Calendar of Racism and Resistance (28 May – 10 June 2025)

Calendar of Racism and Resistance (28 May – 10 June 2025)

June 20 2025 News

Written by: IRR News Team


ELECTORAL POLITICS | GOVERNMENT POLICY

27-29 May: At Conservative Political Action Conferences (CPAC) in Poland and Hungary, right-wing populist leaders from across Europe herald the new ‘Age of Patriots’, warning that national sovereignty is threatened by the EU and ‘gender and woke madness’. US  homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is a keynote speaker at CPAC Poland. (Deutsche Welle, 5 June 2025)

30 May: A group of 38 MEPs challenges the European Commission over its proposal to send refused asylum seekers to ‘return hubs’ with which they have no connection and which lack adequate safeguards, arguing that the changes violate European human rights law. (EU News, 30 May 2025)

2 June: In Poland, independent conservative nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki, backed by the extreme-right Law and Justice party, wins the presidential election. (Deutsche Welle, 2 June 2025)

2 June: The Blue Labour faction urges the party to ditch diversity, equity and inclusion policies from public bodies so as to win over Reform UK voters. (Guardian, 2 June 2025)

2 June: Reform UK announce a Doge-style pilot scheme in Kent county council, administered by young tech volunteer entrepreneurs and backed by cybersecurity entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried, telling council employees that they will face gross misconduct hearings if they fail to hand over documents related to ‘wasteful expenditure’. (Guardian, 2 June 2025)

2 June: In Germany, after the Berlin administrative court rules the new policy of pushbacks at the German-Polish border unlawful, the chancellor defends the policy, stating that there is still scope to turn away asylum seekers at the border in order to ‘protect public safety and order… and to prevent cities and municipalities from being overburdened’. (Deutsche Welle, 2 June 2025)

3 June: After far-right Freedom party leader Geert Wilders pulls out of the Dutch coalition government, citing failure to close the borders, curb illegal immigration and repatriate Syrian refugees, the coalition collapses and the prime minister announces fresh elections. (Deutsche Welle, 3 June 2025)

3 June: The home secretary tells the home affairs select committee that she is drawing up legislation to create a fast-track system of asylum decisions, appeals and deportations, for people coming from ‘safe’ countries. (Guardian, 3 June 2025)

5 June: A survey by the Labour Muslim Network of Labour MPs, councillors and mayors shows that 77 % want an end to arms exports to Israel, 84% support sanctions and 97% want immediate recognition of the state of Palestine. (Guardian, 5 June 2025)

5 June: A paper from Labour Together proposes the introduction of a universal digital ID card, BritCard, as ‘an important part of Labour’s [immigration] enforcement strategy’. (Guardian, 5 June 2025)

5 June: After Reform UK’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin (Runcorn and Helsby), calls on the  prime minister to ban the burqa and Farage tells GB News that it’s time to debate the topic, Zia Yusuf resigns as party chair, only to return to the party in a new role two days later, and tech entrepreneur Nathaniel Fried leaves the party. (Guardian, 6 June 2025; BBC News, 7 June 2025)

6 June: Reform Cambridgeshire councillor Andy Osborn is removed from his committee role and criticised by his own party after he labels some children in care ‘downright evil’. (BBC News, 6 June 2025)

6 June: In an interview with Fox News, German chancellor Friedrich Merz blames antisemitism on migration, saying ‘frankly, we have imported antisemitism’ and ‘we are doing everything we can to bring numbers down’. (Deutsche Welle, 6 June 2025)

8 June: Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch says she does not speak to women wearing burqas at her constituency surgery, prompting Diane Abbott to tweet that denying someone a hearing on account of their religion is discriminatory. (Guardian, 8 June 2025;  X [Diane Abbott], 9 June 2025) 

10 June: Despite 65% of people voting in an Italian referendum to reduce the residency requirement for non-EU citizens applying for citizenship, the referendum and four others (on labour laws) are declared null due to low voter turnout, leading to accusations that Forza Italia, who told voters to ‘head to the beach’ instead of the ballot box, deliberately encouraged abstention. (Euroactiv, 10 June 2005)

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

With anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-equalities, anti-abortion, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQI activities increasingly interlinking, we now incorporate information on the Christian Right as well as the religious Right generally.

