A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.
ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP
Asylum and migrant rights
23 May: Ahead of releasing statistics showing a large rise in net migration, the government announces new immigration rules which will remove non-research postgraduate students’ right to bring family members to the UK from January 2024. (BBC News, 24 May 2023)
23 May: The Open Rights Group publishes a briefing warning that the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill going through parliament will enable extensive sharing of migrants’ data including with their home governments without consent, potentially putting them at grave risk. (Open Rights Group, 23 May 2023)
25 May: A report by the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly accuses the UK government of criminalising refugees and trafficking victims and breaching international obligations with the Illegal Migration and Bill of Rights Bills. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
28 May: The Home Office announces an advertising campaign featuring posters in Albanian and English, designed to put off Albanian nationals intending to come to the UK without visas. (Sky News, 28 May 2023)
30 May: The UN’s refugee agency issues a scathing report on the UK’s asylum system, warning that officials are asked to do too much too quickly and with inadequate training, resulting in lawbreaking and detention of torture victims and children. (Sky News, 30 MY 2023)
30 May: Paul O’Connor of the Public and Commercial Services union says his members at the Home Office who have ‘no stomach’ to implement offshoring policies will, if they are upheld and the Illegal Migration Bill becomes law, come to the union who will explore the possibility of taking industrial action. (Independent, 30 May 2023)
1 June: The Polish government announces that it will not cooperate with the EU Presidency’s plan for compulsory relocation of migrants arriving in southern Europe to northerly states with fewer arrivals. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 June 2023)
2 June: The EU’s data protection watchdog, the European Data Protection Supervisor, launches an investigation into Frontex’ collection of information from migrants and sharing it with Europol, which it fears could end up identifying asylum seekers in their countries of origin, putting them and family members at risk. (InfoMigrants, 2 June 2023)
4 June: The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (ICPO), the UK’s surveillance watchdog, finds the Home Office 2020 policy of seizing migrants’ mobile phones on arrival, which the High Court ruled unlawful in 2022, caused ‘significant harm and prejudice’, and writes to a large group of asylum seekers telling them of their right to claim compensation. (Guardian, 4 June 2023)
4 June: Refugee organisations and MPs say the government’s refusal to fast-track asylum and family reunion applications from Sudan is putting lives at risk, as Home Office figures show a record backlog of 172,758 asylum claims awaiting decision, the visa centre in Khartoum closed and the Home Office refusing to waive requirements for biometrics. (Observer, 4 June 2023)
Borders and internal controls
24 May: Border guards find the body of an unidentified 45-year-old in the River Wisłocz at the Polish-Belarus border. (Are You Syrious, 25 May 2023)
24 May: According to a joint statement from several search and rescue (SAR) NGOs, the Maltese authorities, instead of rescuing a vessel in distress 30 miles inside its SAR zone with over 500 people on board who have fled from Libya, first ignore it for over a day despite repeated distress calls, and then forcibly tow it back to Libya, with those on board reportedly ending up in prison in Benghazi. (Alarmphone, 29 May 2023)
25 May: Official figures show that over 8,400 Afghans risked their lives crossing the Channel in the year to March, while only 54 were resettled under the scheme for vulnerable groups and those who assisted the UK. (Independent, 25 May 2023)
26 May: The migrant support group Utopia 56 welcomes news that the French police have charged five soldiers with failing to render assistance to a stricken boat, over the deaths of 27 people in the English Channel in November 2021 after some 15 calls for help from their boat were ignored. (BBC News, 26 May 2023)
Cinq militaires viennent d'être mis en examen suite au naufrage dans la Manche du 24 nov. 2021.
Cette nuit-là, 31 personnes avaient été abandonnées en mer et en sont mortes.
