ELECTORAL POLITICS | GOVERNMENT POLICY

23 July: Germany’s governing coalition puts forward reforms to protect its Federal Constitutional Court from political influence from the rising far-right AfD by enshrining its procedures in the constitution. (Deutsche Welle, 23 July 2024)

24 July: To combat ‘Islamic extremism’, Germany’s interior minister closes down the Islamic Centre in Hamburg, its ‘Blue Mosque’ and subsidiaries in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin accusing them of being a front for Iran and pursuing anti-constitutional goals. (Middle East Eye, 24 July 2024)

24 July: MPs and candidates meet the home secretary, security minister and deputy prime minister to discuss intimidation in the run-up to the general election, including incendiary material concerning pro-Palestinian independents on TikTok. (Guardian, 27 July 2024)

24 July: Lord Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence and extremism tells the Jewish Chronicle that a ‘highly aggressive pro-Palestine fringe’ could potentially undermine the democratic process, and has written to the home secretary urging her to investigate whether abuse during the election was a ‘concerted campaign by extremists’.  (Jewish Chronicle, 24 July 2024)

25 July: In an open letter to Keir Starmer, 50 eminent actors, artists and others write that voter ID laws are ‘an attack on the democratic rights of people of colour’, as a poll shows 6.5 percent of ‘voters of colour’ were turned away from polling stations, compared with 2.5 percent of white voters. (Guardian, 25 July 2024)

30 July: Lord Pearson of Ranoch is accused of Islamophobia following a House of Lords speech in which he said that ‘radicals’ plan to ‘take us over through the power of the womb and the ballot box’, claiming that ‘Birmingham and nine other English local authorities will be majority Muslim by 2031’. (Independent, 31 July 2024)

30 July: A day after a knife attack at a holiday club in Southport, Merseyside, leaves three girls aged 6 to 9 dead and many more injured, Reform MP Nigel Farage shares a video on X where he asks whether the security services were monitoring the 17-year-old arrested for the stabbings; why the attack was not being treated as terrorism; and ‘whether the truth is being withheld from us’ (Al Jazeera, 31 July 2024; Hope Not Hate, 31 July 2024)

31 July: The European Commission tells Hungary it must abide by new asylum rules after the Hungarian government says it has no intention of doing so. (EU Observer, 31 July 2024)

1 August: Former counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu accuses Farage of helping to incite the subsequent EDL violence by undermining police and creating conspiracy theories. On questioning from journalists, Starmer refuses to criticise Farage’s comments, while John McDonnell MP calls on the House of Commons standards commissioner to investigate Farage. (Guardian, 1 August 2024; Politico, 1 August 2024; Guardian, 1 August 2024)

1 August: After the Muslim Council of Britain calls on the government to fight Islamophobia and urges mosques to strengthen security in advance of Friday prayers, the prime minister, in response to a question from ITV journalist Shehab Khan, says he will take ‘every step necessary’ to keep Muslim communities safe. (Guardian, 1 August 2024)

1 August: Reform MP Lee Anderson offers a correction after making a Facebook post condemning the use of a Travelodge to house ‘illegal immigrants’ in his constituency, when in fact it was being used to house international NHS nurses and their families. (The London Economic, 1 August 2024)

2 August: Home Office minister David Hanson tells LBC News that while some of those protesting the Southport murders may have ‘far-right opinions’, others may have ‘genuine concerns’ that they should raise ‘with their member of parliament’, or through peaceful protest. (Guardian, 2 August 2024)

3 August: Farage releases a second video challenging Starmer, stating that the violent protests are a ‘reaction to fear, to discomfort, to unease that is out there shared by tens of millions of people’. Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick criticises Farage while defending the Conservatives’ ‘Stop the Boats’ campaign. (Yahoo News, 3 August 2024)

4 August: The Conservative police and crime commissioner for Hampshire, Donna Jones, refuses to back down after she posts a statement online that appeared to justify the far-right riots. She is criticised by former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, whilst Tommy Robinson endorses her comments. (Independent, 4 August 2024)

4 August: Liverpool MP Kim Johnson calls for the parliamentary standards committee and the police to hold Farage to account, saying he is the voice of the EDL in parliament and is using his platform to spread fear and misinformation. (Guardian, 4 August 2024)

5 August: The home secretary rejects calls by former home secretary Priti Patel and other MPs for parliament to be recalled. Farage, condemning the violence, also calls for parliament to be recalled, suggesting that the violence is the result of the ‘soft policing’ of Black Lives Matter events and ‘two-tier policing’ of protests leading to a sense of injustice. (Independent, 5 August 2024) 

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

23 July: Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary is found guilty at Woolwich crown court of directing the banned group al-Muhajiroun and drumming up support online. (Guardian, 23 July 2024) 

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

This section also includes incidents of racial violence and harassment occurring in the context of the far-right riots across the UK. See also media, culture and sport for more information on far-right disinformation on social media related to riots in Southport and other cities.