27 May: Hundreds of Polish Trump supporters, many wearing ‘Make Poland Great Again’ hats, gather in Rzeszów for the country’s first Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Organized by the right wing TV Republika, the event highlights a growing US-style conservatism in Poland, with speakers urging voters to reject ‘globalists’ threatening family, faith, and national sovereignty. (France24, 27 May 2025)

9 June: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen hosts European allies, including Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Matteo Salvini, in Mormant-sur-Vernisson. The meeting represents a show of force for the far Right in the wake of Donald Trump’s success in the US, with Orban declaring that ‘the winds of change are gathering’. (MSN, 9 June 2025)

9 June: A UK coroner finds that 16-year-old Rhianan Rudd, who died by suicide in 2022, was ‘highly affected’ by her terrorism arrest after being groomed online by American far-right extremists, though failures in her case were deemed ‘not systemic’. Despite the trauma of her arrest and prolonged investigation, the coroner ruled her death a ‘self-inflicted act’ without confirmed intent. (Guardian, 9 June 2025)

9 June: 81-year-old retired Hungarian archbishop Gyula Márfi celebrates mass at an event of far-right party Mi Hazánk Mozgalom, known for antisemitic and anti-Roma rhetoric. The gathering marks the anniversary of Hungary’s post-WWI territorial losses, framed in nationalist rhetoric as a ‘Hungarian Golgotha’. Neither the Vatican nor Hungary’s bishops’ conference comment on Márfi’s participation (The Tablet, 9 June 2025) 

POLICING| PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

1 June: A report from Border Criminologies and the University of Oxford finds numbers convicted of ‘illegal arrival’ have almost doubled to 450 from 2022-3 to December 2024, and at least 18 of the 29 of those convicted stating they were children were imprisoned in adult facilities. (Guardian, 1 June 2025; EIN, 2 June 2025)

2 June: The Met police confirm that, following a court ruling, they have returned digital devices unlawfully seized during a raid by the force’s counter-terrorism command to journalist Asa Winstanley, who writes for the Palestine-focused website Electronic Intifada. (Press Gazette, 2 June 2025)

2 June: Cardiff magistrates court finds two Palestine activists guilty of harassing Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones. They say they will appeal. (BBC News, 2 June 2025)

5 June: A 15-year-old boy is jailed for seven years for the manslaughter of Bhim Kohli, an 80-year-old man who was assaulted and racially abused while walking his dog in Braunstone Town, Leicestershire. The prosecution argued that there was evidence the attack was premeditated and racially motivated and part of a ‘deliberate humiliation’. Another child receives a suspended sentence. (Guardian, 5 June 2025) 

5 June: Non-binary German anti-fascist activist Maja T, extradited to Hungary in June 2024 for allegedly assaulting neo-Nazis at a Budapest march in 2023 and held in solitary confinement ever since, goes on hunger strike to protest prison conditions, including constant video surveillance for over three months and being shackled, cuffed and led on a leash, and to seek a return to Germany. (Deutsche Welle, 6 June 2025)

6 June: At the inquest into the death in Truro in July 2022 of Godrick Osei, a jury concludes that he was experiencing a mental health crisis and that interactions with Devon and Cornwall police officers, who subjected him to use of force and restraint, contributed to the ‘psychological distress’ he was experiencing and exacerbated his ABD, which was recorded as a partial cause of death. (INQUEST, 6 June 2025)

6 June: ELSC publishes a report on the repressive policing of the 15 May Nakba demonstration in Berlin, Germany, which began with a court decision to limit the demonstration to a stationary rally and concluded with an escalation in police violence. At least 36 protesters, including minors, were injured, and many were hospitalised, with medical assistance blocked or delayed by police, campaigners claim. (ELSC,  6 June 2025)

