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

19 September: Eulalee Pennant, 64, who has been in the UK for 21 years, worked as a carer during the pandemic and is now terminally ill, reveals that the Home Office has left her unable to access benefits and fearful of charges for her medical treatment, by its refusal to expedite the renewal of her right to stay in the UK with her British partner. (Guardian, 19 September 2022)

23 September: The foreign minister of the Czech Republic says that those seeking to leave Russia to avoid conscription will not be granted humanitarian visas. (Radio Prague International, 23 September 2022)

23 September: Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces government plans to increase labour immigration to ‘fill vacancies and drive growth’. (Guardian, 25 September 2022)

Borders and internal controls

12 September: Moroccan gendarmes open fire on a migrant boat to prevent it leaving for the Canary Islands, killing a sub-Saharan woman and wounding three other migrants, according to the group Walking Borders. (Hespress, 14 September 2022)

13 September: Save the Children publishes Wherever we go, someone does us harm, detailing the systematic violence and abuse by police, people smugglers and other adults against refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe through the Balkans. (Save the Children, 13 September 2022)

15 September: The European Commission confirms that the EU will pay Egypt €80 million over two years to provide equipment and services for ‘search and rescue and border surveillance at land and sea borders’. (Statewatch, 15 September 2022)

16 September: Médecins sans Frontières reports on ‘thousands’ of pushbacks of migrants and refugees from Lithuania to Belarus, with little or no access to basic needs or asylum procedures, which compound distress and trauma. (MSF, 16 September 2022)

18 September: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland Monday close their borders to Russian nationals holding a short-term Schengen visa, and Finland announces it may follow suit in a policy welcomed by the far-right Finns party, which has long argued that the eastern border should be closed completely. (Helsinki Times, 18 September 2022)

26 September: Charities condemn as ‘useless and absurd’ social media advertisements placed by the government at a cost of £90,000 over three months to deter asylum seekers from crossing the Channel, as crossings surge. (Independent, 26 September 2022)

Reception and detention

16 September: A decision by the authorities in Calais, France, to place hundreds of tonnes of rocks in several areas of the city, particularly the Danube and Meuse quays, is aimed at preventing migrants erecting shelters, say aid organisations, adding that it prevents them distributing food. (Franceinfo, 16 September 2022)

21 September: Numbers in immigration detention have almost tripled since June 2020 and are nearly a third up from pre-pandemic levels, it is reported, with immigration charity Bail for Immigration Detainees blaming the Rwanda policy for the increase. (Evening Standard, 21 September 2022)

22 September: Newcastle city council condemns asylum hotel housing provided for the Home Office by the Mears group for its lack of fresh food, of basic Covid protection, resulting in an outbreak in April, and lack of security, enabling the hotels to be targeted by far-right groups. (Chronicle Live, 22 September 2022)

23 September: An HMIP inspection of Brook House removal centre, Gatwick, finds lengthy detention, with five men held for over 1,000 days, and lack of communication from the Home Office means that nearly a third of detainees have felt suicidal. (HM Inspectorate of Prisons, 23 September 2022) 

26 September: Government plans to reopen Haslar immigration detention centre in Hampshire, in addition to Campsfield House near Oxford, at a cost of £400 million, are revealed. They will have capacity to detain 1,000 men for possible removal to Rwanda. (Guardian, 26 September 2022)

26 September: Freedom of information requests reveal that 21 people including two newborn babies died in Home Office-provided asylum accommodation in the first six months of this year. Nineteen people died in the whole of 2021. (The Civil Fleet, 26 September 2022)

Deportations

26 September: Responding to a legal challenge, the Home Office concedes that it would be unlawful to ‘fast-track’ the removal of Albanian asylum seekers as Priti Patel promised a month ago. (Independent, 27 September 2022)

Citizenship

14 September: The European Court of Human Rights rules that France’s refusal to repatriate two French women who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State is a violation of a right of a person to ‘enter the territory of the state of which they are a national’. (Guardian, 14 September 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 our coverage below. 

