Adaikkalam of ABS’s committee for collaborative initiatives. “Sustained initiatives like the reading groups provide opportunities to develop the depth, rigor, and ongoing discussion needed to identify and rethink certain fundamental assumptions within different disciplines and professional fields.”
Slideshow 6 images
A feature of this year’s ABS conference was a film festival in which several filmmakers presented works that explore Bahá’í perspectives on contemporary themes.
Another feature of this year’s conference was a film festival in which several filmmakers presented works that explore Bahá’í perspectives on contemporary themes.
Amelia Tyson, one of the festival organizers, says, “The approach we took was to curate the whole festival in a way that engages filmmakers and others to think critically about the role of media and film in society, the implications of the stories that are told, what they say about human nature and our place in the world, and what impact films have on us.”
Recordings of selected conference sessions will be made available online through the ABS website.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and European Council President Charles Michel discussed developments in the Eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, CNN Turk reported, according to Reuters.
NATO allies Turkey and Greece have been locked in a row over hydrocarbon exploration in the sea’s disputed waters and the extent of their continental shelves.
There was no official confirmation of the talks.
Tensions escalated last month after Turkey sent a seismic survey vessel for hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters in the region after a maritime deal between Greece and Egypt.
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Leaving the <a href="/topic/european-union" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-union" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Union</a> without a trade deal would still be a "good outcome" for the UK, <a href="/topic/boris-johnson" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/boris-johnson" data-vars-event-id="c23">Boris Johnson</a> has said.
In comments due to be made on Monday, the Prime Minister will tell Brussels that if no agreement can be reached by the <a href="/topic/european-council" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-council" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Council</a> in October, then both sides should be prepared to "accept that and move on".
The remarks are the latest in a series of statements from senior Government figures outlining a hardening stance towards the bloc.
The UK’s negotiator Lord David Frost and Foreign Secretary <a href="/topic/dominic-raab" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/dominic-raab" data-vars-event-id="c23">Dominic Raab</a> both used interviews at the weekend to vow not to back down on the remaining sticking points.
Lord Frost is due to hold another round of key negotiations in London with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, this week, as they look to find a solution to the remaining issues in order to have a deal readied for when the transition period comes to an end on December 31.
The Prime Minister will make clear on Monday that time is running out if the two sides are to ratify an agreement in time for 2021.
Boris Johnson (PA)
“We are now entering the final phase of our negotiations with the EU,” Mr Johnson is expected to say.
"The EU have been very clear about the timetable. I am too. There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on October 15 if it’s going to be in force by the end of the year.
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"So there is no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond that point.
"If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on."
<aside class="inline-block inline-related item-count-4 align-right"><h2 class="box-title">Read more</h2>
</aside>Mr Johnson will argue that collapsing the trade talks next month would still represent "a good outcome for the UK" and that his administration was preparing for such an eventuality.
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The Prime Minister is planning to say that no-deal means the country would have a "trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s", meaning it would fall back on trade protocols as set by the World Trade Organisation when doing business with its largest trading partner.
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"I want to be absolutely clear that, as we have said right from the start, that would be a good outcome for the UK," the Conservative Party leader will argue.
"As a Government we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it. We will have full control over our laws, our rules, and our fishing waters.
"We will have the freedom to do trade deals with every country in the world. And we will prosper mightily as a result.
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Dominic Raab said he would prefer to leave with a deal (PA)
“We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances.
"We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues such as flights, lorry transport, or scientific co-operation, if the EU wants to do that.
"Our door will never be closed and we will trade as friends and partners – but without a free trade agreement."
But Mr Johnson, in an apparent bid to focus minds as another set of talks gets under way on Tuesday, will say that there is "still an agreement to be had", one that is based on deals Brussels has previously struck with “Canada and so many others”.
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According to Downing Street, the Prime Minister will add: "Even at this late stage, if the EU are ready to rethink their current positions and agree this I will be delighted.
