Author Archives: Helen Byrne

Helen Byrne is a graduate of University College Dublin where she studied Law with Social Justice. She works as a parliamentary researcher for Lord Roger Roberts and in the Joint Public Issues Team, an ecumenical thinktank, campaigning on refugee/asylum issues.
Helen Byrne

Both Houses Debate Calais Today

By Helen Byrne | Thu 2nd November 2017 - 8:05 am

Ahead of the today’s debate in the House of Commons on “Calais and unaccompanied child refugees in Europe”, and in the House of Lords on “Government assessment of the condition of refugees and migrants still in Calais and the surrounding area” (led by Lib Dem peer, Lord Roberts of Llandudno) Lord Robert’s parliamentary researcher writes:

As anyone in the vicinity of Parliament Square last Tuesday will likely have gathered, given a well-attended protest in its recognition, October marks a year since the demolition of the Calais ‘jungle.’

Outside Ronnie Scott’s on Friday, where I was singing as part of the Citizens …

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Posted in News | Tagged , and | 1 Comment
Helen Byrne

Schedule 7 of the Immigration Act 2016

By Helen Byrne | Thu 26th October 2017 - 8:28 am

Britain is a nation with a dubious imperial past and a rather selective memory; one that has forced open the doors of countries the world over while continuing to close its own, bringing us to the latest measure to be implemented with a view to creating the ‘hostile environment,’ that Mrs May envisages will ‘incentivise voluntary departure,’ of ‘disqualified persons,’ Schedule 7 of the 2016 Immigration Act seeks to supplement section 40 of its 2014 predecessor in precluding banks and building societies from opening current accounts for ‘disqualified persons.’

What’s new about the latest Act, however, is its retrospective effect; in …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 8 Comments
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