Anywhere But Here

How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All

Nicola Kelly

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Hardback

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English

Elliott & Thompson Limited
04 June 2025

Refugees & political asylum; Migration, immigration & emigration; Politics & government; Central government policies; Human rights; Civil rights & citizenship

What is it like to arrive on our shores with nothing and be pushed to the margins of society? Who stands to gain from an asylum system that is intentionally hostile? Anywhere But Here is a powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system and how it fails us all.

Each year tens of thousands of people risk their lives to cross the Channel in small boats hoping to find safety in Britain. Yet the very system designed to protect them has all but collapsed. With unique and unparalleled access, award-winning journalist and former Home Office insider Nicola Kelly takes us behind the scenes of the small boats crisis for the first time.

We follow the under-resourced coastguard overseeing search and rescue operations in the Channel. The decision-makers hired from McDonald’s and Aldi to conduct ‘life and death’ asylum interviews. The immigration barristers securing last-minute reprieves for deportees who narrowly escaped death. And we step inside the Home Office corridors as ministers and advisors respond to emerging crises and scandals, from Windrush to the Rwanda plan.

At its heart are the stories of war-torn arrivals, lone teenagers and trafficked women attempting to settle in cities, towns and villages across the UK. We travel to meet them, exploring where they have fled from and why, and the response of local communities to their new neighbours.

Situated on the beaches and the ports, in the hotels, the courtrooms and the detention centres where the futures of those affected unfold, this is a searing investigation into one of the most urgent and shocking injustices of our time.

By: Nicola Kelly
Imprint: Elliott & Thompson Limited
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781783968558
ISBN 10: 1783968559
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 04 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Nicola Kelly is an award-winning investigative journalist and writer focused on UK immigration and asylum. Her reporting regularly appears in the Guardian, Observer, Independent, OpenDemocracy and elsewhere. Before moving into journalism, she worked as a diplomat for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with postings in Brussels and Istanbul. Later, she moved to the Home Office, working in their press office, before leaving the civil service during the rollout of the hostile environment policy. Her reporting has been referenced in several legal challenges against Conservative Home Secretaries, as well as submissions and human rights reports.

Reviews for Anywhere But Here: How Britain’s Broken Asylum System Fails Us All

‘A tour de force of reporting, a harrowing tale of human experience and a devastating indictment of serial failures by Britain’s political class. With her roadmap for reform, Nicola Kelly’s book should be required reading for every incoming Home Secretary.’ Ben Rawlence, author of The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth ‘At last! A wise, compelling and compassionate account of the UK’s favourite political football, asylum and immigration policy. Sharing the powerful human stories behind the statistics, Kelly shines an unflinching spotlight on the scale of injustice and incompetence at the heart of Britain’s broken asylum system, and points to practical and positive ways it might be fixed. Beautifully written, bold and brave, Anywhere but Here painstakingly separates the reality from the all too frequently toxic rhetoric. A copy should be on every desk not just in the Home Office, but throughout government. A brilliant and hugely timely book.' Caroline Lucas, author of Another England