Topical:
The UK's Home Secretary, Theresa May has revealed details of the Coalition government's immigration bill which should be passed this autumn. Mrs May appeared on various television and news programmes to publicise the bill which she says will 'make it harder for people who are here illegally to stay here'.
At the same time, Mrs May says that the UK will 'continue to welcome the brightest and best migrants who want to contribute to our economy and society and play by the rules'.
Teachers of English as a foreign language are welcoming changes to the immigration rules announced by the UK's immigration minister last month. On 6th September 2013, Mark Harper issued a statement outlining a range of changes to the rules among which was a new provision allowing people in the UK on visitor visas to carry out short courses of study.
As of 1st October 2013, visitors to the UK on business, family or general visitor visas have been allowed to attend short English language courses lasting up to 30 days.
Diane Abbott, the long-serving Labour MP, has criticised her party for 'pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment'. Ms Abbott had just been sacked from the Labour front bench team where she had served as a shadow health minister from 2010.
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that an advertising campaign run by the UK government telling illegal immigrants to 'go home or face arrest' was not offensive or irresponsible. The ASA ruled however that the adverts were misleading because of an incorrect use of statistical information.
The advertising campaign was launched as a pilot scheme by the Home Office in six London boroughs on 22nd July 2013 and quickly became controversial.
The council leader of Brent, one of the six boroughs chosen for the pilot, said that he was 'absolutely horrified' that Brent had been chosen.
The population of Western Australia grew by 3.4%, or 82,600, in the year to March 2013. 63% of this rise has been attributed to immigration and in particular to an influx of workers with temporary work visas. The population of the state is now 2.5m.
Western Australia is the largest state in Australia at 2,530,000 square kilometres but is home to only 10% of the population. Most of the population lives in the state capital Perth which has a population of 1.75m.
A man from the Pacific island republic of Kiribati is to appeal to the High Court in New Zealand claiming to be a refugee because of global warming. The man's original application for asylum was rejected by New Zealand's Immigration and Protection Tribunal earlier this year. The man's lawyer, Michael Kidd, has said he will take the case to New Zealand's Supreme Court.