27 July: The EU adds neo-Nazi group The Base to its terrorist list. While founded in the US The Base is active in countries across Europe including the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands. (Euractiv, 27 July 2024)

 27 July: Thousands of Tommy Robinson supporters join a ‘patriotic’ rally in London and an anti-fascist counter-protest is held, the Met states that 1000 police officers were deployed to keep the two sides apart and nine arrests made, some for racially aggravated offences. A steward at a Trans Pride event is assaulted, and a Stand Up to Racism demonstrator receives head injuries. Videos showing racist and anti-Muslim chants are investigated. (BBC News, 27 July 2024; Independent, 27 July 2024)

27 July: After his London rally, Tommy Robinson is arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly screening a libellous documentary about a Syrian refugee in breach of a high court order. He is bailed, and flees the country. An arrest warrant is issued for his failure to appear at his high court contempt hearing. (Guardian, 28 July 2024; Guardian, 29 July 2024)

30 July: The day after the Southport knife attack, hundreds of far-right supporters, seemingly from outside the area, demonstrate outside Southport’s Grand Mosque, chanting ‘F*** Muslims’, then throw bricks, set cars alight and damage local shops. An estimated 50 police officers are injured in the ensuing violence. (Guardian, 31 July 2024; ITV, 31 July 2024)

31 July: A Holiday Inn hotel housing asylum seekers is targeted in Newton Heath, Manchester, where a man is dragged off a bus and assaulted. In central London, demonstrators chanting ‘Rule Britannia’, ‘Save Our Kids’ and ‘Stop the Boats’ clash with police during an ‘Enough is Enough protest’. Demonstrators outside Potters International Hotel in Aldershot hold placards stating ‘no apartments for illegals’ and ‘deport them, don’t support them’. (Guardian, 1 August 2024; Guardian, 1 August 2024; Manchester Evening News, 31 July 2024; Get Surrey, 1 August 2024)

31 July: Police warn of increasing attraction to terrorism through a fascination with violence, not ideological fanaticism. In 20 percent of cases, terror suspects hold no fixed worldview and ‘flip from searching neo-Nazi material online to searching for Islamist material’. Young people are increasingly susceptible, being exposed to materials created by AI and ‘dehumanising content’ including extreme pornography. (BBC, 31 July 2024)

1 August: As the Guardian reports that at least 19 far-right rallies are planned across England in the next few days under the banner ‘Enough is Enough’ and ‘protect our kids’, Mosque Security says that more than 100 mosques have requested help. (Guardian, 1 August 2024).

1 August: In Hartlepool, County Durham, far-right protesters set fire to a police car and smash the windows of a shop, with footage showing an Asian man being punched in the face. (Guardian, 1 August 2024; Standard, 2 August 2024)

1 August: Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken warns that far-right activist Tommy Robinson is not welcome in Glasgow after he posted about a ‘pro-UK’ rally in George Square next month. (BBC, 1 August 2024)

2 August: In Sunderland, a far-right protest targeting a mosque quickly descends into violence, looting and arson, with Filipino nurses covering emergency shifts at the hospital left terrified after their taxis were pelted. A neighbourhood police building and the office of the Citizens Advice Bureau are set alight. Sunderland Central Labour MP Lewis Atkinson blames outsiders, the EDL and its offshoot, North-East Infidels, and praises the local community for clearing up after the far Right. (Guardian, 3 August 2024; BBC, 3 August 2024; Birmingham Live, 4 August 2023)

2 August: Hours before a far-right demo in Liverpool, a Muslim man stabbed at Crosby Railway station in Merseyside by a white male perpetrator is treated for a minor hand injury. British Transport police do not say whether they are treating the incident as racially aggravated. (Liverpool Echo, 2 August 2024; Metro, 2 August 2024)

2 August: Imam of the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool, Adam Kelwick is widely praised for responding to far-right protests by offering free food and drink and a peaceful space in and outside the mosque. The Spellow Hub Library, which helps people into work, is set on fire, as are food banks. (X, Taj Ali, 3 August 2024; Liverpool Echo, 3 August 2024; Independent, 5 August 2024)

2 August: After a joint statement from Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders is read outside Southport Mosque, the mosque’s chair says he feels like ‘the luckiest man in the whole country’ for the support from the local community, who cleared up after the far-right riot and rebuilt a damaged wall. (BBC, 2 August 2024)

3 August: Greater Manchester police issue a dispersal order across the city centre to assist police in dealing with a far-right protest and an anti-fascist counter-mobilisation. Legal observers for the anti-fascist contingent say police threatened to arrest them for monitoring a kettle. (Guardian, 3 August 2024; Green & Black Cross Manchester on X, 4 August 2024) 

3 August: Footage shared on social media shows a black man being knocked to the ground and kicked by a large group of white men, one of whom is wrapped in an England flag, in a Manchester park during an ‘Enough is Enough’ protest. (Mirror, 5 August 2024; Independent, 5 August 2024)

