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

Asylum and migration

30 June: A report on the situation of unaccompanied refugee children in Greece and ways to improve it, by the International Rescue Committee and METAdrasi, is published. Read the report here. (Are You Syrious, 19 July 2017)

7 July: The upper tribunal of the immigration appeals court finds ‘a real possibility of bias’ in an immigration judge’s impatient and dismissive conduct of an appeal, and remits the case to a different judge. (Law Mostly, 19 July 2017)

10 July: A study of migrants living in makeshift camps around Calais by l‘Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees reveals that many suffer from diseases such as trench foot, and from chemical burns from washing in contaminated water, for lack of access to clean water and lack of footwear. (AYS, 20 July 2017)

13 July: The Independent Chief inspector of Borders and Immigration publishes a number of reports: Inspection of Country of Origin Information: March 2017 Report, download it here (pdf file, 6mb); An inspection of entry clearance processing operations in Croydon and Istanbul, November 2016 – March 2017, download it here (pdf file, 529mb); An interim re-inspection of Family Reunion applications received at the Istanbul Entry Clearance Decision Making Centre, December 2016 – March 2017, download it here (pdf file, 314mb); A re-inspection of the Administrative Review process, January to March 2017, download it here (pdf file, 564mb) and A short inspection of the Home Office’s application of the good character requirement in the case of young persons who apply for registration as British citizens, February – April 2017, download it here (pdf file, 425mb).

14 July: It is revealed that the Home Office paid £1.8 million in damages in respect of 32 claims for unlawful detention in the past year. (Left Foot Forward, 14 July 2017)

15 July: The mayor of Grande-Synthe, Damien Carême, says he will reinstate the La Linière camp if the state continues to neglect migrants. La Linière, which held 1,500 refugees and migrants, was destroyed by fire in April of this year. (La Voix du Nord, 15 July 2017)

17 July: Nottinghamshire county council suspends its involvement in a voluntary scheme to place unaccompanied asylum seeking children, for lack of funding to care for them. (West Bridgford Wire, 17 July 2017)

19 July: The government confirms it has taken no unaccompanied asylum seeking children this year under the Dubs amendment. (Guardian, 19 July 2017)

20 July: The immigration rules on family reunion are modified to ease the minimum income requirements and to take account of the welfare of children, following a ruling by the Supreme Court in February. (EIN, 20 July 2017)

20 July: The Hellenic Federation of Police Officers publishes an open letter to the Greek migration minister protesting at the prolonged, arbitrary detention of migrant children in police cells in dreadful conditions alongside adult criminals, putting them at risk of abuse. (Human Rights Watch News, EU Observer, 2 August 2017)

21 July: A House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on Brexit and the labour market describes the way the government compiles migration statistics as ‘wholly inadequate for policy making’ and ‘failing to provide an accurate number of migrants entering or leaving’. Read the report here. (EIN, 21 July 2017)

21, 22 July: 35 refugees appear in court after being arrested in Moria camp on 18 July during a protest at the conditions in the camp, and charged with serious criminal offences which could lead to exclusion from refugee protection. Many were beaten and one remains in hospital. Observers say many took no part in the protests. (AYS, 22 July 2017)

22 July: It is revealed that over a hundred child refugees have gone missing in the UK after being referred to UK agencies as possible victims of human trafficking. (Independent, 22 July 2017)

22 July: In the wake of the death of a young migrant, who is crushed by a bus leaving Brussels’ Gare du Nord station, as he attempts to board the bus to travel to Calais, Belgian NGOs accuse the state of failing in its duty of assistance and protection, and renew their call for a migrants’ reception centre in Brussels. (Brussels Times, 26 July 2017)

24 July: Some residents of Semeac, southwest France, build a 60ft long wall around a disused hotel to hinder its use as a migrant shelter. (The Local, 24 July 2017)

24 July: Ethiopian student Aster Abebe accuses the Home Office of racial discrimination after three family members were refused boarding at the gate at Brussels airport and missed her graduation ceremony. (Independent, 24 July 2017)

25 July: Human Rights Watch reports on confiscation of tents and bedding and tear-gassing of migrants including children as they sleep, since the demolition of the Calais ‘Jungle’, in Like Living in Hell: Police Abuses Against Child and Adult Migrants in Calais. (Human Rights Watch, 25 July 2017)

26 July: The Supreme Court rules that the Home Office acted unlawfully in disrupting the marriage of a Lithuanian woman and a Pakistani man and attempting to deport the couple, and tells the Home Office that if it claims fraud and abuse of EU rights, it must prove the allegations. (UK Immigration law blog, 29 July 2017)

26 July: Croatian civil society organisations produce a follow-up report on the increase in arbitrary and unlawful rejections of Syrian and Iraqi refugee claims in Croatia, on undisclosed grounds of ‘national security’. Read the report here. (AYS, 3 August 2017)

27 July: A Kenyan woman wins a challenge against her detention in a punishment room at Yarl’s Wood removal centre for 28 hours with no bedding, in the first ever challenge to the use of segregation in immigration detention. (Guardian, 27 July 2017)

29 July: NGOs including Médecins sans Frontieres, Sea Watch, SOS Mediterranée and Jugend Rettet say they will not sign a new Code of Conduct for rescue ships operating in the search and rescue zone off the Libyan coast, drawn up by the Italian government with European Commission and Frontex, approval, which requires crews to allow armed police to board rescue ships, and bans transfer of those rescued to larger boats, restricting rescue capacity. The NGOs fear their ships will be prevented from carrying out rescues, and accuse the EU and Frontex of letting refugees drown. (Independent, 29 July 2017)