15 September: The far-right Sweden Democrats, with more than 20 percent of the vote in the general election, are now the second largest party in Sweden, and the largest party in the projected new right-wing government. (Guardian, 15 September 2022)

15 September: After criticism of the Sweden Democrats during a TV interview by the head of the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism, the SD’s Björn Söder accuses the broadcaster of bias and propaganda and calls for public service broadcasting to be ‘fundamentally reformed’.  (Guardian, 15 September 2022)

21 September: The far-right Brothers of Italy party suspends Calogero Pisano, a candidate in Sicily in the forthcoming general election, after he is found to have praised Adolf Hitler in online posts. (Euronews, 21 September 2022)

21 September: After riot police are deployed at a Brothers of Italy election rally in Palermo Sicily to contain counter-protesters, the Sicilian parliamentary press association accuses protesters of manhandling journalists. The far-right party condemns the government for failing to maintain public order at its rallies. (The Local, 21 September 2022)

25 September: A right-wing coalition of Brothers of Italy, the League and Forza Italia wins the Italian general election with nearly 44 per cent of the vote.  Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, is predicted to become the prime minister. (Euronews, 25 September 2022) 

26 September: The Danish Social Liberal Party threatens to withdraw its support from the ruling Social Democrats if the SD implements the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers there for processing and protection. (Courthouse News, 26 September 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.

15 September: In Ireland, Paul Murphey, TD for People Before Profit, says he was attacked by a group of far-right activists on his way to a housing protest outside parliament where the far Right were attempting to exploit the cost-of-living crisis by holding a ‘lock them in’ rally. (The Beacon, 15 September 2022)

16 September: Under pressure, the Home Office revokes the visa of Hindutva right-wing preacher Sadhvi Ritambhara, known for her anti-Muslim and anti-Christian hate speeches. She was due to speak in Hindu temples in four UK cities. (Middle East Eye, 19 September 2022)

17 September: In Serbia, Europride takes place, despite a previous government ban and threats of violence including a rally in Belgrade days before which united Orthodox priests and far-right nationalists. 64 people are detained. (Guardian, 17 September 2022)

17 September: Thirteen years after his conviction, alongside fellow neo-nazis, for a series of anti-Roma attacks in Hungary that left six dead, Arpad Kiss confesses in a Magyar Nemzet interview. Despite Kiss indicting a wider network of accomplices, including a local Jobbik politician, no commitment to a reinvestigation is made. (Deutsche Welle, 17 September 2022) 

18 September: In Leicester, a Hindutva-inspired march of around 200 men, shouting anti-Muslim taunts, is condemned for echoing the racist actions of the English Defence League, with the police also criticised for their lack of action. (Middle East Eye, 18 September 2022)

20 September: Hindu and Muslim community leaders in Leicester issue a joint statement calling for an immediate end to ‘provocation and violence’ after it emerges that at least 47 people have been arrested, and a Hindu temple vandalised. The Indian High Commission is criticised for its selective condemnation of the violence. (Al Jazeera, 20 September 2022)

23 September: Following the seizure of dozens of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, four men in their twenties with alleged links to the Nordic far Right are arrested in Iceland on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act. (Reykjavik Grapevine, 23 September 2022)

POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

13 September: The Independent Office for Police Conduct announces an investigation into Devon and Cornwall police for alleged breaches of health and safety legislation in the running of firearms licensing unit prior to the Plymouth mass shooting in August 2021 by Jake Davison who harboured extreme misogynistic and homophobic views, as well as an interest in guns. (Guardian, 13 September 2022)

14 September: The Police Federation criticises the mental health charity Mind as ‘opportunistic and insensitive’ for offering counselling to people impacted by the death in custody of Chris Kaba. (BBC News, 14 September 2022)

14 September:  A video of police shouting racist abuse at a Syrian family, including telling them they are ‘guests’ in Germany, while raiding their home in Berlin over an unpaid fine, leads to the suspension of one of the officers involved. (Taz, 14 September 2022)

15 September: New details of the shooting of 16-year-old Mouhamed Lamine Dramé in Dortmund, Germany, rebut the police claim that they acted in self-defence when he ran at them in possession of a knife. Dramé did not pose a threat and was shot before he could react, evidence suggests. (Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 15 September 2022)

16 September: Met intelligence branch officer PC Thomas Phillips, suspended on full pay, is charged with five counts of sending racially offensive messages in breach of the Communications Act 2003. (Independent, 16 September 2022)

17 September: A National Day of Action takes place in London, Manchester Coventry, Southampton and other parts of the country in response to a call from the family of Chris Kaba. (Guardian, 17 September 2022)