3 August: Following a ‘Unity over Division’ rally at Belfast city hall and a far-right counter-protest, far-right rioters advance towards the heavily protected Belfast Islamic Centre, then veering off to attack ethnic businesses, asylum hotels and a shisha cafe. Violence continued overnight. Before the march they threatened to ‘to block roads using women and children’. (Irish News, 3 August 2024; Daily Mail, 2 August 2024; BBC, 5 August 2024; RTE, 3 August 2024)

3 August: In Hull, a far-right mob attacks the Royal Hotel in Ferensway, believed to accommodate asylum seekers, and clash with police. Styling themselves ‘Patriotic Protesters’, they chant ‘England’, ‘We Want our Country Back’ and ‘Stop the Boats’. (The Hull Story, 3 August 2024)

3 August: The RMT trade union reports that ‘National Front Rights for Whites’ stickers are discovered at a railway station that, once removed, have razor blades stuck to them. (X, RMT, 3 August 2024)

⚠️ SAFETY ALERT
It has been brought to our attention that dangerous stickers have been discovered at a railway station that, once removed, have razor blades stuck to them.
Please take extreme care and do not attempt to remove them. pic.twitter.com/ix9dDTzGDv

— RMT (@RMTunion) August 2, 2024

3 August: In Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, ten people are arrested during clashes between the far Right and counter-protesters involving violence outside the Darul Falah mosque. (Stoke Sentinel, 4 August 2024)

4 August: The prime minister puts police on a national emergency footing and the home secretary announces additional support for mosques via the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme. According to the National Police Chiefs Council, at least 147 people were arrested in riots in major cities on Saturday 3 August, including Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Hull and Stoke. (Independent, 4 August 2024)

4 August In Manvers, Rotherham, a far-right mob draped in St George’s flags and chanting ‘Yorkshire’ storm a Holiday Inn Express hotel believed to house asylum seekers and set it alight. In Middlesbrough, 300 far-right sympathisers gather at the Cenotaph chanting ‘We want our country back’ and carrying a banner stating ‘Tom Jones is Welsh, Axel Rudakubana isn’t’, then rampage through the town smashing cars and windows. (Independent, 4 August 2024; BBC, 5 August 2024)

4 August: In Tamworth, Staffordshire, a mob smashes into a Holiday Inn housing asylum seekers and attempts to set it on fire, throwing a burning bush into the entrance and throwing petrol bombs at the police. Five days previously, local Labour MP Sarah Edwards named the hotel in parliament, saying ‘residents want their hotel back’. (Daily Mail, 4 August 2024; X, Minnie Rahman, 4 August 2024.

4 August: Tell Mama reports that from 26 July to 2 August, there has been a fivefold increase in threats to Muslims, such as rape and death threats, and a threefold increase in hate crime incidents, with Muslims ‘terrorised’ by extreme-right activity, and ten mosques attacked or threatened. (Guardian, 4 August 2024)

4 August: Footage shows far-right rioters in Hull dragging an Asian man out of his car and smashing it up whilst racially abusing him. (Metro, 4 August 2024)

5 August: During the second night of far-right rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a man in his 50s is hospitalised with a serious condition after his head is stamped on in an attack that is treated as a hate crime. Petrol bombs and missiles are thrown at the police, as rioters attempt to torch a café, a supermarket and several cars. (Guardian, 6 August 2024; Sky News, 6 August 2024; Belfast Telegraph, 6 August 2024)

 5 August: Neil Basu, former head of counter-terrorism policing, calls for the worst of far-right violence to be treated as terrorism. (Guardian, 5 August 2024)

5 August: Trades unions including ASLEF, Unite, Unison, the CWU and the RMT call on branches to mobilise their members against the far Right and to offer protection and solidarity to mosques and refugee centres. (Morning Star, 6 August 2024)

5 August: At least 39 immigration law specialists, asylum support organisations and immigration services across England are identified as targets for far-right violence in the coming days on a list circulated on social media. (Independent, 5 August 2024)

6 August: A young boy is attacked in one of several racially motivated hate crimes in Belfast, as far-right violence includes the hijacking of a car driven into the front of a North Belfast estate agent’s believed to be renting homes to asylum seekers. (BBC, 7 August 2024; Irish News, 7 August 2024)

7 August: Tens of thousands of anti-racists turn out across the country in peaceful rallies to protect asylum hotels, advice centres and other sites on the far-right’s target list, and in most places the far Right fails to appear. (Reuters, 7 August 2024; Independent, 8 August 2024)

POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

22 July: For the first time, a Slovakian court in Bratislava finds the police guilty of race discrimination against Romani communities, in a groundbreaking civil case brought against the interior ministry by a victim of police brutality in Vrbnica. The court orders damages of €2,000 to be paid to each of the six plaintiffs and a for public apology to be made on the ministry’s website. (European Roma Rights Centre, 22 July 2024)

