In conjunction with IRR News and the European Race Progamme, we are undertaking a number of rolling research projects to collate the extent of and analyse trends in deaths which are in one way or another connected to state and/or popular racism. The research results are published via regular online reports and briefing papers, as well as noted bi-weekly in our regular calendar of racism and resistance. Ongoing cases are also reported on IRR News.
Deaths in custody: Examines suspicious deaths which take place in the custody of prisons, special hospitals and in encounters with the police; the ensuing inquests into such deaths and subsequent disciplining or punishment of those involved.
Deaths related to racial violence: The most extreme cases of racial attack can result in a loss of life. This project examines all those cases which appear to be linked to racial violence, the conduct of the police, prosecuting authorities, any subsequent trial and conviction.
Deaths of asylum seekers: Those trying to reach Europe to seek asylum or those refused asylum are, because of laws and government policies, amongst the most vulnerable. Their deaths often go unmarked and unchallenged. This research tries to monitor such deaths and any subsequent action by the authorities.
Recent publications and reports include:
- Unwanted, unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe, documents the asylum and immigration-related deaths of migrants in Europe over the past five years (by Reem Abu-Hayyeh and Frances Webber).
- Dying for Justice: A report which gives the background on 509 people from BAME, refugee and migrant communities who have died between 1991-2014 in suspicious circumstances in which the police, prison authorities or immigration detention officers have been implicated.
- UK Deaths in immigration detention: 1989-2017
- UK Deaths with a (known or suspected) racial element 2000 onwards
- Deaths with a (known or suspected) racial element 1991-1999
- Driven to Desperate Measures: The IRR has catalogued a roll call of death of the 221 asylum seekers and migrants who have died either in the UK or attempting to reach the UK in the past seventeen years. Download a copy of Driven to Desperate Measures: 2006-2010 here (pdf file, 432kb). Or download the IRR’s earlier report documenting the deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 1989-2006 here (pdf file, 401kb)
- Roll call of deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 1989-2010
- Black Deaths in Custody
- BAME, migrant and refugee custody deaths (2014 – 2020)