7 June: German federal interior minister Alexander Dobrindt says tasers are ‘absolutely necessary’ for police, and commits to their deployment this year. The police of several German states already use them. (German Policy, 8 June 2025)

8 June: Following a complaint from Conservative shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick, the Solicitors Regulation Authority opens an investigation into Riverway Law and solicitor Fahad Ansari for its legal challenge against the proscription of Hamas. (X (Fahad Ansari), 8 June 2025)

9 June: In Ireland, the Garda Commissioner reveals that two new water cannon have been purchased for use in ‘extreme scenarios’ and in preparation for any public order threats during Ireland’s EU Presidency next year, also making references to the Dublin and Coolock  riots. (Irish Independent, 9 June 2025)

ANTI-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

29 May: The Home Office is warned by Rights & Security International that the treatment of autistic people referred to Prevent and Channel could, in its overreporting of neurodivergent people, be breaching equality laws. (Guardian, 29 May 2025)

10 June: A hearing at the investigatory powers tribunal examines claims brought by two Guantanamo Bay prisoners that MI5 and MI6 were complicit in their mistreatment and looks at the extent of the UK’s involvement in the CIA’s kidnapping and detention of terror suspects in ‘black sites’. (Guardian, 9 June 2025)

10 June: Cage International instructs lawyers to appeal the 2021 decision to proscribe Hamas as a whole (rather than its military wing), providing 26 case studies to back its claim that British Muslims are disproportionately targeted in an unjust, politically charged manner as a consequence. (Middle East Eye, 10 June 2025)

 

ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS| CITIZENSHIP

Asylum and migrant rights

29 May: A report from the Bevan Foundation finds immigration legal aid provision in Wales in alarming decline, with clients routinely referred to Birmingham and London and unable to secure legal advice and representation. It launches a project to create a national strategy for improvement. (EIN, 29 May 2025)

30 May An immigration judge overturns a council decision that a young Sudanese asylum seeker was 8 years older than his given age and warns against over-emphasising physical appearance as evidence of age. (Telegraph, 30 May 2025)

3 June: The Court of Justice of the EU rules that a parent or carer coming in illegally with their child cannot be prosecuted for facilitating illegal entry. (ELENA weekly legal update, 12 June 2025)

9 June: Justice Together publishes No access to justice 2, on the continuing crisis of legally aided provision of advice for migrants and refugees. (Justice Together, 9 June 2025)

10 June: The migration advisory committee recommends that the government not raise the minimum income threshold for family visas to £38,700, as this would conflict with human rights laws. (Guardian, 10 June 2025)

Borders and internal controls

28 May: An international media investigation warns that Greece, funded by the EU, has implemented advanced AI-driven surveillance systems at its borders and refugee camps, particularly in the Evros region bordering Turkey, giving rise to human rights violations. (CPT, 28 May 2025)

3 June: A Home Office analysis shows that more people are being crammed into overcrowded small boats to cross the Channel. In the year to April 2025, 33 boats carried more than 80 people, compared with eight in the year to April 2022. (Independent, 3 June 2025)

4 June: French ministers overseeing migration policy give the go-ahead to allow the French authorities to intercept ‘taxi boats’ at sea and say plans will be drawn up within weeks. Steve Smith of Care4Calais wards that these plans will cost more lives and are most likely illegal. (Guardian, 4 June 2025) 

Reception and detention

 28 May: An HMIP inspection of Colnbrook IRC finds safeguarding procedures to protect vulnerable detainees underused, with 45 detainees involved in 73 acts of self-harm and 35% of detainees feeling suicidal in the past six months, and staff ill-equipped to provide the necessary care. (EIN, 28 May 2025)