23 July: The Roma children taken into care on 18 July, sparking unrest in Harehills, Leeds, are returned to members of their extended family. A group of Muslim men tell the Observer of how they stepped in to calm a potential anti-police ‘riot’. (Guardian, 23 July 2024; Guardian, 28 July 2024)

23 July: A video of 19-year-old Muhammed Fahir, lying prone and being kicked and stamped in the head by an armed police officer at Manchester airport prompts world-wide outrage and triggers an investigation by the IOPC and suspension of the officer, who faces a criminal investigation and disciplinary hearing for potential gross misconduct. (Guardian, 25 July 2024)

26 July: After two nights of street protests in Rochdale and Manchester about police violence, Muhammed Fahir’s family calls for ‘calm in all communities’, and emergency meetings are held between ‘Muslim community leaders’, police and senior local politicians to prevent tensions in Rochdale being inflamed by ‘nefarious actors’ such as Tommy Robinson and Reform MP Lee Anderson. (Guardian, 26 July 2024; Guardian, 27 July 2024)

26 July: Nine civil liberties and racial justice groups sign an open letter to the new government calling for meaningful protection against police facial recognition technology, which the groups point out is the subject of no law and has never been debated in Parliament. (Statewatch, 26 July 2024)

28 July: A new video shows a violent build-up at Terminal 2 of Manchester airport in the lead up to Muhammed Fahir’s arrest, in which a female officer allegedly had her nose broken and for which Fahir and three others face charges of affray and assault. Fahir’s lawyer says the media are trying to discredit Fahir and move the focus away from police brutality and misconduct. (Guardian, 28 July 2024; Guardian, 29 July 2024)

28 July: A report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies calls for Labour to reform the law on joint enterprise, which causes ‘systemic injustice’. (Guardian, 28 July 2024)

28 July: Greater Manchester Police refers itself to the IOPC after suspending eight officers from Bury and Rochdale and placing an officer on restricted duties in a case seemingly related to previous suspensions and the use of offensive language and racially discriminatory behaviour. (Guardian, 29 July 2024)

29 July: A hearing is set for the appeal of two Met police officers against their dismissal for gross misconduct in October 2023 over their wrongful arrests of Olympian Ricardo dos Santos and his partner Bianca Williams, after £150,000 was raised for them online. (BBC News, 29 July 2024)

30 July: Irish police issue a banning order against Leon Bradley, a recent anti-immigrant election candidate in Ballymun-Finglas, Dublin, ordering him to stay away from the former Crown Paints factory in Coolock, where recent anti-asylum protests took place. (Irish Independent, 30 July 2024)

31 July: The Court of Appeal grants leave to appeal to seven defendants convicted of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm on the basis of social media chats following a prosecution relying on stereotypes about Blackness and gang culture (‘The Manchester 10’). (Garden Court Chambers, 1 August 2024)

1 August: Following submissions from the media, principally the Daily Mail, a Liverpool crown court judge rules that is it in the public interest to lift the anonymity of the 17-year-old boy arrested for the Southport murders, citing a risk of ‘mischief-makers’ spreading ‘disinformation in a vacuum’. Merseyside Police & Youth Justice Team oppose the lifting of reporting restrictions. (Guardian, 1 August 2024; X, Sangita Myska, 1 August 2024)

1 August: The prime minister announces a new ‘violent disorder capability’ gathering intelligence on ‘extremist troublemakers’ across the ‘ideological spectrum’. Sited in the operations centre of the National Police Chiefs Council, it will share intelligence, deploy facial recognition technology more widely and take preventive action. Rioters could be handed criminal behaviour orders. (Guardian, 1 August 2024; Guardian, 1 August 2024; Irish Times, 1 August 2024)

1 August: The first progress report on the Police Race Action Plan, introduced across England and Wales in May 2022, shows that Black people are still more likely to be stopped, searched and arrested or have force used against them. (Police Professional, 1 August 2024)

1 August: Former undercover police officer Trevor Morris tells the Spycops inquiry that smearing people like the Lawrence family is the job of the security services, after which the inquiry’s live feed is immediately cut. (Independent, 2 August 2024)

1 August: Security concerns relating to the Paris Olympics have seen the legalisation of algorithmic surveillance, a system that utilises AI to carry out real time behaviour analyses in order to anticipate suspicious acts. The technology, described as a ‘violation of the right to privacy’ by Amnesty International, is fuelled by biases against certain populations. (Guardian, 1 August 2024)

3 August: Big Brother Watch warns that the prime minister’s plan to expand the use of live facial recognition technology represents the ‘effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces’, with others warning of its increased use at railway stations and other transport hubs. (Guardian, 2 August 2024)

🚨BREAKING🚨

PM announces plan for increased use of Orwellian facial recognition

The alarming pledge to roll out facial recognition in response to recent disorder is a pledge to plunder more police resources on mass surveillance that threatens rather than protects democracy. pic.twitter.com/68mgUuaSOQ

