A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.

ASYLUM AND MIGRATION

Asylum and migrant rights

16 February: For the second time in six months, the Spanish supreme court rules that displaced people in Spain’s north African territories of Ceuta and Melilla who are seeking asylum in Spain have the right to free movement and residence anywhere within the national territory. The ruling also applies to those in the Canary Islands. (El Salto, 16 February 2021) 

19 February:  The Cyprus government issues a call for international assistance in the face of a ‘migration crisis’, stressing that asylum seekers now exceed 4 percent of the Cypriot population. (Ekathimerini, 20 February 2021)

Borders and internal controls

19 February: Migrant woman with ‘no recourse to public funds’ are being refused refuge in hostels during the pandemic, leaving them homeless and destitute according to refuges and other domestic violence services. (Metro, 19 February 2021) 

20 February: A 24-year-old Kuwaiti man is jailed for 45 months for steering a boat with 11 asylum seeking passengers in it across the Channel to the UK, the ninth to be jailed this year for assisting illegal immigration. The pilots are not generally smugglers but are refugees themselves. (Kent Online, 23 February 2021)

Reception and detention

9 February: Criticism from lawyers, campaigners and charities, and Covid concerns lead the Home Office to abandon plans to house over 200 vulnerable asylum seekers in portakabins on the site of Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre. (Guardian, 9 February 2021) 

14 February: Asylum seekers at a hotel in Reading go on hunger strike in protest at their treatment, claiming the food has led to some being hospitalised, and at delays, in some cases over a year, in processing their claims for asylum. (Sky News, 14 February 2021) 

15 February: Immigration and prison inspectors carry out inspections of Napier and Penally barracks in response to mounting pressure from MPs and campaigners, as a 7-year-old planning and environmental report on Napier barracks is released, which concluded that ‘the buildings were never intended for long-term use’ and did not ‘meet acceptable standards for accommodation’. (Guardian, 11 February; Guardian, 15 February 2021) 

16 February: The High Court hears, during a legal challenge by asylum seekers to the use of Napier barracks, that Public Health England advised the Home Office in early September that dormitories were unsuitable for use during a pandemic, advice which was ignored. (Guardian, 16 February 2021)  

17 February: Residents at a Cork direct provision centre in Ireland, who include many families, refuse poorly prepared meals and write to the minister requesting the right to cook their own food. (Irish Examiner, 17 February 2021)

18 February: Twenty asylum seekers from a reception centre in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, submit a formal complaint to the body that oversees refugee reception, pointing out that social distancing is impossible, dozens of asylum seekers share one toilet, the heating is broken and the atmosphere is unsafe. (NRC, 18 February 2021)

19 February:  A Maltese court sentences five African men to jail for offences arising from disturbances at Safi detention centre last September. (Malta Today, 19 February 2021)

19 February: In Greece, just months after fire ripped through Moria camp on the island of Lesvos, a second fire erupts in Moria 2.0 camp. Residents put out the fire themselves and there are no fatalities. (Are You Syrious, 20 February 2021) 

https://twitter.com/MSF_Sea/status/1362753662448066565?s=20

19 February: A court in Stuttgart, Germany rules that Baden-Württemberg state police acted illegally when hundreds of officers stormed Ellwangen refugee reception centre in May 2018 to deal with anti-deportation protests. Entering a deportee’s room at 5am and handcuffing him was ‘disproportionate’. (Migazin, 22 February 2021)

19 February: An asylum seeker launches a legal challenge of 23-hour curfew restrictions imposed at several ‘asylum hotels’, arguing they have no legal basis and amount to deprivation of liberty and ‘false imprisonment’. (Guardian, 19 February 2021) 

21 February: An investigation into asylum hostels by the Observer and ITV News reveals nine deaths in the past year, and allegations of intrusion, abuse and sexual harassment by staff using master keys to enter women’s rooms. (Observer, 21 February 2021)   

Citizenship

18 February: The Court of Appeal affirms the High Court’s ruling that the £1,012 fee for children who are entitled to British citizenship to register as citizens, of which £640 is profit, fails to take children’s best interests into account, in a case brought by the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC). (PRCBC; Independent, 18 February 2021)    

Deportation

21 February: Of 44,000 so-called ‘intelligence-led’ immigration raids conducted between 2015 and 2019, only a sixth resulted in deportation, and 37 people were deported following 139 raids on care homes, terrifying residents and arresting care workers mid-shift, responses to JCWI Freedom of Information (FOI) requests show, suggesting a casual and heavy-handed approach to enforcement. (Guardian, 21 February 2021)

