Accountability for past violations in given adequate information before DNACPR Northern Ireland and for UK complicity in orders were put in place. the US-led secret detention programme RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY remained unrealized. A court decision blocking Julian Assange’s extradition to the In October, the government withdrew a £20 USA was overturned on appeal. Detention per week increase to social security conditions in Scotland fell below necessary payments received by 6 million low-income standards. or unemployed people; it had been BACKGROUND introduced in April 2020 in response to the pandemic. It was estimated that the cut The Covid-19 pandemic escalated in 2021 would push 500,000 people into poverty with steep rises in cases and significant amid increasing energy and food prices. pressure on hospitals. The government imposed a national lockdown on 5 January REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS and parliament renewed Covid-19-related Amid an increase in people crossing the emergency powers twice. Most restrictions Channel by boat to seek asylum in the UK, imposed in response to the Covid-19 the government introduced changes to the pandemic were lifted in July and August. In UK’s Immigration Rules and proposed new late December, daily Covid-19 infections legislation that would make it harder to seek exceeded records and some restrictions were asylum in the UK. The Nationality and reimposed in Wales, Scotland and Northern Borders Bill includes provisions penalizing Ireland. asylum seekers based on how they arrive in RIGHT TO HEALTH the UK and when they claim asylum, and amendments further criminalizing people By December, the UK had recorded the seeking asylum. The bill will correct second-highest death toll from Covid-19 in discrimination that excludes many British Europe. Life expectancy for men fell for the people from citizenship rights, but also first time since records began due to the includes provisions that allow the government pandemic. By the end of the year, 82.4% of to deprive a person of their British citizenship the population aged 12 and over had been without notice. fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The UK The Home Office announced an increase in had a large surplus of vaccine doses by the government-chartered mass deportation end of the year, which were not sufficiently flights from July. People on these flights were redistributed to low and lower-middle income often deported before accessing adequate 1 countries in need of vaccines. legal advice and having their claims fully In May, the Prime Minister announced that considered. an independent public inquiry into the The government failed to adequately protect government response to the Covid-19 Afghans fleeing the human rights crisis in pandemic would not begin until the second Afghanistan. In addition to an existing quarter of 2022. Bereaved families, unions, scheme for Afghans employed by the UK health workers and other groups demanded government, the government announced the that the government launch the inquiry Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme in immediately. August, but admitted in late October that the The widespread use of Do Not Attempt scheme was still not in operation, despite the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) urgency of the crisis.2 Official data showed orders during the pandemic was criticized in that of 1,055 Afghans whose asylum claims a report by an independent regulator in were determined in the year to September, March. Older people and people with only 484 were granted protection. disabilities were not sufficiently supported or People seeking asylum continued to be held in inhumane conditions, including in former Amnesty International Report 2021/22 387