Un jour, ce sera au gouvernement de répondre de ces politiques qui mènent à la violence et à la mort. pic.twitter.com/f4RieEhQkP
— Utopia 56 (@Utopia_56) May 25, 2023
27 May: Médecins sans Frontières reveals that its doctors have treated many serious injuries caused by razor wire fences which British soldiers helped to build to stop asylum seekers crossing from Belarus to Poland. (Observer, 27 May 2023)
28 May: Aegean Boat Report claims that the Greek authorities have continued dangerous and illegal pushbacks under the guise of rescue, with 17 cases involving over 400 people in the week following the New York Times exposé of 19 May, in at least three cases leaving people drifting on life rafts in the Aegean. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 June 2023)
2 June: An investigation into the Crotone shipwreck in which 94 people died in February, by Lighthouse Reports and partners, reveals that both Frontex and the Italian authorities knew that the ship was in distress six hours before the wreck, but decided not to intervene, and in the wake of the disaster covered up their knowledge. (Lighthouse Reports, 2 June 2023)
2 June: A group of up to 30 migrants including 13 children remain stuck at the Poland-Belarus border since 27 May, with Polish border police refusing them entry and Belarussian authorities threatening them with beatings, being hunted and killed if they return there. Activists have filed a request with the European Court of Human Rights for ‘interim measures’ requiring Poland to receive the group’s asylum claims. (ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 June 2023; InfoMigrants, 30 May 2023)
Reception and detention
23 May: Current and former immigration detainees as Brooke House, Gatwick describe how isolation cells are used to punish asylum seekers who complain or protest at conditions, even if they are suicidal. (The News Movement, [23 May 2023])
26 May: The High Court rules unlawful a secret Home Office policy whereby lawfully resident migrants with unpaid NHS debts are detained on arrival when they return to the UK following visits home. (Guardian, 26 May 2023)
30 May: Civil servants and trade union representatives raise concerns about the risk of overcrowding at the Manston asylum processing centre within weeks, as hundreds who were held illegally last year bring claims against the Home Office. (Guardian, 30 May 2023)
31 May: Over 70 asylum seekers including children sleep on the streets outside two London hotels in protest at being told to sleep four to a single room, some without beds. The accommodation provider Clearsprings posted net profits of £28 million in 2022. (BBC, 2 June 2023; Open Democracy, 2 June 2023; BBC, 5 June 2023)
1 June: Shukrullah Ludin of Labour Friends of Afghanistan says Amir Safi, a teenage Afghan asylum seeker who died in a Nottingham hospital on 5 May, took his own life following the rejection of his asylum application. He demands to know why the Home Office disbelieved his stated age of 16, put Amir alone in a hotel, and refused his claim. (National, 1 June 2023)
4 June: Hundreds protest in Portland, Dorset against the plan to house 500 asylum seekers on a barge in the harbour, with a local councillor saying ‘It’s not all about “we’re against them”, it’s “refugees are welcome” – however, not on a barge, it’s inhumane.’ (ITV News, 4 June 2023)
5 June: The prime minister confirms that two more giant barges have been acquired to house up to 1,000 asylum seekers near Middlesbrough and Liverpool, while discussions reportedly continue over the acquisition of further barges to be moored off Essex, Suffolk, Tyneside and the City of London. (Guardian, 5 June 2023)
6 June: HM Inspectorate of Prisons publishes a report of its February inspection of Manston, Kent Intake Unit and Western Jet Foil short-term migrant holding facilities, highlighting as priority concerns too-lengthy detention, poor governance of adult and child safeguarding, and lack of accurate data on the use of force and segregation. (HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, 6 June 2023)
Deportations
25 May: Statewatch reports that Frontex is now taking the initiative in organising deportation flights from Europe, making decisions on destination, date, chartering aircraft and communicating with destination countries. (Statewatch, 25 May 2023)
25 May: Leaked documents reveal government plans to deport over 3,000 asylum seekers every month from January under the Illegal Migration Bill going through parliament. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
31 May: The European Court of Human Rights rules that the Netherlands failed to consider the impact of mental illness on the culpability of a Moroccan violent offender in deciding to deport him and impose a ten-year entry ban, breaching his rights under Article 8 (private life) of the Human Rights Convention. (ELENA Legal Update, 2 June 2023)
1 June: At a meeting of the European Political Community, Rishi Sunak begins talks with Moldova on agreeing a returns policy for migrants who arrive in the UK ‘illegally,’ which will be similar to the deal agreed with Georgia, now in force. (BBC, 1 June 2023)
Crimes of solidarity
25 May: A leaked European Commission paper on search and rescue, with no proposals for state responsibility but suggesting further regulation of private search and rescue vessels, leads to fears that SAR work in the Mediterranean will be obstructed, resulting in more deaths. (Statewatch, 25 May 2023, ECRE Weekly Bulletin, 2 June 2023)
30 May: The trial begins in Lewes Crown Court of three protesters who tried to stop a deportation flight to Jamaica in November 2021. They are charged with causing a public nuisance. The protests, together with legal campaigning, reduced the number of people aboard the flight from more than 50 to just 4. (Freedom News, 31 May 2023)
2 June: The Italian coastguard detain two SAR vessels, the Sea Eye 4 and the Mare*Go after disembarking rescued passengers in Ortona and Lampedusa, for 20 days under a February law, the Piantedosi decree, which requires SAR vessels to return to an assigned port, often days away, after each rescue. The NGOs say the law violates the international law of the sea, and ask the German foreign office to intervene. (InfoMigrants, 5 June 2023)
ELECTORAL POLITICS | GOVERNMENT POLICY
As anti-migrant, anti-equalities, anti-abortion, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQI rhetoric in electoral campaigning are increasingly interlinked, we reflect this in the coverage below.