POLICING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

8 February: New procedure rules remove defendants’ obligation to state their nationality at preliminary hearings in the criminal courts, following advice that the obligation was incompatible with data protection law. (UK Human Rights Blog, 9 February 2021)

9 February: In Portugal, the Communist party parliamentary group calls on the state body  overseeing the police to explain why a police commander who denounced racism inside the police was more severely disciplined than police officers charged with torturing young black men in Cova da Moura, Amadora. (Diário de Noticias, 11 February 2021)

10 February: The number of prisoners on suicide or self-harm watch in England and Wales has risen dramatically over the past decade, Ministry of Justice statistics reveal, with self-harm among women prisoners up by a quarter from September to December. (Guardian, 10 February 2021)

11 February: Merseyside police describe the use of force, captured on video, against the black owner of a gym for alleged Covid breaches at the centre as ‘necessary’, as a former chair of the Black Police Officers’ Association describes the arrest as a brutal assault. (BBC News, 11 February 2021)

12 February: A Belgian court sentences the police officer who in 2018 fired the bullet that killed two-year-old Kurdish-Iraqi Mawda Shawri to a one-year suspended prison sentence. The driver of the van carrying 30 migrants that police were pursuing is sentenced to four years. (Guardian, 12 February 2021)

The conclusion of the trial of the police officer who fired the fatal shot that killed 2-year-old Mawda Shawri in 2018 has not brought relief to the family. @frantimberlake reflects on a flawed process & repeated attempts to stigmatise the bereaved familyhttps://t.co/xVdsA79QBA

— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) February 16, 2021

12 February: Ros Martin makes an official complaint against Avon and Somerset police, alleging they put her health at risk and provided misleading reports to the public, after her arrest on 25 January for chalking ‘Let Justice Prevail’ on the pavement outside a Bristol court where four people faced charges relating to the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue. (Bristol Post, 12 February 2021)

12 February: Ministry of Justice figures reveal a 70 percent surge in the number of prisoners with Covid, from 6,000 to over 10,000 cases between December and January, with infections at 107 of the 121 prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales. (Guardian, 12 February 2021)

14 February: Responses to FOI requests by Drone Watch reveal the police used drones to monitor several political protests including those held by the Black Lives Matter movement. (Guardian, 14 February 2021)

15 February: The Independent Office for Police Conduct serves a misconduct notice on a South Wales police officer who accompanied Mohamud Mohamed Hassan in a police van where he is heard on body-cam video to complain of having a fit, suffering a migraine, and displayed signs of experiencing pain. Hassan died shortly after his release. (IOPC, 15 February 2021)

16 February: Spanish riot police enter the University of Lleida to arrest rapper Pablo Hasél who had sought refuge there after a conviction for glorifying terrorism and insulting the police and Civil Guard through lyrics and social media posts which denounce them for torturing and murdering migrants. (Guardian, 16 February 2021)

16 February: The European Court of Human Rights rules that the UK violated rights to fair trial and protection against forced labour in the prosecution and conviction for drug production of two Vietnamese children, confirmed trafficking victims, despite warnings by social services. (Asylum Law Database, 16 February 2021)

17 February: Sadiq Khan reveals that more police officers could be placed in some London schools when they fully reopen, to prevent a post-lockdown violent crime surge. (BBC News, 17 February 2021)

17 February: 29-year-old Moyied Bashir dies following restraint with handcuffs and leg restraints by police called to his home in Newport, South Wales following concerns about his welfare following a medical episode. Black Lives Matter Gwent protesters demonstrate and the IOPC opens an investigation. (Huffington Post; BBC News, 19 February 2021)

18 February: A teenage refugee from Eritrea who was blinded in an acid attack in south London which he believes was racially motivated says the attack might have been prevented if the police had responded when he reported an earlier attack by the same suspect, caught on CCTV. (Guardian, 18 February 2021)

18 February: Ministry of Justice figures show numbers dealt with by the courts fell by nearly a quarter in the past year, amid concern that extending the time unconvicted defendants spend in custody awaiting trial disproportionately affects BME communities. (Guardian, 18 February 2021)

Counter-terrorism

21 February: Met police assistant commissioner for counter-terrorism Neil Basu urges 17 human rights and Muslim groups including Liberty and Amnesty International to reconsider their proposed boycott of the Prevent review, announced in protest at the appointment of William Shawcross to conduct it because of alleged anti-Muslim comments. (Guardian, 16 February; Guardian, 21 February 2021)