31 July: The French Council of State upholds Lille Administrative Tribunal’s ruling that local authorities must provide access to clean water and install toilets and showers for hundreds of migrants living in inhuman and degrading conditions around Calais, and must organise voluntary departures to reception centres where asylum claims can be lodged. In response, the French government announces the creation of two new reception centres outside Calais. (Reuters, 31 July 2017)

31 July: Human Rights Watch condemns Spain’s reception of asylum seekers, who it claims are routinely detained for 72 hours in ‘dark, dank’ police facilities, including mothers and children. (Human Rights Watch, 31 July 2017)

2 August: German NGO Jugend Rettet’s rescue ship Iuventa is boarded by Italian officials in Lampedusa and detained there, accused of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. (Independent, 3 August 2017)

2 August: The Italian government approves a naval mission to boost the Libyan coastguard in an attempt to reduce the number of migrants reaching Italy’s coast. (The Local, 2 August 2017)

2 August: The number of unaccompanied minors in Greek prisons increases to 117, from only two last November. (EU Observer, 2 August 2017)

3 August: Fisha, a 22-year-old Eritrean, dies after being hit by a number of cars on the A16 just outside Calais after falling from a truck. (Calais Migrant Solidarity, 8 August 2017)

7 August: The German government resumes returning asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin regulation, stopped in 2011 after the constitutional court said conditions in Greece were too bad for asylum seekers. The transfers will only affect those who arrived in Germany since mid-March. (BBC News, 7 August 2017)

8 August: French farmer and activist Cedric Herrou is convicted of helping refugees cross the border from Italy to France, and receives a suspended 4-month jail sentence. He has helped at least 200 migrants over the past year, and has been arrested six times in 2017. He says, ‘If we have to break the law to help people, let’s do it.’ (Al Jazeera, 8 August 2017)

8 August: Fidesz mayors from Zalavár, Keszthely and Héviz, together with MPs, mobilise against a plan by Migration Aid to provide vacations at Hungary’s Lake Balaton for refugees who have suffered trauma after spending weeks in transit zones. Some mayors claim that the ‘violent settlement’ of the families is all part of the ‘Soros plan’. (Budapest Beacon, 8 August 2017)

10 August: Don Mossie Zerai, an Eritrean priest, human right activist and candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize 2015, who set up an organisation providing last-minute, life-saving information to Eritreans attempting to cross the Mediterranean, is charged with facilitating clandestine immigration by the Trapani prosecutor, Italy, for passing on distress calls to rescue NGOs. (The Local, 10 August 2017)

16 August: French authorities in Calais erect 10 portable toilets and 5 taps outside the Secours Catholique centre for the refugees and migrants living in the woods outside the town, following a court order. An official from Secours Catholique describes the facilities as less than minimal and far from adequate, and local authorities say more facilities are planned. (The Local, 16 August 2017)

14 August: Save the Children, Sea Eye and Médecins Sans Frontières suspend sea rescue missions in the central Mediterranean, following repeated clashes with Libyan coastguard vessels on the edge of Libyan waters. Warning shots were fired at the Spanish aid group Proactiva Open Arms. (Guardian, 14 August 2017)

17 August: The Camden New Journal reports on the poor living conditions of 200 asylum seekers who have been housed in two Kilburn mansion blocks by Home Office contractor Clearsprings Ready Homes. (Camden New Journal, 17 August 2017)

19 August: Access to charities’ data on rough sleepers, collated for the Greater London Authority, was given to the Home Office in September 2016, who used it to detain and deport homeless EU and central and eastern Europeans, it is revealed. (Observer, 20 August 2017)

17 August: The Children’s Society publishes new research revealing that thousands of lone migrant children are struggling to pay for legal help with their immigration applications since legal aid cuts came into force. Download the report, Cut off from Justice: The impact of excluding separated and migrant children from legal aid, here. (Children & Young People Now, 17 August 2017)

21 August: The Guardian reports on the plight of asylum seekers forced to live on £36.95 per week. (Guardian, 21 August 2017)

23 August: The Home Office apologises for mistakenly sending letters to up to 100 EU nationals living in the UK ordering them to leave the country or face deportation. (Guardian, 23 August 2017)

23 August: A high court judge states that she is ‘deeply concerned’ that home secretary Amber Rudd has failed to release a detained torture survivor from Chad despite repeated court orders, with no satisfactory explanation. (Guardian, 23 August 2017)

24 August: Official figures reveal that only 4,600 students overstay their visas, compared with Home Office estimates of 100,000 student overstayers, strengthening arguments that students should be omitted from migration statistics. (Guardian, 24 August 2017)

25 August: Irene Clennell, the 53-year-old wife, mother and grandmother of British citizens, who was deported to Singapore in February after three decades in the UK, has been granted a visa to return. (BBC, 25 August 2017)

27 August: Thousands of people protest in Rome against the violent eviction days earlier of hundreds of refugees, mainly Eritreans and Ethiopians, from a self-regulating  refugee commune near Rome’s Termini railway station. International organisations condemn the use of riot police equipped with water cannon and batons, in one of four such evictions since July, justified as anti-terrorism measures. (Guardian, 24, 28 August 2017)

27 August: Samir Bigzad, a 22-year-old Afghan, is temporarily saved from deportation by a Turkish Airlines pilot who refuses to fly with the deportee on board after hearing him shout that he will be killed by the Taliban as three guards try to push him on to the plane. (Independent, 30 August 2017)