24 May: Austria accuses Hungary of ‘blackmail’ after prime minister Viktor Orbán enacts a decree releasing hundreds of people convicted of people smuggling, most Serbian, Romanian or Ukrainian, on condition they leave the country within 72 hours. (Balkan Insight, 24 May 2023)
24 May: As the ruling Law & Justice party in Poland proposes new legislation to restrict access to schools for NGOs providing science-based sex education, the commissioner for children’s rights announces an inspection of LGBT-friendly schools ranked by gay rights campaigners. (Notes from Poland, 25 May 2023; Human Rights Watch, 26 May 2023)
25 May: Fifty researchers into child sexual abuse along with over a dozen organisations including NSPCC and Victim Support write a joint letter urging the prime minister and home secretary to avoid inaccurate and divisive claims based on misinformation and racism, following repeated claims by Suella Braverman that grooming gangs are predominantly British-Pakistani. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
25 May: In Greece jailed Golden Dawn leader Ilias Kasidiaris says he will run in the June general election in Athens with the coalition of Independent Candidates under the name Ellines (Greeks). (Balkan Insight, 25 May 2023)
26 May: The Polish government passes a law establishing a special parliamentary commission to investigate and suspend the public freedoms of citizens whom they suspect of ‘serving Moscow’s interests’, including stripping individuals of their right to hold public office. (Visegrad Insight, 29 May 2023)
26 May: The government appoints Lord Ian Austin, who has in the past been criticised for alleged Islamophobic remarks, to head an independent inquiry into tensions that erupted between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester in September 2022. (Leicester Mercury, 26 May 2023; Maktoob Media, 1 June 2023)
29 May: In local and regional elections in Spain the far-right Vox party more than doubles its share of local councillors to 7.2%, leaving it in a strong position to form a coalition with the conservative Popular Party and govern some regions. (Euronews, 29 May 2023)
1 June: SOAS University of London director Professor Adam Habib announces that the university will host an independent public inquiry and related research into the violence in Leicester between members of South Asian communities in September 2022. The Monitoring Group will oversee a Community Engagement Team. (SOAS, 1 June 2023)
5 June: Home secretary Suella Braverman is accused of making up figures as she tells parliament the asylum backlog is down by 17,000, when it is in fact up by 10,000. Civil servants have reportedly had to fact-check her statements to cabinet on several occasions. (Press Association, 5 June 2023; Guardian, 23 May 2023)
ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT
25 May: Ashley Podsiad-Sharp, a prison guard at HMP Leeds who founded the White Stag Athletic Club for neo-Nazis, is found guilty of possession of the White Resistance Manual likely to be useful in preparing an act of terrorism. (BBC News, 25 May 2023)
30 May: Extreme-right activist Alan Madden, from Port Sunlight, on the Wirral, who kept a semi-automatic pistol in his bedroom, is jailed for seven-and-a-half years for stirring up racial hatred and possession of prohibited weapons. (ITV, 30 May 2023)
31 May: In Dresden, Germany, demonstrations are held after Lina E, accused of ‘militant extreme-left ideology’, is sentenced to five years and three months in prison for membership of a criminal organisation and taking part in attacks on neo-Nazis in Leipzig and nearby towns. She is freed pending appeal, having already been in custody for over two years. Three men, also convicted, receive lesser sentences. (Associated Press, 31 May 2023)
31 May: Police in Saxony, Germany, make three arrests after raiding the far-right football supporters’ group ‘Strong Youth’ which is linked to violent crime. (Deutsche Welle, 31 May 2023)
31 May: In Warsaw, Poland, far-right activists from the Confederation party disrupt a lecture by Polish-Canadian Holocaust scholar Jan Grabowksi at the German Historical Institute, forcing it to be abandoned. (Notes from Poland, 31 May 2023)
1 June: The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism publishes a report on Bulgaria which notes that 12 far-right groups including six political parties, mostly based in Sofia, have targeted Roma and LGBT+ people with the ‘level of animus towards the Roma community particularly horrific’. (GPHE, 1 June 2023)
4 June: Alternative for Germany and police unions condemn the release of Lina E pending appeal. An anti-fascist ‘Day X’ march in Leipzig, where Lina E was a student, goes ahead despite being banned, with disturbances continuing over two nights. (BBC News, 2 June 2023, Deutsche Welle, 3 June 2023, BBC News, 4 June 2023)
POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