28 May: Lawyers for the family of Victor Hugo Pereira Vargas, who was found dead in his hotel room in Hailsham, Sussex, on 13 October 2023, say the Home Office failed to ensure frontline staff are trained in safeguarding and suicide awareness, as an inquest hears that officials were unaware that subcontracted staff at the asylum hotel lacked compulsory safeguarding training. (Liberty Investigates, 29 May 2025)

Deportations

7 June: Home Office data reveals that arrests of ‘suspected illegal’ migrant workers increased by 51% in the year since Labour was elected. 6,410 people were arrested following 9,000 enforcement visits to restaurants, nail bars, construction sites and other premises, a 48% increase in activity from the previous year, and almost 30,000 people have been returned to their home countries. (Sky News, 7 June 2025) 

9 June: The Wales and west of England immigration enforcement team arrest and detain workers in raids including at a Tenby construction site, Treforest’s Choices Express takeaway, and Premier Stores in Pontypridd. Between July 2024 and May 2025, the team arrested 1,057 migrants, an increase of 114% on the previous year, with a 96 % increase in raids to 1,477. (North Wales Live, 9 June 2025)

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION

31 May: An investigation into EU-funded projects in six member states finds that over €1 billion has been spent on projects that the authors argue are discriminatory and further marginalise vulnerable groups, such as segregated shipping-container housing for Roma in Romania and remote and sub-standard accommodation for asylum seekers in Greece. (Guardian, 31 May 2025)

3 June: Over 11,000 people, a record number, complained of being discriminated against to the German federal anti-discrimination commissioner in 2024, reports the commissioner, with the largest number being about racism, including denial of housing, verbal abuse and spitting on Black women and women wearing headscarves. (Deutsche Welle, 3 June 2025)

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.

 5 June:  ‘Defend BSix & the Knowledge Is Power Programme’ is launched to defend anti-racism and inclusive education at BSix sixth form college, Hackney, with staff strike action planned. The Black history programme is threatened with closure, and entry requirements raised, excluding marginalised students. Sign the petition here. (Socialist Worker, 6 June 2025)

6 June: After the University of Birmingham withdraws allegations against students Mariyah Ali and Antonio Listrat, who were subjected to disciplinary proceedings for protesting the university’s alleged complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the ELSC accuses university authorities of deploying frameworks rooted in Islamophobic and racialised stereotypes, unfairly portraying Palestine solidarity as ‘intimidating’ dissent. (ELSC, 6 June 2025)

9 June: A National Federation of Educational Research (NFER) report into ‘ethnic disparities in initial teacher training (ITT) rejection rates’ finds that there ‘are significant ethnic disparities in postgraduate ITT rejection rates among UK-domiciled applicants that are not explained by differences in applicant and application characteristics’. (TES, 9 June 2025) 

HOUSING| POVERTY| WELFARE

28 May: The parents of Akram Mohammed, a 15-week-old baby who died after developing respiratory problems, tell LBC that they believe damp and mould in their Notting Hill Genesis housing association flat contributed to the death, and urge the government to fully implement Awaab’s Law. (LBC, 28 May 2025)

29 May: The Housing Ombudsman service reports a 474% increase in complaints about poor housing conditions and disrepair in social housing since 2019/20, with tenants reporting feeling invisible and angry. Issues include a child’s bedroom window boarded up unrepaired for four years, and a two-year wait for repairs to a collapsed ceiling containing asbestos. (Guardian, 29 May 2025)

2 June: Shared Health Foundation research lists thirteen violations of the Children’s Convention affecting children living in temporary accommodation, concluding that the housing of children in temporary accommodation is ‘an absolute scandal’. (Shared Health Foundation, June 2025)

5 June: After the government announces that all children from families receiving universal credit benefits will receive free school meals, the Institute for Fiscal Studies queries the   government’s claim that 100,000 children will benefit in the first year, commenting that short-term benefits of the policy have been overestimated and the expansion will take several years to impact child poverty. (Guardian, 5 June 2025)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

