A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.

ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP

Asylum and migrant rights

14 October: The High Court criticises a ‘failure of governance’ allowing the operation of an ‘unlawful’ secret policy to seize migrants’ phones on their arrival, and attempting to deny the policy when it was subject to a legal challenge in March, and ruled that several thousand Channel crossers subjected to the policy may be entitled to compensation. (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

18 October: A report by the Anti-Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU), ‘It has destroyed me’: a legal advice system on the brink, details how survivors of modern slavery are exposed to destitution and vulnerability to further exploitation by the lack of legal advice in resolving their status. (ATLEU, 18 October 2022)

22 October: After Nicola Sturgeon told the SNP conference her dream was to see refugees treated with compassion rather than be bundled onto planes like unwanted cargo, the Scottish Refugee Council challenges the Scottish government to use devolved powers to help refugees. (The National, 23 October 2022)

22 October: Emma Haddad, Home Office director-general of asylum and protection, resigns, and her post is abolished, with its responsibilities going to the director-general of customer services, who is also director -general of the Passport Office and UK Visas and registrar general for England and Wales. (Independent, 22 October 2022)

Borders and internal controls

12 October: Germany extends border controls with Austria for a further six months and announces significantly increased checks at the border with the Czech Republic as part of ‘dragnet operations’. (Deutsche Welle, 12 October 2022)

13 October: Estonia confirms that at least 1,091 Ukrainians have been denied entry to the EU through Estonia since the war begun. Details emerge of Ukrainians fleeing Russia being turned back on the grounds they should have left Russia sooner. (Deutsche Welle, 13 October 2022)

13 October: Amnesty International criticises Latvia for multiple international law violations against refugees at its border with Belarus, including, since the introduction of a state of emergency in 2021, discriminatory treatment towards non-white refugees, pushbacks and torture. (Deutsche Welle, 13 October 2022)

14 October: An asylum seeker forced to wear an electronic tag which records his movements 24 hours a day while he awaits possible removal to Rwanda, exacerbating his depression and PTSD, brings a legal challenge, saying the tag makes him feel like an animal. (Independent, 13 October 2022)

14 October: The Spanish Ombudsman, reporting on the joint Spanish-Moroccan operation to stop a mass border crossing at Melilla in June, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, finds ‘a situation of foreseeable risk’ in which ‘no account was taken of the legal guarantees of the rights of migrants’. (El Nacional, 14 October 2022)

14 October: Cyprus’ interior minister proposes to the EU Council that asylum claims be lodged and processed outside the EU, in countries of origin or transit, to ‘prevent trafficking’. (Cyprus Mail, 14 October 2022)

15 October: Greece and Turkey blame each other and the UN calls for an investigation after 92 naked migrants, some with injuries, are found on the border between the two countries, by the river Evros. (Guardian, 17 October 2022)

15 October: Migrant rights activists in Italian cities including Rome and Naples, and in other cities across Europe, protest against the soon-to-be renewed Italian agreement with Libya, which has led to 100,000 pushbacks in five years.  (InfoMigrants, 17 October 2022; Africarivista, 24 October 2022)

16 October: Lawyers accuse the Ministry of Defence of endangering the lives of Tamil refugees who embarked at Diego Garcia, by escorting them back out to sea without checking the seaworthiness of the vessels they arrived in. (Guardian, 16 October 2022)

18 October: Following Der Spiegel’s publication of a leaked report on Frontex by the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF which found the agency complicit in covering up human rights violations and pushbacks in Greece, the European Parliament votes against approving its budget. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 21 October 2022)

19 October: Political parties in Finland approve a plan to build a fence along part of the country’s border with Russia, citing the threat of ‘Moscow deploying orchestrated mass migration as a form of ‘hybrid warfare’. (Guardian, 19 October 2022)

19 October: The 3Million reveals flaws in the Home Office’ digital system for accessing and demonstrating immigration status, resulting in the wrong person’s details being shown. (Public Technology, 19 October 2022)