European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (PA)
“But we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”
Mr Raab told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that the negotiations had been “boiled down to two outstanding bones of contention” – control of UK fishing waters and the level of taxpayer support the Government will be able to provide businesses – and argued neither “principle” could not be “haggled away”.
But Mr Raab said that he would prefer to leave with a deal and that there would be “damaging impacts” felt on both sides of the Channel if no deal was reached.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Downing Street has created a transition hub, with handpicked officials across Government departments working to ensure the UK is ready to trade without a deal when the transition period ceases.
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Gathered virtually at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s thirty-fifth Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, governments, civil society organizations and the private sector highlighted the importance of innovation, solidarity, coherence and partnerships among and within countries.
Big data, digital economy and mobile technology will help producers achieve such transformations, Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General said on Friday, the Conference’s final day.
For instance, a smartphone in the hands of a smallholder farmer is a “new farming tool”, he added.
“Leveraging data, innovation and technology has shown that, here in Asia and the Pacific, we have brilliant minds, scientists and an entrepreneurial spirit that will lead us through the challenges presented by COVID-19 and help us conquer malnutrition and poverty,” said Mr. Qu.
Agricultural innovation can also reduce back-breaking drudgery, and regional food chains can benefit from innovations such as drones, satellite imagery, big data and block chains, the Conference heard.
The Regional Conferences, held every two years, are a platform for ministers of agriculture and senior officials, NGOs, private sector and other stakeholders in the field to explore joint and coherent solutions to shared challenges confronting food security and agriculture. The 2020 Regional Conference was held from 1 to 4 September.
According to FAO, the Asia-Pacific region – the planet’s most populous – is also home to over half of the world’s undernourished people, and the number is feared to rise, with the impact of COVID-19. In southern Asia alone, the figure could rise by a third, to some 330 million in the next decade.
Conference Chair Yeshey Penjor, Minister for Agriculture and Forests of Bhutan, reiterated the need to strengthen collaboration to deal with the challenges.
“We must prepare for higher risks ahead of us and make sure that there is sustainability in the food supply chain,” he said.
UNEP/Lisa Murray
A tea grower walks through a tea garden in Viet Nam where sustainable farming techniques are used to prevent land degradation.
Working ‘Hand in Hand’
New solutions, such as the FAO’s Hand in Hand Initiative, which “matches” stakeholders, bringing the right partners together at the right time, can help.
According to FAO, some 44 countries with limited capacity or hit by crisis have been invited to join the Initiative as beneficiaries, 80 as contributors, and some 20 have expressed interest to join as both.
The rollout of the Initiative coincided with the onset of COVID-19 and the urgent need to deal with its complex impacts on agri-food systems, said FAO, adding that the Initiative is helping support evidence-based efforts to prevent breakdown of and address emerging threats to food systems.
“The HIH approach to analysis and partnership-building has proven to be a useful model for coordinating integrated rapid response to COVID-19 impacts on food systems, particularly at the local or territorial level,” it added.
FAO Director-General Qu also said that while the COVID-19 has hit countries and societies, innovations are bringing people closer together.
“So while we are separated by some 11 time zones, we have still managed to come together, have thought-provoking discussions and reach consensus on a number of important issues,” he concluded.
… t scared of leaving the EU transition period without a … that Britain would stop following EU rules “come what may … between the UK and the EU. EU negotiator Michel Barnier warning that … word seriously.” On rejecting EU bids to continue having influence …
Tens of thousands of EU citizens resident in the UK – including some of the “heroes and heroines of the coronavirus crisis” – could be facing deportation because they have fallen through the cracks of the government’s post-Brexit settled status scheme, a group of MPs has warned.
The MPs have written to Boris Johnson calling for a legal “right to stay” to provide reassurance to more than 3 million EU nationals believed to be living in the UK.
