A calendar of stories from the last week.
Asylum seekers & refugees
27 August 2014: Medical Justice has published a report: Biased and Unjust: The Immigration Detention Complaints Process, you can download it here (pdf file, 6.4mb).
29 August: 44-year-old Wadih Chourey, who has Down’s syndrome, faces deportation to Lebanon after the Home Office refused his application to stay in the UK. Chourey is appealing against the decision. (Richmond & Twickenham Times, 29 August 2014)
1 September: Mitie commences its contract to run Harmondsworth and Colnbrook immigration detention centres in west London, making it the largest provider of immigration detention (it also runs Campsfield). (Corporate Watch, 1 September 2014)
1 September: The Guardian speaks to migrant workers in Greece affected by the shooting and injuring of thirty-five people. The men who attacked the strawberry pickers were acquitted earlier this year. (Guardian, 1 September 2014)
2 September: The Scottish Refugee Council has published a report: The Extent and Impact of Asylum Accommodation in Scotland, you can download it here.
3 September: Official guidance for landlords is published on the ‘right to rent’, with landlords facing £3,000 fines for failing to check the immigration status of new tenants. A pilot scheme is due to be rolled out in the Midlands from December. (Guardian, 3 September 2014)
4 September: The funeral of Meet Singh Kapoor, the Afghan migrant who was found dead at Tilbury docks after stowing away on a lorry, takes place.
Policing & criminal justice
31 August: Donville Lorenzo, who was racially abused and attacked by West Midlands police officers in November 2007, is still waiting for an apology seven years after the attack, despite being awarded £17,000 damages. (Birmingham Mail, 31 August 2014)
2 September: An employment tribunal finds that Scotland Yard tried to draw negative public attention to Carol Howard during her race and sex discrimination case against the Metropolitan Police and awards her £37,000. (Guardian, 2 September 2014)
Violence and harassment
28 August: Police are treating attacks on the homes of two Sudanese families in north Belfast as racially motivated hate crimes; windows were smashed on both houses but no one was hurt. (BBC News, 28 August)
29 August: Three men,David Montgomery, Ronnie Coulter and Andrew Coulter, who were accused of the murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar in 1998 will face a court hearing on 10 November as the Crown seeks a retrial following changes to double jeopardy laws. (BBC News, 29 August 2014)
29 August: Couple, Wendy Perrin (63) and Paul Moore (64), are found guilty of racially aggravated harassment after subjecting their Asian neighbours to a year of racist abuse over the smell of curry. (Barking & Dagenham Post, 1 September 2014)
29 August: Rafal Damian Szarlinski, a 23-year-old Polish man, admits two counts of assault after he was racially abused. He is ordered to carry out sixty hours of unpaid work and given a three-month curfew as well as being ordered to pay compensation and costs. (News & Star, 30 August 2014)