22 October: The Dutch parliament, objecting to a recent EU resolution, votes overwhelmingly against Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen border-free area, citing organised crime, corruption and rule of law issues. (Euractiv, 22 October 2022)

Reception and detention

12 October:  As local municipalities in Germany say there is a crisis in accommodating refugees comparable to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015/16, the federal government meets with representatives and promises to provide more accommodation. (Deutsche Welle, 12 October 2022)

17 October: The Dutch appeal court refuses the Dutch authorities’ request for a stay of its order for immediate measures to improve living conditions of asylum seekers, which violate European reception standards. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 21 October 2022)

17 October: It is revealed that a private prison firm, MTC, which was rebuked by Ofsted over conditions at the Rainsbrook youth jail, has been awarded an open-ended contract for security at Manston, the former military facility where Channel crossing asylum seekers are being held. (Guardian, 17 October 2022)

19 October: Belgian police destroy 17 cardboard tents erected 2 days earlier outside the asylum reception agency Fedasil by migrant charity Samusocial to house asylum seekers, including children, left homeless by the lack of asylum accommodation for them. (De Morgen, 19 October 2022)

19 October: A report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration condemns the use of hotels to house unaccompanied child asylum seekers and says this is not an area in which the Home Office should operate. (Free Movement, 24 October 2022)

20 October: An outbreak of diptheria, a dangerous and highly infectious disease, is confirmed among asylum seekers held at Manston, where around 3,000 asylum seekers are now closely packed in tents meant to accommodate 1,000 people. (Guardian, 20 October 2022)

20 October: A court in northern France overturns the Calais mayor’s ban on the distribution of food by NGOs. (Care4Calais, 20 October 2022)

21 October: In the Netherlands, the authorities confirm that 167 child asylum seekers housed since early October on a cruise ship in Amsterdam’s Westelijk Havengebied are not yet attending school, owing to teacher shortages. (Netherlands Times, 21 October 2022)

23 October: As the Red Cross offers support, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Ireland says that the lack of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees is ‘unacceptable’ and Sinn Fein calls for empty holiday homes to be utilised. (RTE, 23 October 2022)

25 October: As Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni pledges to stop  migrant boats heading to Italy from North Africa, interior  minister Matteo Piantedosi  threatens to close ports to the Ocean Viking and Humanity1 rescue boats, in violation of international law. (BBC News, 25 October 2022)

Deportations

13 October: A second legal challenge to the government’s offshoring policy begins in the High Court, brought by Asylum Aid, arguing that the procedure is unlawful and unfair. (Independent, 13 October 2022)

14 October: The Home Office apologises to an Eritrean rape survivor, saying that a notice of deportation to Rwanda sent to her at 37 weeks pregnant was sent in error. (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

18 October: A fast-track removal of 11 Albanians from Manston, apparently in breach of a government undertaking not to fast-track deportations of Albanian nationals, raises concerns over due process. (Guardian, 18 October 2022)

18 October: A House of Lords Committee examining the UK-Rwanda agreement concludes that it should not have been entered into without parliamentary scrutiny or legally enforceable standards. (UK Parliament, 18 October 2022)

18 October: Tamil refugees on Diego Garcia are told that they can either return to Sri Lanka, from where they have fled, or be removed to an undisclosed country. (Guardian, 18 October 2022)

21 October: Following a campaign led by Freedom from Torture, Spanish charter airline Privilege Style, whose plane was used for the first aborted Rwanda flight, pulls out of Rwanda deportation flights. Two other companies, Titan and Airtanker, previously ruled themselves out of the Rwanda flights. (Mirror, 21 October 2022)

NEVER let anyone tell you you can't make a difference. pic.twitter.com/7MwmGIcQqf

— Freedom from Torture🧡 (@FreefromTorture) October 22, 2022

Citizenship

13 October: The UN child rights committee accuses Finland of violating the rights of children held in Syrian camps and calls for more to be done to repatriate Finns detained as relatives of suspected fighters. (Guardian, 13 October 2022)

12 October: A British woman and her child are repatriated to the UK from a prison camp in Syria, where an estimated 60 Britons including 35 children are held, the first time an adult has been permitted to return since the end of the ground war against ISIS. (Guardian, 13 October 2022)

20 October: France says it has repatriated 15 French women and 40 children from prison camps in northeast Syria. (Euronews, 20 October 2022)

ELECTORAL POLITICS | GOVERNMENT POLICY

As anti-migrant, anti-equalities, anti-abortion, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQI rhetoric in electoral campaigning are increasingly interlinked, we reflect this in the coverage below which also includes information on the influence of the Christian Right as well as the religious Right generally.