23 May: A police academy in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, declines a new contract to Bahar Aslan, a part-time lecturer in ‘inter-cultural skills’ after she tweets warning of far-right activities in the security agencies. The academy claims her language is prejudiced. (News in Germany, 23 May 2023)
23 May: Two West Mercia police officers who sent offensive WhatsApp messages are sacked after a gross misconduct hearing which heard that one Telford police officer sent racist messages about George Floyd and said he was going to ‘black up’ to get a promotion. (Express & Star, 23 May 2023)
24 May: The Metropolitan police commissioner writes to the Met’s health and social care partners informing them that as of 31 August the police will no longer attend emergency calls related to mental health incidents unless they are life-threatening. (Guardian, 28 May 2023)
24 May: After a Swiss court acquits Tariq Ramadan on charges of rape and sexual coercion and awards damages, the Islam scholar denies other allegations of rape lodged in France and repeats his claim that he has been the victim of bias in the French justice system and a politically motivated plot. (Guardian, 24 May 2023)
25 May: The Met police say that due to a ‘data transmission error’ it misreported figures on intimate strip searches of children, with 269 searches, rather than 99, carried out in 2021. (BBC News, 25 May 2023)
25 May: Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone makes a public acknowledgement of ‘institutional racism, sexism, misogyny and discrimination’ in the force. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
26 May: In Belgium, a court convicts 18 former members of Reuzegom, an elite KU Leuven university fraternity for their ‘involuntary role’ in the death of black student Sanda Dia, 20, during a brutal and degrading initiation ritual in 2018. Protests are held over lenient sentences of community services and fines, the failure to consider race during the trial, and the anonymity given to the accused. (See also Media and Culture below) (Guardian, 26 May 2023, Brussels Times, 26 May 2023, Times Higher Education, 4 June 2023)
26 May: In Milan, Italy, a video of police pepper spraying, kicking and beating a Brazilian trans woman who sits on the floor showing no resistance goes viral, with many blaming the rhetoric of the far-right government for creating a hostile space for the LGBT+ community and foreigners. (Euronews, 26 May 2023)
30 May: The IOPC launches an investigation into an incident in Peckham, south London, when a 90-year-old black woman was handcuffed and had a spit hood placed over her head and a Taser trained on her before being taken to hospital without being arrested. (Guardian, 30 May 2023)
31 May: A report commissioned by the National Police Chiefs’ Council finds that black people were three times more likely to receive Covid fines in England and Wales, with those in the poorest areas seven times more likely to be fined. (Guardian, 31 May 2023)
1 June: Following accusations from black staff involved in the Police Race Action Plan that they were ignored or treated as ‘troublemakers’, the chair of the Independent Scrutiny Board calls for it to be restructured. (Voice, 1 June 2023)
3 June: One year after Oladeji Omishore drowned after being Tasered by an officer on Chelsea Bridge, west London, it emerges that two officers involved in the death are under investigation for allegedly failing to cooperate with the IOPC inquiry, as the family launch a legal action. (Guardian, 3 June 2023)
4 June : Three police officers from the Force Support Group, Bournemouth, who were part of WhatsApp group Real FSG that nurtured ‘racist, misogynistic and homophobic behaviour’, including pinning nazi-themed posters to the police station’s office walls, are found guilty of gross misconduct. (Telegraph, 24 May 2023; BBC News, 24 May 2023; Daily Mirror, 4 June 2023)
5 June: Stopwatch launches a new interactive tracker, displaying data on stop and search for every police force in England and Wales. (Stopwatch, 5 June 2023)
Today @StopWatchUK launched their updated interactive tracker displaying data for every police force in England & Wales. This software aims to empower communities & civil society to monitor stop & searches by their local force & hold the police to account. https://t.co/m5jG7CnRw8 pic.twitter.com/nt2EQWp1V4
— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) June 5, 2023
5 June: Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed announces plans to fine parents of children involved in anti-social behaviour, and Darren Rodwell, leader of Barking & Dagenham Council, says the council will ‘start to look at tenancy agreements’ and evict families if they do not inform on relatives and others who commit knife crime. (Guardian, 5 June 2023)
Are we seeing the deepening of 'ASBO Britain'?