21 February: In Germany, lawyers for Kurdish activist Gokmen Cakli accuse the state of criminalising the political and cultural activities of Germany’s Kurdish communities after Cakli was convicted of membership of the proscribed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and sentenced to three years and five months on terrorist charges, for encouraging attendance at events including Kurdish new year celebrations. (Morning Star, 21 February 2021)

ELECTORAL AND PARTY POLITICS

11 February: In a televised debate in France, President Macron’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin accuses Marine Le Pen of ‘softness’ towards Islam, saying ‘you need to take vitamins again. You are not ready to legislate on religion and you say that Islam is not even a problem.’ (France TV, 15 February 2021)

12 February: Home secretary Priti Patel describes Black Lives Matter protests as ‘dreadful’ and says she doesn’t agree with the gesture of taking the knee. (Guardian, 12 February 2021)

12 February: Although swimming pools are closed during the pandemic, the French government launches an inquiry into chlorine allergy certificates, blaming pupils’ absence from swimming lessons on ‘religious parents’ and ‘separatism’. (Al Jazeera, 12 February 2021)

13 February: Nine black Labour MPs issue a statement criticising the delay of the publication of the Forde inquiry into the leak of an unredacted report into Labour’s complaint process, which allegedly detailed racist conversations amongst party officials. (Guardian, 13 February 2021)

15 February: In Portugal, after SOS Racismo’s Mamadou Ba criticises the attendance by the president and top-ranking members of the armed forces at the funeral of the African-Portuguese commandant Marcelino de Mata, accused of war crimes in Africa during colonial wars, the far-right Chega party describes Ba as a ‘notorious racist’, supports a petition demanding his deportation and calls on the attorney-general to bring a prosecution. (Diário de Notícias, 15 February; Diário de Notícias, 16 February; Expresso, 17 February 2021) 

15 February: In Spanish regional elections in Catalonia, where pro-independence parties take more than half the votes, the far-right Vox party outperforms conservatives, winning 11 seats to gain representation in Catalonia for the first time. (Al Jazeera, 16 February 2021)

16 February: Scottish Conservative councillor Colin McGavigan, who was suspended after a Facebook post last June comparing Black Lives Matter with the Nazis, resigns from the party, saying it was taking too long to resolve the row. (Daily Record, 16 February 2021) 

19 February: In Portugal, the leader of the far-right Chega party proposes a ‘Mamadou Ba Law’, whereby nationality will be withdrawn from dual nationals who commit serious crimes or cause offence to the nation’s ‘history and symbols’. (Observador, 19 February 2021)

22 February: The Muslim Council of Britain says ‘tragic consequences’ have resulted from the government’s abrupt refusal to engage with it during the pandemic despite praise from a Sage science committee subgroup for its guidance for individuals and mosques, as paymaster-general Penny Mordaunt is reportedly criticised for meeting its new head Zara Mohammed. (Guardian, 22 February 2021)

ANTI-FASCISM AND FAR RIGHT

16 February: The Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain calls for an investigation into a far-right demonstration in honour of Franco’s military Blue Division, where one speaker told the Madrid crowd, ‘the enemy is always going to be … the Jew’ and ‘Communism’ is ‘a Jewish invention’. (El Pais, 16 February 2021) 

17 February: US neo-nazi Robert Rundo who founded the Rise Above Movement, is expelled from Serbia, where he was running a clothing company selling white supremacist goods. (Global Voices, 17 February 2021)

21 February: The All Party Parliamentary Group on Hate Crime warns that the far-right Patriotic Alternative group is promoting an alternative home-schooling curriculum, which includes racist songs and claims that only white people are English and that BLM is out to destroy ‘western civilisation’. (Leeds Live, 21 February 2021)

23 February: There were 477 far-right incidents involving the German military in 2020, according to the parliament’s commissioner for the military. (Associated Press, 23 February 2021)

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION

11 February: The government’s official response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ November report on Black people, racism and human rights rejects the majority of the committee’s recommendations to counter racism. Committee chair Harriet Harman says ‘they accept the arguments but reject the solutions.’ (Guardian, 11 February 2021)

13 February: In a ruling deemed a watershed moment for multinational companies, the supreme court rules that two Nigerian communities can bring legal claims for cleaning up oil spills and for compensation against Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary. (Guardian, 13 February 2021)