28 August: Meeting in Paris, leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Spain agree further deals with Libya, Niger and Chad to stop migrants’ arrival in Europe. Meanwhile, payments to Libyan trafficking militias are identified as a cause of plummeting departures from the Libyan coast. (Joint Statement, Refugees Deeply, 1 September 2017; AP, 29 August 2017)

30 August: The Home Office apologises for telling 21-year-old British born and bred Shane Ridge, who has a British mother and grandmother, that he must leave the country or be detained. (Guardian, 30 August 2017)

30 August: Hungary extends the state of emergency imposed in early 2016, enabling strict border controls, for a further six months, citing the ‘increased threat of terrorism’. (News24, 31 August 2017)

1 September: G4S suspends nine staff members over allegations of racist mockery, abuse and assaults at Brook House immigration removal centre, Gatwick, which houses 500 detainees awaiting deportation. The allegations emerged from an undercover BBC Panorama investigation, to be broadcast on 4 September. (Independent, 1 September 2017)

Anti-fascism and the far Right

21 July: The mayor of Catania, Enzo Bianco, asks the city’s port authorities to deny docking rights to the C-Star, a 40-metre ship hired by the far-Right Generation Identitaire’s Defend Europe campaign, which raised over €75,000 (£67,000) through crowdfunding to disrupt NGO search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean and left Djibouti in early July, because of the threat posed to public order. He considers the boat ‘a provocation by those involved, with their sole purpose being to fuel conflict’. The previous week members of the movement, who travelled to Catania to meet the ship, posed for selfies with Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins, who said she was on the island to uncover the ‘dark truth’ of the migration crisis. (Independent, 22 July 2017)

27 July: Far-right online ‘activists’ are accused of attempting to subvert the governments first LGBT survey by trolling the site with racist and homophobic comments. (Independent, 27 July 2017)

27 July: Nine crew members of C-Star, including the German captain and the Swiss owner, are deported from northern Cyprus for alleged people smuggling after 21 undocumented South Asians are found on board. (Guardian, 27 July 2017)

29 July: Sunderland and Celtic football fans clash in Sunderland as Tommy Robinson, aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon and an ex-leader of the EDL, holds a book signing and sends tweets taunting Celtic fans. A Celtic fan is seriously injured at the book launch. (Herald Scotland, 30 July 2017 and Northern Echo, 31 July 2017)

31 July: A Norwegian anti-immigrant group, Fedrelandet viktigst, posts a photo on its Facebook page of empty bus seats, mistaking them for women in burqas and calling the image ‘scary’ and ‘tragic’. The image is shared widely and the group mocked for its mistake. (Independent, 1 August 2017)

6 August: The C-Star is prevented from docking in Zarzis, Tunisia by local fishermen, who say that blocking the ship ‘is the least [they] can do given what is happening out in the Mediterranean’. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights say it will prevent any attempt by the far-Right crew to dock and take on fresh supplies of fuel, food and water in any Tunisian port, while a port official says they would ‘never let in racists’. (Guardian, 7 August 2017)

6 August: Britain First holds a rally at Belfast City Hall where deputy leader Jayda Fransen vows to organise protests against new mosques being built in Northern Ireland. The rally is timed to coincide with a republican parade marking the anniversary of British internment without trial in Northern Ireland. (Guardian, 6 August 2017)

10 August: The C-Star is saved by an NGO ship after it sends out a distress signal due to engine failure. (Guardian, 11 August 2017)

12 August: One man is arrested and charged with using threatening or abusive words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence, as around twenty Britain First supporters demonstrate in Wolverhampton. (Express & Star, 12 August 2017)

13 August: Anti-fascist campaigners celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the ‘Battle of Lewisham’, where a plaque is unveiled to mark opposition to a NF march in the area. (Goldsmiths News, 14 August 2017)

16 August: Following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Google and GoDaddy drop domain registration for the neo-nazi website the Daily Stormer which published a hate-filled article about Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old trade unionist killed while protesting the rally. American tech companies also move to block, ban or delete white supremacist websites, apps and services, including altright.com, the website of Vanguard America and the Youtube site of the Daily Stormer. GoFundMe immediately removes crowdfunding campaigns set up to help cover the legal fees of James Field, who is accused of driving his car into the counter-protesters at the rally, killing Heyer. (Quartz.com, 16 August 2017)

18 August: A day after the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils which killed sixteen people and injured over 100 more, anti-fascist protesters overwhelm a Falange demonstration against the ‘Islamisation of Europe’. (Sputnik News, 18 August 2017)

21 August: The C-Star mission wraps up with Defend Europe issuing a statement claiming it as a ‘political success’. (Independent, 21 August 2017)

29 August: Web hosting provider Network Solutions removes the neo-nazi chatroom Stormfront from the web. (Guardian, 30 August 2017)

31 August: In the run-up to the German federal elections, Angela Merkel’s response to the ‘refugee crisis’ comes under renewed criticism from Alternative for Germany (AfD), which organises anti-Merkel rallies. As neo-nazis join the rallies, local media report ‘scary, dangerous situations’, with one CDU aide hospitalised after being assaulted at a rally in Vacha, Thuringia. (Guardian, 31 August 2017)

Party politics

24 July: Ukip loses overall control of Thanet district council after a councillor defects to the Tories. (Independent, 24 July 2017)

21 July: A recording is revealed dating from May 2016, of Michelle Brown, a UKIP Welsh Assembly member, making a racial slur about Chuka Umunna MP. (BBC News, 21 July 2017)

11 August: Ukip’s national executive approves as a leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters, who has been criticised for her views on Islam and connections to far-right activists such as ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson. (Guardian, 11 August 2017)

12 August: Mike Hookem quits as Ukip’s deputy whip after the decision to allow Anne Marie Waters to stand, saying he is not prepared to ‘turn a blind eye’ to extremism. (Guardian, 12 August 2017)

Policing and criminal justice

18 July: HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales publishes its: Annual Report 2016–17, download it here.