The government's Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan proposes to introduce 'hotspot policing' and 'immediate justice' where offenders are made to wear high-vis or jumpsuits whilst washing police cars or picking litter as punishment 🧵 pic.twitter.com/dw5svgk3Ek
— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) June 7, 2023
5 June: In Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany, police special forces shoot dead a 35-year-old migrant worker from the Czech Republic who was running naked on railway tracks and experiencing a mental health crisis. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6 June 2023; Rosenheim, 7 June 2023)
6 June: Human rights groups accuse the Metropolitan police of breaching human rights and data laws, and disproportionately targeting children from racial minorities, after FOI requests reveal that children as young as 13, and possibly even younger, have been secretly monitored online as part of a continuing surveillance operation run by the Metropolitan police leading to the accumulation of 7,000 records across two databases. (Guardian, 6 June 2023)
DISCRIMINATION | EQUALITIES | HUMAN RIGHTS
25 May: The Council of Europe warns that there are ‘troublingly persistent’ levels of discrimination against GRT communities in the UK, including ‘shocking’ amounts of bullying in the education system, prejudiced reporting in the media and threats to their legal status and rights, including recent legislative changes. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
1 June: In Norway, a parliamentary truth and reconciliation commission publishes a damning report on historic injustices against Sámi, Kvens and other Indigenous groups. (Guardian 1 June 2023)
EDUCATION
24 May: The Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a private educational institution with close ties to the Hungarian prime minister, buys a majority share in the Modul University in Vienna, Austria, in what scholars fear is an attempt by Orbán to spread his influence across Europe. (THE, 24 May 2023)
25 May: A Covid social mobility and opportunities research study finds that pupils who used food banks during the pandemic fared worse at GCSEs, losing half a grade per subject on average, prompting concerns about the long-term impact of the cost-of-living crisis and food insecurity on poorer pupils. (Guardian, 25 May 2023)
1 June: Cambridge philosophy professor Arif Ahmed is appointed as England’s first director for freedom of speech and academic freedom at the Office for Students. (THE, 1 June 2023)
HOUSING | POVERTY | WELFARE
1 June: The UK’s two-child benefits limit, introduced in 2017 to force parents to work, has pushed hundreds of thousands of larger families into poverty, according to the first study of its impact, which labels the policy ‘ineffective at best and discriminatory and harmful at worst’. (Guardian, 1 June 2023)
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
2 June: A report by St Andrews University finds that UK citizens of Black/African Caribbean and Indian, Pakistani/Bangladeshi descent consistently reported poorer health outcomes when exposed to heightened levels of air pollution than their white counterparts. (Voice, 2 June 2023)
EMPLOYMENT | EXPLOITATION | INDUSTRIAL ACTION
26 May: Migrants Organise and JCWI launch a leaflet, Migrant rights are workers’ rights! calling for solidarity in the struggle for decent workplace conditions and against immigration raids, as figures show that in sectors such as hospitality, wholesale and retail, non-EU workers now outnumber EU workers. (JCWI, 26 May 2023; Guardian, 1 June 2023)
27 May: Documents obtained through a FOI request find that lawyers investigating post office operators accused (it later transpired wrongly) of fraud, were asked to group those suspected by racial features, including ‘negroid types’, along with ‘Chinese/Japanese types’ and ‘dark skinned European types’. (Guardian, 27 May 2023)
1 June: US rapper Sean Combs, otherwise known as P Diddy, sues British spirits manufacturer Diageo for having ‘typecast’ the products he endorsed as ‘black brands’ to be marketed exclusively to ‘urban’ consumers. (Telegraph, 1 June 2023)
5 June: Data from a survey carried out by Architects’ Journal and Blueprints for All reveals that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely than their white counterparts to qualify as architects, progress in their careers or recommend architecture as a career. (Architects’ Journal, 5 June 2023)
5 June: A British Asian woman wrongly imprisoned in the early 2000s for theft while working for the Post Office finds she was categorised as ‘Indian/Pakistani Type’ on her prosecution file and believes that institutional racism led to her conviction. (Eastern Eye, 5 June 2023)
CULTURE | MEDIA | SPORT
While we cannot cover all incidents of racist abuse on sportspersons or their responses, we provide a summary of the most important incidents. For more information follow Kick it Out.