31 May: According to children’s health organisation Ekann, dozens of asylum-seeking children in the Netherlands suffered serious health deterioration last year through delays in receiving medical care, often caused by frequent relocations or poor and unsuitable living conditions. The delays have led to lifelong health damage and, in some cases, death. (NL Times, 31 May 2025) 

5 June: Research on 155,000 people diagnosed with aortic stenosis shows that women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and those in deprived areas of England are less likely to receive treatment for this heart condition. (Guardian, 5 June 2025)

EMPLOYMENT| EXPLOITATION| INDUSTRIAL ACTION

6 June: A multimillion-pound government scheme to match exploited care workers with new employers helped just 941 people of 28,000 referred to the service in the year from May 2024, according to analysis by the Work Rights Centre. (Guardian, 6 June 2025) 

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.

28 May: Over 380 groups and writers, including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, and Russell T. Davies, sign a letter condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza and demanding an immediate ceasefire with unrestricted aid access. The letter cites international human rights organisations’ findings, warns that silence in the face of these atrocities diminishes moral responsibility and urge sanctions if Israel does not halt the conflict. (Guardian, 28 May 2025)

30 May: The British Palestinian Committee, which met with the BBC director-general in early May, issues a press release criticising the BBC’s failure to act on the demand that it  report accurately on Israel’s assault on Gaza, stating that the BBC has ‘effectively legitimised an ongoing genocide’. (British Palestinian Committee, 30 May 2025)

31 May: It is revealed that right-wing media and bloggers manipulated images of the Syrian teenager Muhammad al-Muhammad, who helped stop a knife attack which injured 18 people at a train station in Hamburg, Germany, to cast doubt on his role. (Deutsche Welle, 31 May 2025)

2 June: It is reported that Gary Lineker’s final planned interview with Mo Salah was cancelled by the BBC over concerns the conversation might touch on the war in Gaza. The BBC denies the cancellation was related to the Middle East conflict, saying the interview was scheduled to air after Lineker’s last Match of the Day, while sources claim the possibility of Gaza being discussed led to the sudden veto. (New Arab, 2 June 2025)

4 June: TFL blocks a Save the Children advert at Westminster tube station calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap, saying it breaches political advertising rules. Telling the truth about child poverty shouldn’t be controversial, says Save the Children UK. (Guardian, 4 June 2025)

4 June: Hungary’s Fidesz government postpones a vote on its controversial ‘Transparency in Public Life’ bill, which critics say would censor independent media by allowing authorities to target foreign-funded outlets as threats to national sovereignty. The proposed law uses broad terms like ‘undermining Christian culture’ to potentially silence critical journalism. (Euronews, 4 June 2025)

4 June: A UK parliamentary report calls for banning non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in the music industry, highlighting how they perpetuate racial and gender-based abuse, with women of colour facing particularly severe discrimination. The report reveals that 47% of women of colour in the sector experience racism, yet only 8% report it due to fear of retaliation and a systemic lack of accountability. (Guardian, 4 June 2025)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

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

9 June: After two 14-year boys, accompanied by a Romanian translator, appear in court on rape charges, a vigil for a teenage girl allegedly assaulted in the predominantly Protestant town of Ballymena, County Antrim, erupts into a racist riot after a section of the crowd breaks away and attacks foreign-owned businesses. The windows of several houses are attacked. The chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland says police prevented a pogrom. (Guardian, 12 June 2025)

10 June: The media report that the home of a Filipino family was petrol bombed on the first night of the racist riots in County Antrim, leading to substantial damage to the property and the destruction of a nearby car. (Irish News, 10 June 2025)

10 June: Police use water cannon and plastic baton rounds in an attempt to disperse crowds in Ballymena, County Antrim. Smaller anti-immigrant protests take place in Lisburn, Coleraine, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus and Belfast, with unrest spreading to parts of Belfast and Carrickfergus. (Guardian, 12 June 2025, New York Times, 11 June 2025)

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, Research Against Global Authoritarianism 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. 

The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.

The majority of the IRR’s work is free to access. Please consider supporting our research and analysis by making a donation.

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