12 October: After being contacted by the press, Brothers of Italy senator Lavinia Mennuni, tipped to lead a new ministry of births, deletes a 2019 Instagram post in which she celebrated a fascist naval commander. (Guardian, 12 October 2022)

13 October: Brothers of Italy politician Ignazio La Russa, who began his career with the youth wing of the party set up in 1946 by supporters of Mussolini, is elected senate speaker. (Guardian, 13 October 2022)

13 October: At a meeting at the EU Diplomatic Agency in Bruges, Belgium, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell says Europe is an ‘idyllic garden’ of freedom and prosperity while the rest of the world is ‘mostly a jungle’, prompting an international backlash and accusations of racism.  (Euronews, 20 October 2022)

14 October: A big swing against Labour and towards the Conservatives in a Leicester Council by-election in the Labour ward of North Evington is linked to the Labour candidate’s alleged support for India’s ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharativa Janata party (BJP). (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

14 October: The Labour mayor of Leicester commissions an independent review to determine whether extremist Hindutva ideology encouraged recent civil unrest in the city. (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

14 October: Three centre-right parties in Sweden reach agreement on a minority coalition government which relies on support from the far-right Sweden Democrats, who are granted power to appoint civil servants in government departments. A coalition agreement is heavy on law-and-order, including plans to crack down on criminal gangs. (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

17 October: Rebecka Fallenkvist, head of the Sweden Democrats’ television programming, is suspended after describing Anne Frank as ‘immoral’ in an Instagram story that was later deleted. (Deutsche Welle, 17 October 2022)

18 October: In Portugal, the far-right Chega party launches Solidariedade, a trade union for teachers, healthcare workers, civil servants and security forces who reject the ‘Socialism’ associated with mainstream trades unions. (Portugal Resident, 18 October 2022)

19 October: In Paris, the discovery of a body of a 12-year-old girl in a suitcase, and the arrest of an Algerian woman said to be under an order to leave France, on suspicion of her murder, are seized upon the far Right, with Marine Le Pen saying ‘too many crimes are being committed by clandestine immigrants’ whom the government is not ‘able or willing to deport’, and Eric Zemmour alleging ‘Francocide’. (Euronews, 21 October 2022)

20 October: Greece’s interior minister Makis Voridis declares that chemical castration for rapists of minors should be considered a ‘mechanism of legal punishment exchange’. (Keep Talking Greece, 20 October 2022)

20 October: A rally in memory of 12-year-old murder victim Lola in Paris is dominated by the far Right, especially Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête party. After Lola’s family call for an end to the ‘politicisation of her death’, objecting to the display of her photo at the rally, Zemmour, who had registered two domain names for Lola, writes an open letter saying ‘this story is beyond [Lola’s] parents’ and concerns ‘all of France’. (Le Monde, 21 October 2022; Guardian, 21 October 2022)

21 October: As a new right-wing coalition government is formed in Italy, Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy party is named prime minister, giving the country its first far-right-led government since the end of World War II. (Le Monde, 21 October 2022)

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

With anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-equalities, anti-abortion, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQI activities increasingly interlinking, we now incorporate information on the Christian Right as well as the religious Right generally.