18 February: The European Commission issues infringement procedures against Hungary, giving it two months to change a registration law for NGOs that receive funds above a certain amount from foreign donors, thereby threatening ‘the role of civil society as an independent actor’. (Deutsche Welle, 18 February 2021)

21 February: The Jubilee Debt Campaign releases figures showing that London-based banks are the largest owners of debt issued by poor countries, and urges the government to use its presidency of the G7 group of countries to insist that the banks alleviate the debt. None have signed up to a voluntary debt suspension scheme. (Guardian, 21 February 2021) 

22 February: UN secretary-general António Guterres says the world faces a ‘pandemic of human rights abuses’, citing the use of Covid-19 as a pretext for censorship and surveillance, setbacks in poverty eradication and education, failure to ensure equity in vaccination efforts, and racist and white supremacist movements acting transnationally in a ‘feeding frenzy of hate’. (Guardian, 22 February 2021)

23 February: A study by Bristol University academics, published by campaign group Fair by Design, finds that among low-income families, BME groups, together with disabled and old people, are paying most for banking, credit, insurance and essential services such as fuel. (Guardian, 23 February 2021) 

EMPLOYMENT AND EXPLOITATION

14 February: The Health and Safety Executive has failed to shut down a single workplace which puts employees at risk of coronavirus, despite 100,000 Covid cases and 10,000 deaths in over 3,500 outbreaks in factories, construction sites and offices since the start of the pandemic and 25,000 complaints in January alone, figures reveal, and no employers prosecuted for Covid safety failings. (Observer, 14 February 2021)

15 February: In Spain, 200 migrant workers are left homeless after fire destroys a migrant shanty town near Nijar in Almeria’s so-called ‘Sea of Plastic’. (Olive Press, 15 February 2021)

16 February: An employment tribunal upholds the claims against the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust by an Iraqi surgeon who said he was racially discriminated against and faced unfair treatment after expressing concerns for patient safety. (Teesside Live, 16 February 2021)

18 February: Analysis of official statistics by Labour Behind the Label indicates that women machinists in UK garment factories have a Covid death rate four times the women’s average. (Guardian, 18 February 2021)

19 February: Another fire in Spain wipes out 40 percent of a shanty town in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva, that houses hundreds of migrant workers, leaving 400 people homeless. The region’s administration laments that fires occur ‘continuously’ but has provided no solution to the workers’ dire living conditions. (The Canadian, 19 February 2021) 

21 February: Home Affairs select committee chair Yvette Cooper calls on the Home Office to investigate following allegations that staff employed by private contractors at asylum hostels are paid significantly below the minimum wage. (Observer, 21 February 2021)

22 February: Following the supreme court’s confirmation that Uber drivers are workers, not self-employed contractors, and are entitled to employment rights, the company claims that the ruling applies only to a small number of drivers from 2016, leading thousands of drivers to join lawsuits against the company. (UK Supreme Court, 19 February; Guardian, 22 February 2021)

Today after many months’ delay, the Supreme Court has finally handed down its decision: Uber drivers are workers.

This decision is very significant news for all private hire drivers in the UK.

THREAD/ pic.twitter.com/mrdDocOSRt

— IWGB United Private Hire Drivers (@UPHD_IWGB) February 19, 2021

HEALTH

9 February: Data from the Office of National Statistice shows that differential risks of death between ethnic minorities in the first and second coronavirus wave improved for black communities but were worse for people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds. (Guardian, 9 February 2021) 

15 February: Analysis of the 20,000 staff employed at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust finds that 71 percent of white staff have been vaccinated, 59 percent of South Asian staff and 37 percent of black staff. Analysed by occupation, 73 percent of administrative and executive staff have been vaccinated, and only 57 percent of doctors, the majority of whom are BME. (Guardian, 14 February; BBC, 15 February 2021) 

15 February: One in seven low-paid Latin Americans in London are not registered with a GP, according to the Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation (IRMO), raising concerns about exclusion from the vaccine rollout and access to healthcare. (Guardian, 15 February 2021) 

16 February: Ethnicity and deprivation are officially recognised as risk factors for severe Covid in a new risk analysis tool, resulting in nearly 2 million more people being advised to shield by their GP. (Guardian, 16 February 2021)

17 February: A leaked analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre concludes that ‘unmet financial needs’ prevent people from self-isolating and existing socioeconomic inequality leave BME communities at greater exposure to Covid because of cramped housing and public-facing jobs. (Guardian, 17 February 2021)