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) August 1, 2024

3 August: West Yorkshire police announce that they have made 27 arrests in connection with the disorder in Harehills, Leeds, on 18 July following the forcible removal of five Romani children from their parents by social workers and police officers. (European Roma Rights Centre, 5 August 2024)

3 August: The Police Service of Northern Ireland bans ‘emblems’ after a TSG officer policing an anti-racist rally in Belfast is filmed wearing a patch worn by far-right US militia the Three Percenters. (Irish Times, 6 August 2024)

ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP

Asylum and migrant rights

23 July: A report from After Exploitation shows that fewer than five non-British trafficking victims were awarded compensation between January 2023 and June 2024, with over 8,000 victims identified in 2023. A FOI reveals that of the 17,004 referrals to the NRM in 2023, 2,018 were not first referrals, as many potential victims of trafficking lose touch with the NRM after seeking support. (Independent, 23 July 2024; Guardian, 25 July 2024)

23 July: The government lifts the ban on asylum claims and leave to remain imposed by the Illegal Migration Act 2023, allowing refugees arriving by small boat to have their asylum claims processed and to be granted settlement and citizenship. (Right to Remain, 26 July 2024)

23 July: Refugee support and aid groups criticise the German authorities for not processing asylum claims from Palestinians through use of a clause in the Asylum Act allowing suspension in ‘temporarily uncertain situations’. Over 1,200 Palestinian asylum seekers are affected. (digit.so.36, 23 July 2024)

25 July: The European Commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report gives a damning verdict on the rule of law in Hungary, saying no progress has been made on the 2023 recommendations including fostering safe civic space and repealing a 25 percent tax on financial support received by organisations that facilitate immigration. (ECRE, 2 August 2024)

26 July: A House of Commons library briefing on asylum seekers’ right to work points out that Labour, who in opposition said the threshold should be reduced to six months, made no mention of this in its manifesto or since. (EIN, 26 July 2024)

27 July: Immigration lawyers write to the Home Office expressing ‘great concern’ over the failure to push back the 31 December deadline for the transition from Biometric Residence Permits to eVisas. Four million UK residents face becoming undocumented as applications to access the new eVisas are delayed until ‘later in 2024’. (Guardian, 27 July 2024)

 28 July: The Home Office settles legal challenges to the policy of deporting trafficking victims to their home countries to recover from the effects of exploitation and to the operation of an unpublished policy obstructing victims from obtaining leave, meaning that thousands of victims may now have the right to recover in the UK. (Guardian, 28 July 2024)

30 July: The home secretary announces the government’s support for the retention of the £38,700 salary threshold for skilled workers’ visas, as she commissions the Migration Advisory committee to review the £29,000 minimum income requirement for family and partner visas and an ‘over-reliance’ on international recruitment in IT and engineering. (EIN, 30 July 2024)

30 July: A new Afghan Citizen’s resettlement Scheme Pathway 1 Stage 2 enables families separated during the Kabul military evacuation in 2021 to apply to be reunited, from today until 30 October 2024. (EIN, 30 July 2024)

1 August: The EU Commission endorses the ‘offshoring’ deal between Italy and Albania, whereby refugees rescued in the Mediterranean will be sent to two centres in Albania for the processing of their asylum claims. (EU Observer, 2 August 2024)

 2 August: A new campaign, Justice for Sponsored Workers, is launched to combat the system of tying visas to employer-sponsors, which campaigners say is used to ‘effectively traffic workers into exploitative situations and leave them languishing in slavery-like conditions’. (Migrant Rights Network, 2 August 2024)

Borders and internal controls

22 July: The Greek coastguard denies Turkey’s claim that it ‘pushed back’ a boat carrying migrants north of Lesbos into Turkish waters, calling its action a ‘detection and prevention of illegal entry into Greek waters’. (Middle East Monitor, 22 July 2024)

23 July: Refugees from Syria, Iraq, Congo, Morocco, and other countries, whose suffering as they travelled through the EU borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland was exposed in a Belarus 1 TV channel documentary, appeal to the UN and the International Organisation for Migration for protection. (Belta, Eng. 23 July 2024)

26 July: Poland’s parliament passes a law allowing border guards to use live ammunition ‘preventively’ or ‘in self-defence’ against those crossing the border irregularly, in the face of  threats to their safety or ‘to the country’. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 August 2024)

28 July: A woman dies in the Channel while attempting to reach safety in the UK in an overcrowded boat. One of four people taken off a boat carrying 75 passengers, she is reportedly ‘unconscious’ at the point of rescue and is declared dead soon after arrival at the hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. (BBC, 28 July 2024; InfoMigrants, 29 July 2024)

29 July: The British National Crime Agency arrests a 29-year-old Egyptian national in Manston, Kent, in relation to the death of a woman in the Channel on 28 July. (InfoMigrants, 31 July 2024)