23 May: After the resignation of the state broadcaster’s chief executive, a left-leaning TV host and comedian, the far-right Italian government is accused of exerting ‘ruthless’ influence on the state broadcaster. (Guardian, 23 May 2023)
24 May: Ex-footballer and TV presenter Gary Lineker calls for ‘more compassion, empathy and kindness’ towards refugees as he receives an Amnesty International ‘Sport and Human Rights’ award in Rome. (Guardian, 24 May 2023)
25 May: In Spain, Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby refuses to stand with players behind a banner condemning racism at the start of a match with Mallorca, due to the league’s inaction when he was racially abused in a match in April 2021. (AS, 25 May 2023)
30 May: The Telegraph attacks the ‘left-wing’ Paul Hamlyn Foundation for receiving government funding while describing the UK’s border regime as ‘systematically racist’. (Telegraph, 30 May 2023)
2 June: Szymon Marciniak remains the referee of the UEFA Champions League final following a UEFA investigation into his attendance of an event organised by Polish far-right politician Sławomir Mentzen. (Guardian, 2 June 2023)
2 June: Former West Ham United players walk off the pitch during a seven-a-side match in the US claiming racial abuse by a Dallas United player. (Guardian, 2 June 2023)
3 June: The names of Reuzegom student club members implicated in the death of Sanda Dia are inscribed on ‘Graffiti Street’ in Ghent, Belgium, which hosts murals and wall art, then removed by the local authority. The Flemish YouTuber Acid has his account suspended after he leaks the names of the 18 people convicted. (Brussels Times, 3 June 2023)
3 June: A 3-metre statue of a seated black woman is unveiled in Bexhill-on-Sea following cleaning by over 300 volunteers after it was spray-painted white by vandals. (Observer, 3 June 2023)
6 June: Five of the 15 members of Poland’s state broadcaster TVP’s oversight board call for action from the broadcasting regulator due to ‘extremely unreliable and biased’ reporting which presented Sunday’s massive anti-government protest as a ‘hate march’. (Notes from Poland, 6 June 2023)
RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.
25 May: A 14-year-old boy is among four people charged with violent disorder in relation to the riot outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley, Liverpool in February. (Independent, 25 May 2023)
24 May: A 54-year-old man from Hull is convicted of two counts of racially aggravated harassment directed at Bradford police officers on 1 May. He is jailed for a total of ten months, including four months from an activated suspended sentence order. (Telegraph & Argus, 24 May 2023)
25 May: The Football Association charges Gillingham FC with three counts of misconduct following racist or sexist abuse from their supporters between December 2022 and February 2023. (BBC, 25 May 2023)
25 May: A 24-year-old man is convicted of racially aggravated common assault committed in Worcester on 5 December 2022. Worcester Magistrates Court orders him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay a total of £299. (Worcester News, 30 May 2023)
28 May: A 39-year-old man from Teignmouth West is convicted of making serious racially aggravated threats towards a woman on 25 November 2021. South and West Devon Magistrates Court sentences him to 16 weeks in prison and orders him to pay £500 in compensation and £400 in costs. (Dawlish Today, 28 May 2023)
29 May: A 28-year-old man is sentenced to three years and four months in prison for racially abusing and assaulting a Tube worker at King’s Cross St. Pancras station in May 2022. The perpetrator threw two glass bottles at the male victim, who suffered serious cuts to the head and neck. (Metro, 29 May 2023)
31 May: A Polish man and his ten-year-old son are subjected to a racially aggravated attack at a skate park in Castlecroft, Telford by unidentified teenage boys who repeatedly hit the man with a golf club and racially abuse his child. (Shropshire Star, 31 May 2023)
1 June: A 35-year-old man is arrested in association with an instance of racial abuse committed in Hadley, Telford. West Mercia Police launch a public appeal for witnesses. (Shropshire Star, 6 June 2023)
3 June: Police Scotland launch an investigation into videos uploaded on BitChute that feature racist threats against First Minister Humza Yousaf. (The National, 3 June 2023)
4 June: Three men aged 38, 39 and 58 are charged with racially abusing and attacking two victims, who suffered head and facial injuries, in a park in Pheasey, Great Barr, on 28 May. (Express & Star, 4 June 2023)
5 June: Conservative MP Bob Stewart is charged with racially aggravated abuse following an encounter with a Bahraini activist outside the Foreign Office building in London on 14 December 2022. (Independent, 5 June 2023)
The calendar was compiled with the help of Graeme Atkinson, Sophie Chauhan, Margaret McAdam, Louis Ordish and Joseph Maggs. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association, Stopwatch and The Week in Work, 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.