19 July: A coroner overseeing the inquest into the death of Adrian McDonald, who died after being tasered by Stoke police in December 2014, expresses concerns at delays to proceedings. (Stoke Sentinel, 19 July 2017)

20 July: An inquest jury finds that Sarah Reed, who died at Holloway prison in 2016, ‘killed herself at a time when the balance of her mind was disturbed, but they were unsure whether she had intended to do so’ and other failures in her care ’contributed to her subsequent death.’ (Guardian, 20 July 2017)

20 July: Croydon North MP Steve Reed launches the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill, dubbed Seni’s Law, for Olaseni Lewis, who died in Bethlem hospital after being restrained by police officers. The Bill aims to prevent the authorities from using excessive force against mental health patients. (Croydon Advertiser, 20 July 2017)

20 July: The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on diversity among judges in the courts and tribunals: Judicial Diversity Statistics 2017, download them here.

25 July: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) reveals that the number of people killed in police road chases or shot dead by officers in the past year is the highest since the organisation started collecting figures in 2004. Six people were killed in police shootings in 2016-17, twice the previous year’s total, and the number killed in pursuits rose to 28, from 13 killed in 2015-16. Download Deaths during or following police contact: statistics for England and Wales, 2017/17, here. (Guardian, 25 July 2017) 

26 July: An HM Inspector of Prisons report into the high-security Whitemoor prison finds that 42 per cent of the population is Muslim and two-thirds of prisoners report feeling unsafe. (Wisbech Standard, 26 July 2017)

27 July: The inquiry examining undercover policing finds that since 1968, 144 undercover police officers spied on and infiltrated over 1,000 political groups. (Guardian, 27 July 2017)

28 July: The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary publishes a prevention of future deaths report into the death of Olaseni Lewis, view it here.

29 July: A ‘Justice 4 Daz’ march is held in Nuneaton to remember 32-year-old Darren Cumberbatch, who died nine days after being arrested at a Nuneaton hostel by Warwickshire police. (BBC News, 29 July 2017)

31 July: An investigation is launched by the IPPC after footage of the arrest of a young Asian man in Birmingham shows a police officer apparently kicking and striking the man with a baton. Three police officers are later moved from frontline duties. (Birmingham Mail and Guardian, 31 July 2017)

1 August: Figures show that the Met police uses force against a disproportionately large number of black people, who receive 36 per cent of uses of force although comprising 13 per cent of London’s population. (Guardian, 1 August 2017)

1 August: It is revealed that the IPCC is carrying out investigations into Greater Manchester Police and the conduct of its ‘aggressive’ firearms unit, relating to the deaths of Anthony Grainger, Jordan Begley and PC Ian Terry. (BBC News, 1 August 2017)

3 August: Lynette Wallace, 46, who has terminal cancer, launches an action against the IPCC for a ‘litany of failures’ after delays led it to drop a case against some of the police officers involved in her being stripped her to the waist, assaulted and left for 11 hours handcuffed in a cell at Bridewell police station in Nottingham, while she was heavily pregnant in July 2011. Three officers were disciplined for gross misconduct, and in 2016 the force apologised and settled a claim for damages. (Guardian, 2 August 2017)

3 August: Rashan Charles did not swallow a controlled substance before he died, the IPCC finds. Charles died after being arrested in a shop in Hackney, East London, on 22 July 2017. (Independent, 3 August 2017)

5 August: The Met police announces it will use facial recognition software to scan the faces of people at Notting Hill carnival, even though civil liberties groups believe such an action would be discriminatory. It is later reported that use of the technology led to 35 ‘false matches’ and an ‘erroneous arrest’. (Guardian, 5 August 2017, Sky News, 7 September 2017)

8 August: Met commissioner Cressida Dick defends the force’s record on stop and search and rejects suggestions that it unfairly targets ethnic minorities, saying that it is a necessary tool for officers. (BBC News, 8 August 2017)

14 August: Bristol PC Claire Boddie, pleads not guilty to a charge of common assault of 64-year-old Judah Adunbi in January 2017, who was also tasered during his arrest in Easton. (Bristol Post, 14 August 2017)

16 August: A report into the death of a Lithuanian man at Maghaberry prison in January 2016 finds that he had made a previous attempt on his life of which staff were not informed. (Belfast Telegraph, 16 August 2017)

19 August: Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) publishes its newsletter, issue no. 43, download it here (pdf file, 1.8mb).

20 August: The IPCC refuses to independently examine allegations by Faizah Shaheen, that she was stopped and questioned at Doncaster airport under the Terrorism Act after she was seen (on an outbound flight) reading a book on Syrian art. (BuzzFeed, 20 August 2017)

22 August: The Met police arrest over 290 people in the run-up to the Notting Hill carnival, with raids carried out across London. (BBC News, 22 August 2017)

22 August: Polish man, Daniel Kaizer, wins damages from the Scottish Prison Service for its failure to protect him from Keith Porter, a violent racist, who fractured his skull during an attack in Craiginches Prison in December 2009. (STV, 22 August 2017)

31 August: Statewatch publishes a report: Market Forces: the development of the EU security-industrial complex, download it here.

31 August: The Prison Reform Trust publishes a report: Counted Out: Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in the criminal justice system, download it here.

1 September: The Ministry of Justice Analytical Service publishes: Exploratory analysis of 10-17 year olds in the youth secure estate by black and other minority ethnic groups, download the report and tables here.