HOUSING

11 February: Fire and rescue services Inspectors find that the response of the fire brigade to another high-rise fire on the scale of Grenfell would not be much improved, with insufficient retraining and only four recommendations met of the 29 made by inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick in October 2019. (Guardian, 11 February 2021)

17 February: Days after cladding company Arconic’s sales manager admitted to the Grenfell inquiry that panels remained on sale despite high-rise cladding fires in the UAE because they made more profit than fire-retardant panels, the company’s French president admits failing to reveal a disastrous failed fire test despite being legally obliged to do so. (Guardian, 12 February; Guardian, 17 February 2021) 

EDUCATION

16 February: The Department of Education introduces draft legislation to appoint a ‘free-speech champion’ for higher education based at the Office for Students, create a statutory tort for breaches of the free speech duty, allowing universities to be sued by those who are no-platformed, and impose a new free speech condition for registration and access to public funding. (Guardian, 16 February 2021) 

18 February: In France, the Conference of University Presidents says that labels should be left to the far Right which popularise them, after education minister Frederique Vidal says that ‘Islamo-leftism’ is spreading in universities. Vidal also launches an investigation into research frameworks, identifying the focus on colonialism and race that ‘fracture and divide’. (Al Jazeera, 18 February 2021)

MEDIA, CULTURE, SPORT

10 February: Social media platform Instagram announces that it will ban people who send racist abuse to others via direct message, following complaints that abuse is rife on the platform. (Metro, 10 February 2021)

14 February: Days after the members of London’s new landmark commission to review London’s monuments are announced, the culture secretary writes to two dozen heritage and culture bodies inviting them to a roundtable to discuss the dangers of re-evaluating British history, stating that countries should not ‘run from or airbrush the history upon which they are founded’. (Guardian, 9 February, Guardian, 14 February 2021)

16 February: A new musical drama, On Hostile Ground, launches online, based on the testimonies of people affected by the government’s hostile environment immigration policies. (Royal & Derngate (Northampton), 16 February 2021)

18 February: A video advert featuring prominent personalities and celebrities is aired simultaneously by British broadcasters to tackle concerns about the Covid vaccine in ethnic minority communities. (Guardian, 18 February 2021) 

18 February: Pressure grows to take action against Youtube channel Voices of Wales, run by two UKIP supporters, after a BBC Wales investigation reveals guests have included the US far-right Proud Boys and Katy Hopkins. A Stand up to Racism spokesperson says the messages on the channel put ‘so many people in danger’. (BBC Wales, 18 February 2021)

18 February: Tao Geoghegan Hart, winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, becomes the first Grand Tour cyclist to take a knee to protest at racial inequality in the sport. (Cycling Weekly, 18 February 2021)

19 February: Nottingham City striker Lyle Taylor says he will no longer take the knee, stating that Black Lives Matter is a ‘Marxist group’ and is using ‘racial unrest to push their own political agenda’. (Express, 19 February 2021)

19 February: BBC director-general Tim Davie endorses a statement from Woman’s Hour that the programme will ‘reflect’ on what 200 people including more than 100 public figures condemned as a ‘strikingly hostile’ interview reinforcing ‘damaging and prejudicial tropes’ about Islam, conducted by the Radio 4 programme with Zara Mohammed, the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain. (Guardian, 17 February; Guardian, 19 February 2021)

21 February: The chair of Bristol’s history commission, set up by mayor Marvin Rees after the toppling of Colston’s statue in June, urges ministers to keep out of debates on the future of city streets named after slave traders and not to wage a ‘culture war’ with ‘divisive phrases’ following communities secretary Robert Jenrick’s comments about ‘town hall militants’ and ‘woke worthies’. (Observer, 21 February 2021)

23 February: As culture secretary Oliver Dowden meets 25 of the UK’s biggest heritage bodies, museums and art galleries, the academic leading the National Trust’s ‘Colonial Countryside’ project warns of ‘menacing’ attempts by politicians to ‘weaponise’ historical research, and museum staff unions warn that government interference in attempts to develop public understanding can amount to ‘airbrushing history’, in a joint letter to the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC). (Guardian; Guardian, 23 February 2021)

Football racism

11 February: European football governing body UEFA opens disciplinary proceedings against two officials accused of racism during a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir FK last year. (Sky Sports, 11 February 2021)