30 July: The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency issues a critical report on fundamental rights violations at borders, singling out Hungary, Croatia and Greece for their failure to effectively investigate ill-treatment and loss of life at their borders. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 August 2024)

Reception and detention

23 July: The Home Office announces that its contract with the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge, which houses 400 asylum seekers, will end in January 2025, though a Downing Street spokesperson cannot say where those on the barge will go in January. (Guardian, 23 July 2024)

23 July: The High Court hearing begins of a legal challenge to the ‘prison-like’ conditions at the remote former RAF Wethersfield asylum accommodation in Essex, and the inadequate screening which results in vulnerable torture and trafficking survivors being sent there, sometimes for months. (Independent, 23 July 2024)

26 July: A crisis unfolds in Diego Garcia as 21 men attempt a mass suicide. For three years, 64 Tamil asylum seekers have been held in a fenced-off camp the size of a football pitch, guarded by G4S guards, while awaiting a decision to bring them to the UK. (Guardian, 26 July 2024)

30 July: A new report by Amnesty International claims that asylum seekers are subjected to unlawful detention and substandard conditions at the EU-funded ‘Closed Controlled Access Centre’ on Samos, Greece. (Amnesty International, 30 July 2024)

2 August: In a mass claim by 96 people of illegal detention and ill-treatment at Manston immigration centre, a court ruling acknowledges that all those held over 24 hours were unlawfully detained. A hearing is scheduled for October to ‘explore settlement’. (Guardian, 3 August 2024)

4 August: The chief inspector of prisons warns of a ‘worrying deterioration in safety’ at the UK’s eight immigration detention centres, where people are held for months and years, often then released back into the community. In official inspections, all eight were found to have failings in the most serious categories. (Observer, 4 August 2024)

Deportations

24 July: The EU’s migration commissioner says that EU trade and international development aid should be ‘leveraged’ more often to force third countries to accept the return of rejected migrants, following suggestions by 15 member states of ‘returns hubs’ outside the EU where deportees can be sent while awaiting repatriation to their countries of origin. (EU Observer, 25 July 2024)

24 July: The government redirects flights scheduled for Rwanda to deport 46 rejected asylum seekers to East Timor and Vietnam – the first deportation flights to Vietnam since 2022 and the first ever to East Timor. (Independent, 26 July 2024; (InfoMigrants, 26 July 2024)

25 July: The annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board raises concerns about an incident where an Albanian patient in a secure psychiatric hospital was taken directly from his bed, forced to wait seven hours in a van, then put on a plane to Albania. It finds that deportation flights to Albania fall short of fair and humane treatment ‘in all respects’, including a fourfold increase in the use of restraints. (Guardian, 25 July 2024)

26 July: Immigration enforcement arrest five male migrants from Lithuania and Malaysia at a car salvage yard in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where they sleep and work for £2.50 an hour. Three are held in immigration detention to be deported while the other two agree to leave voluntarily. (BBC, 26 July 2024)

26 July: The UNHCR accuses the Cyprus authorities of forcibly removing 25 migrants to a ‘buffer zone’ and denying them access to asylum procedures. (Cyprus Mail, 26 July 2024)

1 August: Yusuf Deen Kargbo, who was roommate to Leonard Farruku on the Bibby Stokholm barge and a key witness to his death, is arrested and held for deportation, which is halted after an intervention from Farruku’s family’s lawyers. (Guardian, 2 August 2024)

EDUCATION

Although we do not cover student protests for Palestine, we do track university administrative measures that deny the right to protest and authorise the use of force, or silence pro-Palestinian voices and display anti-Palestinian bias.

23 July: Cambridge University is to review its investment policy in response to recent Palestine solidarity protests. (Middle East Eye, 23 July 2024)

23 July: The National Audit Office estimates that the Department for Education (DfE) spent £9.2 billion in 2023-24 but concludes that it ‘cannot demonstrate it is achieving value for money in its efforts to close the attainment gap’. The Education Policy Institute calls for the introduction of student premium funding at sixth form to match that in the rest of the school system. (TES, 23 July 2024; TES, 23 July 2024)

25 July: The government publishes data of ‘initial teacher training performance profiles’, showing there were 3,409 (12.7 percent) fewer trainee teachers than in 2017/18. Trainees of Asian, Black and Arab heritage dropped out at higher rates than white teachers (7 percent), with African (12 percent) and Chinese (15 percent) heritage trainees particularly badly affected. (TES, 25 July 2024)

25 July: Government data on pupil absence shows that, although the overall absence rate across all schools (7.4 percent) is slightly lower than last year, it continues to exceed the level (4.7 percent) in the last full academic year before the Covid pandemic. Students on free school meals continue to have much higher absence (11.1 percent) and persistent absence (36.5 percent) rates. (TES, 25 July 2024)

26 July: The government halts the commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 introduced by the Conservatives, in order to ‘consider other options’. (Guardian, 26 July 2024)