Education 

18 July: An Ofsted inspection of Hillsview Academy in Teesville finds that the number of recorded racist incidents had doubled at the ‘inadequate’ school. (Gazette Live, 18 July 2017)

18 July: An Ofsted inspection of Royton and Crompton School in Oldham finds that pupils feel unsafe because of homophobic and racist bullying and that ‘British values’ are not being taught properly. (Manchester Evening News, 18 July 2017)

19 July: A new report finds that black students are 50 per cent more likely to drop out of university, with more than one in ten dropping out before finishing their degree. (Independent, 19 July 2017)

19 July: The inquest into the death of 16-year-old Polish girl, Dagmara Przybysz, who was found hanged at her school, Pool Academy, near Redruth in Cornwall in May 2016, records an open verdict after hearing she had been bullied and racially abused at school. Her family were critical of how long it took to find her and the school’s failure to record her bullying. (Plymouth Herald, 19 July 2017)

21 July: Rachida Serroukh, the mother of a pupil at Holland Park school in London, begins legal action against the school after it bans her from wearing a face veil on its premises. (Guardian, 20 July 2017)

21 July: Requests under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a student at the Glasgow School of Art had his work censored as a result of the Prevent policy. (Index on Censorship, 21 July 2017)

26 July: The High Court rejects a legal challenge to the Prevent counter-extremism duty, ruling that it does not unduly restrict free speech on campus. (Reuters, 26 July 2017)

28 July: Disciplinary action by the Department for Education against all remaining staff in the so-called Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse’ affair is discontinued. Of fifteen staff who faced action, only one has been banned from teaching, while the other fourteen cases have been dismissed, overturned or dropped. (Guardian, 28 July 2017)

1 August: The Department for Education publishes: Diversity and Social Cohesion in Mixed and Segregated Secondary Schools in Oldham, download it here.

3 August: The Department for Education publishes: Safeguarding and radicalisation, download it here.

Employment

19 July: A new study conducted by the Chartered Management Institute shows that only 6 per cent of management jobs are held by ethnic minorities, fewer than half their proportion of the working-age population as a whole. (Independent, 19 July 2017)

26 July: The Supreme Court rules that the government is unlawfully restricting access to justice in imposing fees on employees claiming unfair dismissal or discrimination at employment tribunals. (Guardian, 27 July 2017)

28 July: Contractor Bam Ferrovial Keir (BFK), a joint venture of three construction companies led by Bam Nuttall, is fined over £1 million for safety failures after Slovakian worker Renè Tkáčik, 43, was killed working in a Crossrail tunnel when a section of the tunnel roof collapsed on him in March 2014. (Guardian, 28 July 2017)

7 August: The Resolution Foundation publishes a report, Diverse Outcomes: Living standards by ethnicity, which says that BAME families in the UK earn as much as £8,900 a year less than their white British counterparts. (Guardian, 7 August 2017)

14 August: The TUC finds that black workers with A-levels earn 10 per cent less than their white peers – missing out on an average £1.20 per hour. (TUC, 14 August 2017)

Housing

14 July: A competition to find alternative uses for cladding removed from high-rise blocks is won by architects Reed Watts, who suggest repurposing non-flammable cladding to build temporary homes for Romanian migrant workers. (Dezeen, 14 July 2017)

19 July: Forty migrants’ rights and race relations groups call for a full immigration amnesty for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. In an open letter, the government’s offer of a temporary twelve-month amnesty is criticised by the groups who point out that survivors are sleeping rough and that the fear of coming forward hinders emergency services’ attempts to fully account for the dead. (Radical Housing Network, 19 July 2017)

31 July: Runnymede borough council obtains a high court injunction banning Travellers from setting up camp in any council-owned green and open spaces in the area. (Get Surrey, 31 July 2017)

12 August: Reading council, which provides no pitches for Travellers, spends £100,000 installing ‘anti-traveller’ measures. (BBC News, 12 August 2017)

Health

20 July: The Care Quality Commission publishes The state of care in mental health services 2014 to 2017, download the report here.

31 July: Recording a narrative verdict at the inquest into the death of 22-year-old Beatrice Lovane, the coroner accuses the North West ambulance service of failing to provide ‘the most basic care’. Paramedics told her to ‘stop humiliating herself’ as she suffered a fatal reaction to painkillers from an undiagnosed liver complaint. She later died in hospital in Bury. (Guardian, 31 July 2017)

15 August: The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service says there was a ‘breakdown in communications’ after 120 Indians were unable to give blood at a specially organised event last year following confusion over the need for malaria testing. (BBC News, 15 August 2017)

22 August: NHS doctors in prisons say understaffing and lack of support makes conditions so unsafe they would be closed down outside the penal system, with one doctor for 6,000 patients a year in one prison. (Guardian, 22 August 2017)

31 August: A new joint briefing by Nacro, Clinks, the Association of Mental Health Providers, Mental Health Foundation and the Race Equality Foundation on Race, mental health and criminal justice: moving forward, is available to download here.