13 October: In Germany, a 75-year-old woman from Saxony is remanded in custody accused of being the ringleader of a far-right terrorist group closely linked to the Reichsbürger scene, planning kidnappings and attacks on politicians as well as targeting power facilities. (Guardian, 14 October 2022)

19 October: Streetpress warns that a new far-right grouping, Argos France, formed in the summer, is a rehashing of Generation Identity. (Streetpress, 19 October 2022)

POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

11 October: The Metropolitan police are to stop recording the ethnicity of drivers stopped by officers despite evidence that black drivers are disproportionately stopped and just as other police forces begin monitoring, it is revealed. (Guardian, 11 October 2022)

12 October: Though the Metropolitan Police pays £6,000 to the family of a mixed-race boy who was unlawfully searched and handcuffed while cycling home in September 2018, an apology fails to acknowledge the issue of race raised by the boy’s family. (Independent, 12 October 2022)

12 October: Inquest publishes a report, Deaths of racialised people in prison 2015-2022, which reveals that 2,220 people have died in prison between January 2015 and December 2021, of whom 136 were Black or mixed race. (Independent, 12 October 2022)

13 October: Following Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, the Met police admit that their previous claim that 74 police officers were injured at Notting Hill Carnival was false; the number was 60, of whom 90 per cent suffered minor non-reportable injuries. (MyLondon, 13 October 2022)

17 October: Louise Casey’s interim review of the culture of the Metropolitan police finds ‘systemic’ racism and internal failings leading to hundreds of officers suspected of serious criminal offences, racist and misogynistic behaviour, staying in post. Black officers were 81 percent more likely to face disciplinary action and new ethnic recruits over 120 percent more likely to be fired than white counterparts. (Guardian, 17 October 2022)

18 October: The family of Oladeji Omishore launches a legal challenge to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) decision not to hold a criminal or misconduct investigation into Oladeji’s death in June 2022 following contact with the Met police. (Independent, 18 October 2022)

18 October: The Public Order Bill, introducing new laws governing protests, and increasing stop and search powers, passes its Commons stages. (The Herald, 18 October 2022)

18 October: A study by Manchester University finds that the judiciary in England and Wales is institutionally racist, with more than half the legal professionals surveyed saying they had witnessed racial bias in judges’ behaviour. (Guardian, 18 October 2022)

19 October: FOI requests reveal that risk assessments made by the National Police Chiefs Council’s strategic intelligence and briefing team led to the stepping up of surveillance of BLM activists following the murder of George Floyd.  Demonstrators against policing are classified as ‘anti-fascist’ and ‘cultural nationalists’. (Open Democracy, 19 October 2022)

20 October: Dozens of people are detained at a rally in Athens, Greece which came in response to the arrest of two police officers from the notorious DIAS motorcycle squad on suspicion of raping a 19-year-old woman in Omonia police station. (Keep Talking Greece, 20 October 2022)

24 October: Fair Trials publishes Equality data in criminal justice which, based on interviews with 2,751 people, finds that pervasive police violence disproportionately targets racialised people in criminal justice systems in Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria and Romania. (Fair Trials, 24 October 2022)

24 October: A police officer in Bristol is suspended after reports that he assaulted a member of the public and told a colleague to ‘go back to your own country’. (BBC News, 24 October 2022)

EDUCATION

13 October: Edinburgh’s Court of Session rules that criteria for students from migrant families in Scotland denying them the same right to free university education as their peers are unlawful, in what refugee rights groups say is a ‘life-changing’ ruling. (Guardian, 13 October 2022)

19 October: Cardiff Metropolitan University becomes the first British university to divest from the border industry, following the launch of the Divest Borders campaign, which has students and university workers across 25 universities urging divestment from companies profiting from border violence. (Open Democracy, 19 October 2022) 

20 October: Department for Education figures show that GCSE grades gaps for disadvantaged pupils in England are the widest since 2011-12, with the gap for children with special educational needs even wider. (Guardian, 20 October 2022)

EMPLOYMENT | EXPLOITATION | INDUSTRIAL ACTION

12 October: A study by the Labour party finds that the gender pay gap is higher for ethnic minority women, who earn on average nearly 30 percent less than men. (Guardian, 12 October 2022)

24 October: It is revealed that up to 1,000 migrant workers from Indonesia, Ghana and the Philippines are employed on Scottish fishing vessels, sometimes exploited and not paid by employers misusing short-term seafarers’ transit visas, preventing the workers from complaining. (Times, 24 October 2022)

CULTURE | MEDIA | SPORT

While we cannot cover all incidents of racist abuse on sportspersons or their responses, we provide a summary of the most important incidents. For more information follow Kick it Out.