29 July: Sheffield University forcibly closes the pro-Palestine encampment set up on its campus three months ago after obtaining an eviction order. (X, Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine, 1 August 2024)

They came at us at 5am this morning. Our camp is officially evicted. https://t.co/TXEvZQA7Az pic.twitter.com/cSLDpr45Ju

— Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine (@palestine_sccp) August 1, 2024

1 August: The University of St Andrews removes its rector from her roles on the governing body and as a trustee, saying her letter condemning Israeli war crimes ‘risked generating antisemitic sentiment’. Stella Maris, who describes herself as a ‘young, neurodiverse black woman with limited financial resources’, will retain her role as rector. (THE, 1 August 2024)

1 August: 770 artists and public figures sign an open letter accusing the  Royal Academy of ‘dehumanising Palestinians’ after it removed the work of  two young artists who responded to  Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The artworks were removed  after the Board of Deputies of British Jews alleged  that three works showed ‘antisemitic tropes and messaging’. (Art Review, 1 August 2024)

1 August: A survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) finds that 36 percent of Black staff in academia have faced ‘overt racism or discrimination’ in their career, while 81 percent of those surveyed feel that they ‘face particular challenges as a Black academic’. (THE, 1 August 2024)

5 August: A group of ten medical students from the destroyed Al-Azhar University in Gaza are granted permits to complete their studies at the University of Oslo following intervention by the Norwegian government. (THE, 5 August 2024)

HOUSING | POVERTY | WELFARE 

31 July: Studies by the LSE reveal that low-income families affected by the benefit cap live on as little as £4 per person per week, often trapped in squalid and unaffordable rented properties. Two-thirds of capped families are single parents with young children. (Guardian, 31 July 2024)

1 August: NACCOM and Homeless Link publish a policy briefing, Vital solutions to ending migrant homelessness, showing the scale of destitution and homelessness caused by immigration rules and policies. The autumn 2023 rough sleeping count found that 27 percent of rough sleepers were non-British citizens. (Homeless Link, 1 August 2024)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

23 July: A Guardian investigation shows that births of babies to Black mothers are almost twice as likely to be investigated for potential NHS safety failings. For every 1000 deliveries by Black women, there were 2.3 investigations, compared to 1.3 for white women. (Guardian, 23 July 2024)

23 July: It is revealed that an aid operation to evacuate 32 injured children from Gaza to Germany for medical treatment, supported by 40 organisations across the country, was vetoed by the Foreign and Interior ministries for security reasons. Seven of the children have reportedly since died. (digit.so.36, 23 July 2024)

EMPLOYMENT | EXPLOITATION | INDUSTRIAL ACTION

25 July: JCWI produces Work it out: advancing migrant workers’ rights, examining how immigration restrictions undermine migrants’ safety and dignity at work; the role of unions; and the importance of building solidarity across the labour and migrant rights movements to advance workers’ rights. (JCWI, 25 July 2024)

🚨 NEW REPORT

“Work It Out: Advancing migrant workers’ rights” is out today.

All workers need decent pay, safe workplaces and the means to change jobs and get support if they need it, no matter what papers they hold. This is how to get there. https://t.co/vbPzKzP6ie

— JCWI (@JCWI_UK) July 25, 2024

27 July: Staff members at University and College Union (UCU) announce that they will take continuous strike action from 2 September unless UCU resolves racism disputes and ‘broken’ industrial relations. (THE, 27 July 2024)

31 July: Unison members at Lewisham Council vote for a strike ballot, accusing the Council of institutional racism and union-busting over job cuts and the service of redundancy notices to union activists. (Standard, 3 August 2024)

31 July: In Monastir, Sardinia, a 39-year-old man is arrested for exploiting at least 5 migrants as farmhands, denying them food and adequate lodgings and only paying them €5 per hour for up to 10 hours of work. The migrants were recruited from the local temporary hosting centre (CAS). (InfoMigrants, 1 August 2024)

2 August: The British Army issues a formal apology to Kerry-Ann Knight, a soldier used in a recruitment drive for ethnic minorities and subjected to racist and sexist abuse over twelve years, and pays her a substantial sum in settlement of her claim that she was forced out by racist and sexist harassment. (Guardian, 2 August 2024)

CULTURE |  MEDIA | SPORT

24 July: The far-right Compact magazine, banned by the German interior minister on 16 July on the recommendation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, lodges an appeal at the Leipzig Federal Administrative Court. (Deutsche Welle, 25 July 2024)

24 July: Adidas offers an apology to Bella Hadid after facing accusations of conflating pro-Palestinian activism with terrorism following its decision to pull her campaign for the SL72 trainers. Hadid is reportedly speaking to her lawyers about her options. (Guardian, 24 July 2024)