Media

21 July: An Iranian illustrator of children’s books is refused a visa to attend Edinburgh International Book Festival and told he has no right of appeal. (Guardian, 21 July 2017)

30 July: Sunday Times columnist Kevin Myers is sacked for an anti-semitic and sexist article after suggesting that BBC employees, Vanessa Feltz and Claudia Winkleman earned more money at the BBC because they were Jewish. (Independent , 30 July 2017)

28 August: The Times starts a political and media storm with a headline ‘Christian child forced into Muslim foster care’, above an inaccurate and inflammatory story of a five-year-old ‘white Christian’ girl crying because her Muslim foster parents did not speak English. The Daily Mail coverage uses a doctored image showing a young girl with a woman in a burqa. (Guardian, 2 September 2017) 

Discrimination

12 July: The government is criticised for delaying until September the publication of an audit examining the treatment of people of different ethnic backgrounds in key areas such as health, education and employment (Independent, 12 July 2017)

17 July: The Orange Order of Scotland is criticised for refusing to condemn a flute band whose members dressed as Hitler and Eva Braun for a fancy dress party, alongside two children wearing yellow stars. (Herald, 17 July 2017)

23 July: The government launches a National LGBT Survey ‘to understand the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people living in the UK.’ Take part here. (This consultation closes on 15 October 2017.)

19 August: Pubs and restaurants in Cromer, north Norfolk close their doors in response to disorder allegedly caused by Irish Travellers refused service, in what former councillor calls ‘old-fashioned racism’. (Guardian, 20 August 2017)

National security

15 July: It is revealed that the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) procedure, whereby prosecutors may seek a tougher sentence for those convicted of crime, is to be extended to cover terrorist offences. (Guardian, 15 July 2017)

20 July: The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation publishes a report on Deportation with assurances, download it here.

20 July: CAGE publishes PREVENT Mythbusters, read them here.

26 July: The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation finds that the UK risks alienating Muslims with its response to terror attacks. (Independent, 26 July 2017)

27 July: A review into Brighton & Hove’s local safeguarding board criticises police, youth and social workers for failing to notice that British Muslim teenagers Abdullah and Jaffar Deghayes, who subsequently died fighting in Syria, were being radicalised. (Guardian, 27 July 2017)

29 August: Just Yorkshire publishes a report: Rethinking Prevent: a case for an alternative approach, view and download it here.

Sport

7 August: Herman Ouseley, chair of the Kick it Out campaign, calls for an inquiry into allegations of abuse made by black footballer, Eni Aluko, against England manager Mark Sampson. (Guardian, 7 August 2017)

19 August: Geoffrey Boycott, 76, alleges that West Indian cricketers receive knighthoods like ‘confetti’ and that he [Boycott] would be likely to get one if he ‘blacked-up’. He later apologises for his ‘unacceptable’ comments. (BBC News, 22 August 2017)

22 August: The Football Association face calls for a fresh investigation after women’s Chelsea footballer Eni Aluko alleges racism and bullying from England manager Mark Sampson. (Guardian, 22 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: attacks on people 

15 July: A woman claims that a man tried to rip off her hijab at Baker Street underground station and then spat at a friend who intervened. (Guardian, 16 July 2017)

17 July: Police release pictures of three men wanted in connection with an attack on a 42-year-old man who was racially abused and attacked with a traffic cone in Bristol on 9 June. (Bristol 247, 17 July 2017)

17 July: A driver racially abuses and then slaps a younger driver causing his glasses to fall from his face in Whitley, Reading. (Reading Chronicle, 27 July 2017)

17 July: Three Chinese women standing on a road in Hounslow are racially abused before having a bottle of water thrown at them, leaving them fearing that they had been attacked with acid. (Get West London, 21 July 2017)

18 July: Two women standing outside a Southampton mosque have water thrown at them by a group of men in a car in a fake acid attack. (Independent, 19 July 2017)

18 July: Avon and Somerset police appeal for information after a man in his 20s sustained facial injuries in an assault by a group of men who got out of two white vans outside Homebase in Worle on 4 July. (Weston Mercury, 18 July 2017)

24 July: Police launch an investigation after a homeless man is racially abused and kicked outside an Ilford shopping centre. (Ilford Recorder, 2 August 2017)

28 July: A woman is racially abused, kicked in the stomach and has her head struck against the pavement during a robbery by a teenage gang, of two boys and two girls, in Clacton. (Clacton and Frinton Gazette, 1 August 2017)

2 August: A refugee in Sombor camp, Serbia, is hospitalised after an attack by knife-wielding Serbian men, according to a local volunteer. (AYS, 3 August 2017)

8 August: An asylum seeker is hospitalised with head injuries after an attack by two 17-year-old boys in Acqui Terme, Italy. (AYS, 31 August 2017)

17 August: Taxi driver Jangeer Ahmed, 50, is racially abused and spat on by teenagers in a Blackburn park in an attack which is filmed and posted online. Two passing female joggers try to unsuccessfully stop the altercation. (Lancashire Telegraph, 19 August 2017)

21 August: Police release pictures of a 6-foot man wanted in connection with a racist attack on a mother and her daughter on a bus in Bootle; the teenage girl was racially abused and her mother was spat on 29 July. (Liverpool Echo, 21 August 2017)

27 August: An Asian man is pushed on to train tracks at Anniesland train station in Glasgow after being racially abused by two men and a woman; he manages to climb back on to the platform where he is assaulted and again racially abused by another man. (Evening Times, 28 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: attacks on property

17 July: Racist graffiti is daubed on pavement at Beddington park in Sutton, reading ‘Moslems out’. (This is Local London, 20 July 2017)

1 August: A traditional Turkish barber’s in Diss is forced to delay its opening after three windows are broken in an attack police are treating as racially or religiously motivated. (Eastern Daily Press, 3 August 2017)

29 August: Graffiti is daubed on walls in east Belfast warning local landlords not to rent properties to non-locals. (BBC News, 29 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: abuse

16 July: Essex police release an e-fit of a man wanted in connection with the racial abuse of a 13-year-old girl after she alighted from a bus in Basildon. (Independent, 16 July 2017)