19 September: The Metropolitan police are accused of using unnecessary force against demonstrators outside the Brazilian ambassador’s London residence where president Jair Bolsonaro, in the UK for the Queen’s funeral, was delivering a speech rounding on ‘leftists’, abortion and ‘gender ideology’. (Guardian 20 September 2022, Guardian, 19 September 2022) 

20 September: The inquest into the death of Yassar Yaub, 28, shot dead by West Yorkshire police on the M62 in January 2017, begins at Leeds Crown Court and is expected to last eight weeks. (Yorkshire Live, 21 September 2022)

20 September: In France, three police officers are found guilty of the manslaughter of Amadou Koumé, a 33-year-old black man suffering from dementia, who was asphyxiated in the back of a police van in Paris in 2015.  Fifteen-month suspended sentences are criticised by the family as too lenient. (Euronews, 20 September 2022)

21 September: Met police officer Jonathon Cobban and ex-officer Joel Borders are convicted of sharing racist and sexist WhatsApp message with Wayne Couzens, the killer of Sarah Everard, including joking about sexual violence against women and using Taser weapons on children. (Guardian, 21 September 2022)

22 September: In Italy, 25 people, mostly prison guards but including two prison doctors, are placed under investigation for using violence on multiple occasions in 2015 and 2016 against inmates at Ivrea Prison near Turin and falsifying medical reports to cover it up. Prisoners’ rights group Antigone describes it as ‘full-blown torture’. (ANSA, 22 September 2022)

22 September: A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services finds that the Metropolitan police fail to adequately record grounds for stop and search. (Independent, 22 September 2022)

24 September: The family of Oladeji Omishore, a black man who died after being tasered by the Metropolitan police, are finally given access to bodycam footage, three months after his death. (Guardian, 24 September 2022)

24 September: In an open letter to police chiefs in England and Wales, home secretary Suella Braverman directs police chiefs to focus on ‘common-sense’ policing over diversity and inclusion initiatives and ‘symbolic gestures’. (Guardian, 24 September 2022)

27 September: After the president of the National Black Police association says he is ‘baffled’ as to why the new Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley refuses to meet with him, Rowley says it’s ‘nonsense’, as are claims that firearms officers threatened to walk out after the suspension of a colleague. (Guardian, 27 September 2022)

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

26 September: Two men, a Somali citizen and a Norwegian national, are charged with ‘complicity in an act of terrorism’ in relation to the deadly shooting at the LGBTQ Pride Festival in Oslo, Norway, which left two dead and twenty injured. An international arrest warrant is issued for an ‘Islamist’ believed to have fled to Pakistan. (Euronews, 27 September 2022)

DISCRIMINATION | EQUALITIES | HUMAN RIGHTS

14 September: An expert commission set up by the Berlin Senate, Germany, in response to the far-right attack in Hanau in 2020, finds Muslims disadvantaged across all Berlin’s state institutions, with Berlin’s ‘neutrality law’ linked to discrimination in the civil service. (Deutsche Welle, 20 September 2022)

EDUCATION

21 September: The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain launches How can Universities Promote Academic Freedom: Insights from the front line of the gender wars, which recommends that university vice-chancellors appoint academic freedom champions to address an alleged free speech crisis on campus. (Times Higher Education, 21 September 2022)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

18 September: An academic study by University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine finds that Britons of black and south Asian origin with dementia die 2.66 and 2.976 years younger, and sooner after being diagnosed, than white people. (Guardian, 18 September 2022)

26 September: A national survey by the Black Equity Organisation finds seventy-five per cent of black people aged between 18 and 34 have experienced prejudice while visiting doctors and hospitals. The figure is 65 per cent for all Black people living in the UK. (Independent, 26 September 2022)

EMPLOYMENT | EXPLOITATION | INDUSTRIAL ACTION

12 September:  Five hundred African delivery drivers, many undocumented, march on Uber Eats company headquarters in Paris, protesting its decision to discontinue 2,500 worker accounts in France, which the company justified by alleging fraudulent documents, despite having worked with the drivers for years. (Africa News, 13 September 2022)

25 September: As Indonesians wait for offers of promised farm jobs after paying agents up to £2,500, the Association of Labour Providers warn that the planned rapid expansion of the seasonal agricultural workers’ scheme will leave workers vulnerable to exploitation unless there is proper regulation. (Guardian, 25 September 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.