15 February: A research study by Birmingham City and Nottingham Trent universities accuses English football authorities of failing to tackle Islamophobia. (Arab News, 15 February 2021)

15 February: After the Premier League, FA and EFL, players’ and managers’ unions, women’s football heads, referees and Kick it Out send an open letter to Facebook and Twitter CEOs demanding they take personal responsibility for abusive content, the UK’s first football hate crime officer calls for social media companies to require formal identification from users to help police forces prosecute hate crimes. (Guardian, 11 February; Guardian, 15 February 2021)

15 February: The Football Association of Ireland offers its support to Stoke City and Ireland midfielder James McClean after his wife Erin details the nine years of sectarian and anti-Irish abuse they have received for McClean’s decision not to wear the poppy during matches. (Guardian, 15 February 2021)

18 February: Following Brentford FC’s announcement that the team will no longer take the knee before matches because the gesture no longer has the required impact, Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha becomes the first premier league footballer to say taking the knee is now ‘degrading’ and inadequate, as the racist abuse of footballers has continued. (BBC, 15 February; Guardian, 18 February 2021)

19 February: After Manchester United’s Anthony Martial was racially abused on Facebook’s Instagram platform and Swansea City FC midfielder Yan Dhanda condemns Facebook for failing to ban the person who sent him racist abuse via Instagram, Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah and Willian reveal racial abuse via Instagram and Twitter. Twitter permanently bans the perpetrator’s account. (Guardian, 14 February; Eurosport; Sky Sports, 19 February 2021)

19 February: In rugby, Welsh winger Ashton Hewitt reveals receiving ‘chilling’ racist messages on social media after speaking out in support of black lives, including footage of a black man being burned alive. (Guardian, 19 February 2021) 

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

5 February: A 17-year-old boy is ordered to pay compensation to his victim, after he pleads guilty to racially aggravated threatening behaviour in Newcastle in February 2020. (Hexham Courant, 9 February 2021)

9 February: Three men are charged over the alleged racial abuse and racially aggravated assault of a Sikh taxi driver, who drove them from Reading to Basingstoke in September 2020. (Hampshire Constabulary, 9 February 2021) 

9 February: A 62-year-old man is jailed for 20 weeks for assaulting and shouting racial abuse at police officers and paramedics in Nottingham in February 2020. (Nottinghamshire Live, 9 February 2021)

9 February: A 24-year-old woman receives a 20-week suspended prison sentence, rehabilitation activities and a compensation order for racially abusing another woman and carrying a blade. (Wigan Today, 9 February 2021)

10 February: A white man believed to be in his 50s chases and shouts racial abuse at four boys aged between 11 and 13, in Rushden, Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire Police, 15 February 2021)

11 February: A 28-year-old woman is given a nine-month community order, fines and a restraining order preventing contact with her victim for a year, after admitting racially aggravated assault on a woman in Cornwall in May 2020. (Falmouth Packet, 11 February 2021)

14 February: An Edinburgh University online student union celebration of black and LGBT culture is interrupted by racist slurs, ‘horrific’ pornography and homophobic slogans, reducing a guest speaker to tears. (BBC News, 18 February 2021)

15 February: A 40-year-old man is arrested near Bristol city centre on suspicion of offences including racially aggravated assault on another man. (Bristol Live, 16 February 2021)

16 February: A 40-year-old mixed-race man is sentenced to four months imprisonment for an unprovoked racist attack on a Somali asylum seeker in Barnsley city centre in May 2020. (Doncaster Free Press, 16 February 2021)

17 February: A 29-year-old man is given a four-month community order, banned from any building that serves alcohol and must pay compensation to his victim after he was convicted of racial and religious abuse of a police officer at the Henley Regatta in July 2019. (Thames Valley Police, 17 February 2021)

18 February: A 26-year-old man is jailed for 26 weeks after admitting a series of offences in Southampton, including racially abusing a police officer during an arrest. (Hampshire Constabulary, 18 February 2021)

21 February: A 53-year-old Barrow man is given a community order and four-week curfew, after he admits sending religiously aggravated offensive messages on Facebook in September 2020. (The Mail, 21 February 2021)

22 February: Research from Nottingham Trent University shows that BME lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals are likely to receive greater abuse than their white counterparts and are therefore at a higher risk of poor mental health. (London News Online, 22 February 2021) 

The calendar was compiled with the help of Tania Bedi, Graeme Atkinson, Kaiisha Kukendra, Inês Silva, Neal Tank and Joseph Maggs.