20 July: A 10-year-old boy is racially abused by a group of four teenagers in Ludgershall, Wiltshire. (Andover Advertiser, 27 July 2017)

29 July: A young girl walking with her mother in Louth is racially abused by an older woman. (Grimbsy Telegraph, 30 July 2017)

3 August: A Muslim couple face racist abuse at a supermarket in Feltham, West London. The incident is captured on film and shared on social media. (Independent, 2 August 2017)

6 August: Six men, thought to be on their way to a football match, chant racial and religious hate songs on a train from Glasgow to Aberdeen. (BBC News, 16 August 2017)

12 August: A mother and her young daughter are racially abused on a Bournemouth bus by a man who insists the woman move her child because he is more entitled to a seat because he is British. (Bournemouth Echo, 16 August 2017)

14 August: Hertfordshire police appeal for information after a 9-year-old boy was racially abused in a Stevenage playground by four teenagers on 12 July. (Hertfordshire Mercury, 14 August 2017)

15 August: It is reported that a group of youngsters make Nazi salutes to a group of Jewish people in Canvey Island. (Canvey Echo, 15 August 2017)

16 August: Police release a picture of a man wanted in connection with the racial abuse of the staff of Chick-O-Land in Winsford, Cheshire on 8 July 2017. (Chester Chronicle, 16 August 2017)

28 August: Police launch an investigation after racist posters targeting Muslims appear in Hanover Square, Bradford. (Just Yorkshire, Telegraph & Argus, 28 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: attacks on religious institutions

16 July: Nasfat Islamic Centre in Newton Heath, Manchester suffers ‘significant damage’ in an arson attack, the third in as many years. (Manchester Evening News, 17 July 2017)

12 August: Counter-terror police investigate after hate mail and suspicious packages are sent to mosques in London, South Yorkshire and the US from near Sheffield. (Guardian, 12 August 2017)

23 August: A pig’s head is left on the doorstep of the Islamic centre in Newtownards, and the following day graffiti is painted on the wall of the building. (BBC News, 24 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: online racism

2 August: Scottish band Young Fathers, which has two black members, is targeted on social media after the band take part in a film made by the National Portrait Gallery on the theme of male image and identity. (Daily Record, 2 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: charges

20 July: Dennis Rich is remanded on a charge of ABH after allegedly squirting a fluid in a racist attack on a man on 6 January. (Wirral Globe, 20 July 2017)

21 July: An unnamed 58-year-old man is charged with six racially aggravated charges following the alleged racial abuse of bus driver in York on 1 July. (York Press, 21 July 2017)

21 July: A 12-year-old boy is charged with racially aggravated assault on a 13-year-old on 24 June at Plant Hill Park, Manchester. (BBC News, 21 July 2017)

26 July: Barry Patrick Toner, 38, is charged alongside David Muldrew, 47, with displaying posters which were threatening, abusive or insulting and intended to stir up hatred, after offensive anti-Muslim posters appeared in Armagh and Newry. (Mid Ulster Mail, 26 July 2017)

28 July: Kerri Hackett, 40, is bailed on charges of disorderly behaviour, common assault, possession of a blade, threats to kill and threats to damage property, and her co-defendant is remanded, after the pair allegedly invaded the home of their Lithuanian neighbours in Dungannon and slashed their car tyres. (Mid Ulster Mail, 28 July 2017)

28 July: Thomas Martinez, 31, pleads not guilty to charges of racially and religiously aggravated harassment following a serious car crash in Newcastle on Eid. (Chronicle Live, 28 July 2017)

16 August: Dennis Rich, 45, is charged with causing ABH in a racially aggravated attack after a man had noxious liquid squirted in to his eyes in January in Seacombe. (Wirral Globe, 16 August 2017)

21 August: Leanne Dawson, 35, is charged with causing racially aggravated distress and using threatening behaviour after an incident at a Tesco Express store in Preston on 19 July 2017. (Lancashire Evening Post, 21 August 2017)

21 August: The CPS announces plans to treat online hate offences as seriously as offences carried out face to face. (CPS, Guardian, 21 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: convictions

3 July: Chichester man Paul Dickenson, 26, is given a 20-month suspended sentence and banned from leaving his home at night after admitting to a ‘pattern of racially motivated offending over a five month period’. (The Argus, 20 July 2017)

11 July: Giulio Vines pleads guilty to racially/religiously aggravated criminal damage for placing bacon on cars owned by mosque worshippers in Cambridge days after he was rebuked for riding his bike near the Omar Faruque Mosque. Vines receives a 12-month conditional discharge and is ordered to pay costs, compensation and a victim surcharge. (Cambridge News, 11 July2017)

20 July: A 26-year old woman pleads guilty to racially aggravated common assault and criminal damage after going into a Bedford care home and accusing a worker of being a terrorist before attacking her and smashing a window; she is ordered to pay compensation to the victim and care home and is given a community order. (Bedfordshire News, 20 July 2017)

24 July: Six years after Afghan migrant Ali Rahimi was hit with a bottle and stabbed 5 times in the chest and back in the Aghios Panteleimonas area of Athens, leaving him with a punctured lung, his attackers are convicted and sentenced to a suspended term of three years’ imprisonment. (Human Rights Watch, 25 July 2017)

26 July: Beverley Atherton, 50, pleads guilty at Furness magistrates’ court to racially aggravated harassment by words of a Slovakian hotel worker in Bowness; she is fined £110, a victim surcharge and costs. (The Mail, 27 July 2017)

