Dear IRR News subscriber,

Over three thousand refugees from war, persecution and globalisation have drowned in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas so far this year. And as the militarisation of the EU’s borders intensifies, so too does the internal policing of those seeking security. In March 2015, the IRR published a report highlighting the role European governments’ immigration policies and practices played in 160 immigration and asylum-related deaths within EU member states between January 2010 and December 2014. This week, we update this research, documenting a further fourteen fatalities. We also review A Secret Punishment, a new report by Medical Justice which highlights the human damage caused by the use of segregation in immigration detention, as well as its political purposes.

Daniel Holder, Deputy Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), reflects on the recently introduced Counter Extremism Strategy and the scenario which we would see if the strategy was applied in Northern Ireland, finding that: ‘We have seen the like of this before. Our experience dictates that the strategy is only likely to become a vehicle for the institutionalisation of prejudice against target groups that will further the “segregation and alienation” that the prime ministerial foreword paradoxically claims is “fertile ground for extremist messages to take root”. Injustice at home and abroad breeds anger, this strategy like others before it will compound not redress injustice.’

The IRR’s fortnightly calendar of racism and resistance, a resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlights key events in the UK and Europe.

And finally, we have updates on two forthcoming events. There are still a few places left for the launch of Matt Carr’s book Fortress Europe: Inside the War Against Immigration, that the IRR is hosting on 11 November (see here for full details). And you might also be interested in a double book launch being held in Hackney later this month to launch two books of poetry by the late Jan Carew (who served on the editorial committee of Race & Class).

IRR News team