Under the government scheme, nationals of the EU, EEA and Switzerland who have been in the UK continuously for five years can apply for settled status allowing them to remain, while others who came to the country before the end of 2020 can get “pre-settled” status which can be upgraded once they reach the five-year mark.
By the end of July, some 3.8m applications had been made and 3.6m concluded, with just over 2m people – 57 per cent of applicants – being granted settled status, 1.5m (41 per cent) pre-settled status and around 75,000 (2 per cent) classed as refused, withdrawn, void or invalid.
Signatories to the letter said the figures showed that hundreds of thousands of people would be left for up to five years after the end of the Brexit transition period in December before knowing whether they will be able to stay long-term. And they said that, even if the scheme was 98 or 99 per cent successful, the number without the right to remain at the end of 2020 could stretch into tens of thousands.
The letter, signed by Scottish National Party Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Green MP Caroline Lucas, noted that migrants make up a large proportion of the delivery drivers, agricultural workers, supermarket staff, nurses and care home workers who kept the country running during the coronavirus lockdown.
“It should be a matter of national shame that many of the heroes and heroines of the coronavirus crisis will have been made to feel so unwelcome in this country by the tone and content of our national debate on immigration,” said the MPs.
“Millions of European migrants who live in the UK and who are now working in hospitals and supermarkets derive their right to be here from EU freedom of movement rules which the government is seeking to abolish. They are now being asked to apply for their right to stay in the UK via the settled status scheme, a process which is not guaranteed to be successful.
“Although settled status has now been granted to many EU citizens, we are extremely concerned at the prospect of some losing their status in the UK. With much of the government and third sector having been shut down by the coronavirus crisis, the applications system has been severely disrupted, as has the support system for applicants and public awareness campaigns. Unless the government acts, many thousands of people could fall through the cracks.”
They called on Mr Johnson to pass primary legislation to grant a legal right to stay to EU citizens.
Mr Blackford said: “The UK government must confirm the rights of EU nationals to remain as a matter of urgency.
“Many people risk falling through the cracks, causing uncertainty and distress for thousands of EU nationals who have made the UK their home.”
And Ms Lucas added: “The millions of EU citizens who have made their home in the UK are not just a statistic, or an economic asset – they are our neighbours, friends and families. The idea that we could allow any one of them to lose their status here should fill us with shame.
“Yet that is inevitably what will happen to thousands of people unless the settled status system is fundamentally overhauled, even if the overwhelming majority do apply successfully.
“During the EU referendum, those campaigning for Leave said that Europeans living in the UK would have a right to stay, not a right to apply to a convoluted system which might reject them. Today, we are asking that this very basic promise be honoured.”
Alena Ivanova, an organiser for the Right to Stay and Another Europe is Possible campaigns, said that the UK government had so far failed to guarantee that absences from Britain during the coronavirus crisis – when some EU nationals have been trapped abroad for lengthy periods – would not count against an applicant’s claim to have been in the country for five unbroken years.
“While the Home Office paints a rosy picture of the success of the settlement scheme, there are still millions at risk of losing their rights in the coming years,” she said.
“A system that asks you to apply to stay in your home – in some cases twice – is not what European nationals were promised.
“Even if we assume that 98 or 99 per cent of them apply successfully that would still mean tens of thousands of people facing deportation from the place they have made their home.
“Since coronavirus struck, we have had a plethora of reports of new issues which simply cannot be overcome in time – from a lack of awareness and support in the application process to periods of absence from the UK during the crisis. It’s time for the Home Office to re-assess the scheme and grant automatic status to all.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The EU settlement scheme makes it easy for EU citizens and their family members who want to stay in the UK to get the immigration status they need. It provides them with secure evidence which they can use to demonstrate their right to work, study, housing and benefits.
“There have been more than 3.8 million applications to the EU settlement scheme already and more than 3.5 million grants of status. People’s rights are secured in UK law whether they have pre-settled status or settled status.”