16 October: In Italy, renowned volleyball star Paola Egonu receives a wave of social media solidarity after she says she may quit the national team due to the racist abuse she suffers, especially when the team loses. (Al Jazeera, 17 October 2022)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

10 October: A man is attacked with a bicycle seat as he intervenes to stop a group of three youths racially abusing another unidentified man on Victoria Street in Grimsby. He is treated in hospital for minor injuries. Suspects are yet to be identified. (Grimsby Live, 13 October 2022) 

12 October: A 33-year-old Beckenham man is charged with grievous bodily harm with intent for an alleged racist attack which knocked unconscious a Polish man who asked directions after getting off a coach at London’s Victoria station. (Mail online, 12 October 2022)

13 October: In Bratislava, Slovakia, two people are shot dead outside an LGBT bar. It is alleged that the suspected gunman, later found dead, is the son of a former far-right political candidate. The president calls on politicians to stop spreading hate. (BBC News, 13 October 2022)

13 October: At Teesside Crown Court, a 66-year-old man from Billingham is found guilty of racially abusing staff at a post office in January and a liquor store in July, both of which he had been barred from, and is sentenced to 23 months suspended for two years and a 5-year restraining order banning him from both sites. (Teesside Live, 13 October 2022)  

15 October: West Yorkshire Police release CCTV footage of a racist attack that took place in Leeds on 29 May in which the five perpetrators appear to celebrate after punching and striking a 20-year-old man with a bottle. (BBC News, 15 October 2022)

15 October: In Bratislava, Slovakia, an estimated  20,000 people attend a vigil in memory  of Matus H, 23 and Juraj V, who  died in  the  shooting at the Tepláreň, popular LGBTQ+ bar. Details emerge of the gunman’s 65-page manifesto  containing antisemitic, Islamophobic and homophobic writings and expressing admiration of the white supremacist who killed ten black people in Buffalo, New York. (Pink News, 20 October 2022)

16 October: Three people involved in antisemitic movements are arrested for starting fires and attacks on Jewish targets in the village of Castrillo Mota de Judíos, Spain. (Jewish Chronicle, 16 October 2022)

17 October: Leicester magistrates order compensation of £400 to a black doorman racially abused by a 76-year-old man from Evington outside a pub in April. (Leicester Live, 17 October 2022)  

19 October: Thames Valley Police investigate an alleged racially aggravated assault and two instances of racist abuse at a football match between Bracknell Town and Banbury United in Sandhurst on 15 October. (BBC News, 19 October 2022)

20 October: Fire destroys a shelter accommodating Ukrainian refugees in Gross Strömkendorf, east of Hamburg, Germany, in a suspected arson attack in which a swastika was painted on the door. No one is hurt. Another shelter accommodating refugees was burnt down in Apolda, Thuringia, earlier this month. (Euronews, 20 October 2022)

24 October: Skipton magistrates make community orders and over £1000 in compensation and costs against a 32-year-old man convicted of a racial attack on a 62-year-old taxi driver from Craven. (Taxi Point, 24 October 2022)  

24 October: Hertfordshire Police issue a CCTV appeal to identify a male suspect following a racially aggravated assault committed on 17 September at a BP garage in Rush Green. (Herts Live, 24 October 2022)  

24 October: Lancaster magistrates order fines and costs totalling £188 against a 53-year-old woman from Glasgow found guilty of using racist language on a train. (Lancashire Post, 24 October 2022)  

The calendar was compiled with the help of Graeme Atkinson, Sira Thiam, Sophie Chauhan and Joseph Maggs. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association and Stopwatch, whose regular updates on asylum, migration, far-Right, racial violence and policing issues are an invaluable source of information. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.