Pakistani asylum seeker wins £100,000 payout from UK home office for unlawful detention
A Pakistani asylum seeker has been awarded nearly £100,000 (Rs 1,08,77,180) in compensation by the UK Home Office after alleging she was "treated like a criminal" for overstaying in Britain. Nadra Almas, who arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2004, claimed she could not return to Pakistan due to fears of persecution for her Christian faith.
In 2018, Home Office officials detained and handcuffed Almas, informing her she would be deported. However, she was released two weeks later. Despite her freedom, she was barred from working or receiving government benefits for over three years before finally securing refugee status in 2021.
Almas took legal action against the Home Office for unlawful detention and won her case. The court heard that she had informed officials of the risks she would face as a Christian in Pakistan and her desire to remain with her adult son, who had been granted refugee status weeks earlier.
During the nearly three-year wait for her asylum decision, Almas was subjected to restrictions that, she argued, severely impacted her life and violated her rights under the Human Rights Act. The court acknowledged her suffering, stating that she had been unable to travel, work, or freely engage in her personal and family life due to the uncertainty of her status.
The court also heard details of her detention, where she was allegedly handcuffed and confined in a room with two unknown men before being told she would be deported. Following the ruling that her treatment breached her human rights, she was awarded £98,757.04 in damages.
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FM Sitharaman launches 'VijAIpatha' labs in govt schools in Karnataka
Hampi (PTI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday launched Cyient AI Labs (CyAILS) -- 'VijAIpatha', aimed at democratising access to Artificial Intelligence, STEM and Robotics education in government schools here.
In a series of posts on 'X', the minister's office shared pictures of the initiative launched at a girl's government school in Hosapete taluk and said that under the pilot phase, five world-class AI, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Robotics laboratories are being established in government schools.
Each lab will be equipped with high-performance computers, AI-ready software, robotics kits, IoT devices, sensors and secure broadband connectivity.
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"Aligned with NEP 2020, Digital India and Hon'ble Prime Minister @narendramodi's mission of Viksit Bharat 2047, the programme integrates CBSE's AI curriculum and strengthens technology-enabled learning in public education," it said.
Focusing on rural and semi-urban India, the initiative introduces future technologies at the school level, helping build early digital fluency, computational thinking and innovation capacity among students, the minister's office said.
"Benefiting over 2,000 students and training more than 200 teachers, 'VijAIpatha' is a scalable CSR model fostering innovation, career readiness and grassroots digital empowerment," it added.
According to the office, the initiative has been designed as a scalable, replicable and sustainable model that can be adopted across districts and states in collaboration with government education departments, positioning it as a benchmark CSR model for a national AI education rollout.