13 September: The German football club Eintracht Frankfurt apologises after being sanctioned by UEFA for the racist behaviour of fans, some of whom gave the nazi salute, during a match with Marseille. (Balkan Insight, 15 September 2022)

15 September: Prior to a UEFA Champions League match between Croatia’s Dinamo and Italy’s Milan, hundreds of supporters of the Croatian club march in Milan giving the nazi salute. UEFA takes no action. (Balkan Insight, 15 September 2022)

15 September: Independent journalist Nadine White says that the online threats and racist abuse she and other Black and Asian journalists, including Metro columnist Natalie Morris, have received for reporting mixed reactions to the death of the Queen has been unlike anything previously experienced. (Independent, 15 September 2022)

20 September: After videos circulate online showing a man pulling down a flag outside a Hindu temple, as well as the promotion of a fake event against Muslim hate crime in a Hindu area, Leicester MP Claudia Webbe says social media organisations like TikTok, Twitter and WhatsApp ‘bear some responsibility’ for the breakdown of trust in Leicester. (Guardian, 20 September 2022)

22 September: The National Centre for Social Research annual survey on social attitudes finds that a majority of the public agree with so called ‘woke’ positions on racial equality, immigration and sexual identity, with 34 percent of Londoners considered socially liberal compared to 19 percent in urban areas outside the capital. (Guardian, 22 September 2022)

22 September: Guardian journalist Aina Khan says she has been subjected to racist, sexist and Islamophobic messages following her reporting from Leicester. (Twitter, 22 September 2022)

24 September: BBC football presenter Alex Scott reveals the level of racist trolling she endures, including receiving death threats after false reports that she was replacing Sue Barker on A Question of Sport, and abuse after Lord Digby Jones criticised her Olympic coverage and suggested she take elocution lessons. (Guardian, 24 September 2022)

27 September: After free expression groups intervene, Paypal reinstates the accounts of Daily Sceptic, the Free Speech Union, as well as its founder Toby Young, having previously shut them down for breach of acceptable use policy. Writing for the Spectator, Toby Young suggests Paypal is siding with trans rights activists. (Telegraph, 27 September 2022)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

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

11 September: A woman is kicked in the leg and pushed by an unidentified male assailant in a racially motivated assault while walking through a tunnel in Derry, Ireland. (Derry Journal, 16 September 2022)

14 September: A man is arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and assault on a police officer at Bury Metrolink tram stop, Greater Manchester. (Manchester Evening News, 14 September 2022)

16 September: A 62-year-old man, found guilty of shouting racist abuse at players taking the knee at a football match between Blackpool and Stoke City in November last year, is given a 3-year stadium ban and a £1353 fine by Blackpool magistrates. (BBC, 16 September 2022)

17 September: Two people are arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated assault on a man they wrongly accused of attempting to abduct a child from a playground in Scartho. Humberside police, called to investigate an alleged child abduction, find that the man had been helping a child who asked for assistance before being subjected to a racist attack. (ITV, 19 September 2022)

18 September: A Runnymede Trust analysis of Home Office data finds record numbers of racially or religiously aggravated crimes in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022, with 4,063 reported assaults with injury and 10,039 assaults without injury, as well as 55,951 public order offences, increases of 45 percent, 32 percent and 17 percent respectively from the previous year. (Eastern Eye, 18 September 2022)

20 September: Middlesbrough Council is forced to apologise and pay £300 to a resident after failing to respond for 18 months to complaints of racial abuse and damage to property caused by two neighbour children, both aged under 10, which the complainant reports ‘had a serious effect on his standard of living and the mental health of him and his children’. (Teesside Live, 20 September 2022)

21 September: Dundee Sheriff Court sentences a 35-year-old man to nine months’ imprisonment for hurling racist abuse, threatening violence with a weapon and spitting in the face of a woman whose car he crashed into at a carwash on 17 October 2020. (Daily Record, 21 September 2022)

26 September: A 19-year-old man from Anglesey admits racially aggravated harassment of a Black security guard at a club in Bangor by making extreme racist comments and following the man into the toilets on three consecutive Friday nights in March. He awaits sentence. (North Wales Live, 26 September 2022)

The calendar was compiled with the help of Graeme Atkinson, Sira Thiam, Oscar Herzog Astaburuaga, 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.