27 July: Jake Hammersley, 25, pleads guilty to religiously aggravated common assault, assault by beating and causing racially aggravated fear or provocation of violence after attacking a 29-year-old nurse on her way to treat a patient. The victim’s hijab was pulled from her head and she was punched in the face. The attack also led to a street brawl in Stoke. He was sentenced to 40 weeks in jail. (Stoke Sentinel, 27 July 2017)

27 July: Jade Payne, 27, is found guilty in her absence of racially aggravated threatening behaviour at Ipswich magistrates’ court, and Mark Folan is also convicted of the same offence, after the pair racially abused a Polish pub manager. They were fined and ordered to pay compensation and costs. (Ipswich Star, 27 July 2017)

28 July: David Moffat, 39, pleads guilty to religiously aggravated harassment, alarm and distress after threatening to blow up an Islamic bookshop in Cricklewood and shouting ‘kill all Muslims’. He is sentenced to a 100-hour community order and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge. (Independent, 3 August 2017)

31 July: Terrence Poxon, 58, admits a racially aggravated public order offence, criminal damage and threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place after attacking a Derby taxi driver a week after the Manchester bombing. Poxon smashed the taxi’s windows and racially abused the driver. He is sentenced to 25 weeks in jail. (The London Economic, 31 July 2017)

2 August: The GMB union applauds the conviction of David Evans, sentenced to a 12-month community order, 60 hours of unpaid work and costs and compensation for racial abuse and threats to Krzystof Wysmulski at his Camden workplace over three years. The employer, Veolia, did not take the reported abuse seriously and police only prosecuted after an incident appeared in the media. (Morning Star Online, 2 August 2017)

2 August: Gary Walling, 50, is found guilty of racially aggravated threatening and abusive words or behaviour after two women were racially abused in Furness on 21 April; he is given two 12-week sentences, suspended for 12 months, and a 16 week curfew. (The Mail, 4 August 2017)

3 August: Stefan Davis, 26, admits racially aggravated common assault of a Nottingham shopkeeper and is sentenced to 16 months in prison. (Nottingham Post, 3 August 2017)

7 August: Newcastle man Shaun Murray, 27, is jailed for 10 months after admitting possessing a blade in a public place and racially aggravated threatening behaviour after racially abusing a Muslim taxi driver in Cardiff, telling him to ‘F***ing go back to your own country’ and threatening him with a machete. (Chronicle, 8 August 2017)

8 August: Mark Godfrey, 37, receives a three-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months for racially aggravated assault by beating. He is also fined £90, and must have up to 25 days of rehabilitation. (Hull Daily Mail, 8 August 2017)

11 August: James Evans, 70, is fined £250 after pleading guilty to racially aggravated harassment after sending letters containing racist and anti-Semitic remarks to a Worcester office between June 2016 and January 2017. (CPS, 11 August 2017)

11 August: Connor Gilboy, 21, is jailed for 26 months after admitting racially aggravated assault occasioning ABH and racially aggravated harassment; his co-defendant, Connor Wallace, has 16 months added to an existing sentence for his part in the racist attack on a Tunisian man in Liverpool. (Liverpool Echo, 11 August 2017)

11 August: Shaun Willans is found guilty of racially aggravated common assault and is jailed for 16 months after attacking a Syrian takeaway driver who was left with broken glasses and in need of crutches. (Metro, 11 August 2017)

14 August: Grant Stimpson is found guilty of racially aggravated common assault after racially abusing a member of staff at Finsbury Park Station in February and poking him in the chest; he is ordered to pay £100 in compensation and £1,290 in costs. (Islington Gazette, 21 August 2017)

14 August: Ryan Scott receives a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to a number of offences including a racially aggravated public order offence after attacking a shopkeeper and his son at their Droitwich shop in January 2016. (Worcester News, 14 August 2017)

16 August: A 14-year-old boy pleads guilty to racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated criminal damage and is sentenced to a 9-month referral order for his part in a racist gang attack on a Liverpool takeaway in which staff were racially abused and its window smashed. (Liverpool Echo, 16 August 2017)

17 August: Keegan Jakovlevs, 22, pleads guilty to posting offensive messages on social media following the Manchester Arena bombing. (Manchester Evening News, 17 August 2017)

17 August: Ryan Smith, 21, pleads guilty to racially aggravated harassment and is given four months, suspended for 18 months, 50 hours unpaid work and a restraining order after racially abusing his friend’s elderly mother, within days of being released from prison for racially aggravated criminal damage. (Chronicle Live, 17 August 2017)

17 August: Selby man, Simon Sheppard, 60, is fined £200 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a £30 surcharge after pleading guilty to racially/religiously aggravated harassment. (He claimed political asylum in the US in 2008, with another man, after being found guilty of stirring up racial hatred.) (York Press, 17 August 2017)

18 August: Rhys John Kerry, 24, is banned from all football matches for three years and is fined £400, £620 in costs and £50 compensation after pleading guilty to racial abuse at a Southampton football match. (Hampshire Chronicle, 18 August 2017)

27 August: Tammy Clarke, 39 is given a five-month community order, five month curfew, and ordered to pay costs and compensation after being found guilty in her absence after threatening another woman with a knife and racially abusing her at a bookmakers in Burton, Derbyshire. (Derby Telegraph, 27 August 2017)

Violence and harassment: research and statistics

26 July: The Community Security Trust finds that anti-semitic incidents have increased by a third in the first six months of 2017. (Independent, 26 July 2017)

31 August: The Police Service of Northern Ireland publishes: Incidents and Crimes with a Hate Motivation Recorded by the Police in Northern Ireland: Quarterly Update to 30 June 2017, download here (pdf file, 715kb).