24 July: The European Commission asks Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni to guarantee the independence and funding of Italy’s public broadcaster amid concerns that Meloni is turning it into a ‘government megaphone’. Concerns have been raised since Meloni’s Brothers of Italy took power in 2022 and escalated into a strike in May by journalists at Rai, who allege ‘suffocating control’ from the Italian government. (Guardian, 24 July 2024)

29 July: Police urge the public not to engage in speculation about the identity of the 17-year-old youth arrested in connection with the Southport killings, saying a name circulating online is incorrect. Liverpool Region Mosque Network warn on X that a minority is using this ‘inhumane act’ to spread hatred against Muslims. (BBC News, 29 July 2024) 

29 July: In Germany, around 700 people gather to protest a planned book reading by far-right Austrian author Martin Sellner, a key figure of the ‘Identitarian movement’ and a proponent of ‘remigration’ theory, a plan for the mass deportation of ‘non-assimilated’ Germans. (DW, 29 July 2024)

30 July: Anti-fascist social media researchers identify the main actors in the ‘Enough is Enough’ Southport riots: Patriotic Alternative’s Wales regional organiser, Joe Butler (aka Joe Marsh), who has convictions for stabbing football fans and women; EDL supporter Danny Tommo (aka Daniel Thomas), who posted a hate video on Youtube entitled ‘Get ready. We’re making plans’; Tommy Robinson, who said on X ‘They’re replacing the British nation with hostile, violent, aggressive’; Andrew Tate; and a Telegram user who established a ‘Southport Wake Up’ Telegram chat group and publicised the location of the mosque. (X, Red Flare, 30 July 2024; X, Searchlight, 29 July 2024; Al Jazeera, 31 July 2024; Hope Not Hate, 31 July 2024)

30 July: A Channel 4 News analysis of online disinformation and the Southport riots establishes that 49 percent of traffic on X referencing ‘Southport Muslim’ came from the United States, with only 30 percent coming from Britain. The rumour that the suspect was Ali Al-Shakti, an asylum seeker (who had arrived by boat and was allegedly on an MI6 watch list) was amplified by the fake news site, Channel3News Now, which later apologised and took the story down. (Channel 4 News, 30 July 2024)

31 July: Southport MP Patrick Hurley denounces a ‘swirling morass’ of social media ‘lies’ and false rumours about the identity of the 17-year-old arrested for the fatal stabbings of three children, for fuelling a night of far-right violence. (Guardian, 31 July 2024)

1 August: At a press conference following the far-right riots in Southport, the prime minister warns social media companies that they must uphold laws that prohibit the incitement of violence online. (Reuters, 1 August 2024)

1 August: A letter signed by more than 200 people in the TV and film industry, including former BBC director of TV Danny Cohen, accuses the BBC of antisemitism. The letter states that ‘Jews don’t count’ to the BBC and that incidents against ‘any other minority’ would be met with zero tolerance by the broadcaster. (BBC, 1 August 2024)

2 August: Experts warn that AI is utilised to drive the resurgence of far-right violence in the UK, including the use of platforms like Suno to create AI-generated songs referencing the Southport stabbings and xenophobic content. Bot networks are also being used on platforms like TikTok in order to promote material encouraging protests and riots. (Guardian, 2 August 2024)

2 August: GB News is criticised by Brendan Cox, husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, after the channel posted a poll asking ‘Are the left elite to blame for the violence in Southport as they continue to smear and ignore angry communities?’ (LeftFootForward, 2 August 2024)

5 August: Downing Street states that there is ‘no justification’ for X owner Elon Musk’s comments stating that ‘Civil war is inevitable’ under a video of far-right riots in Liverpool and adds that they are working with social media companies to ensure the removal of criminal content. (Guardian, 5 August 2024)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

For recent anti-immigration related far-right violence see ANTI-FASCISM | FAR RIGHT. For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

23 July: Vandals ransack an Israeli-Palestinian pro-peace restaurant in Berlin, Germany, a week after it hosted a queer Jewish-Muslim brunch. (Guardian, 23 July 2024)

25 July: Three Bulgarian men are arrested under a European arrest warrant issued by French authorities on suspicion of defacing the Paris Holocaust memorial’s Wall of the Righteous with red handprints on 14 May. The arrested men are reportedly known associates of far-right extremists. (Le Monde, 26 July 2024)

25 July: Cameroon-born Adeline Abimnwi Awemo, a CDU candidate in the Brandenburg state election in Germany, is treated in hospital after being attacked and racially abused while campaigning in Cottbus. (Deutsche Welle, 26 July 2024)s

27 July: Aké Achi, founder of Migrants at Work, which fights against modern slavery, receives a death threat posted to his home and is frustrated that the West Midlands police almost immediately close any investigation into the incident. (Guardian, 27 July 2024) 

This calendar is researched by IRR staff and compiled by Sophie Chauhan, with the assistance of Graeme Atkinson, Sam Berkson, Margaret McAdam and Louis Ordish. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association and Stopwatch, whose regular updates on asylum, migration, far Right, racial violence, employment 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.