Calendar of Racism and Resistance (29 October – 11 November 2025)

Calendar of Racism and Resistance (29 October – 11 November 2025)

November 13 2025 News

Written by: IRR News Team


ELECTORAL POLITICS | GOVERNMENT POLICY

 29 October: The prime minister says Vietnamese nationals arriving irregularly will be fast-tracked for deportation, under an agreement with the Vietnamese government. (Guardian, 29 October 2025)

30 October: Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says her party has no plans to deport legally settled families and that there were no plans to make tougher immigration rules retrospective, following MP Katie Lam’s remark that the party would revoke migrants’ settled status and deport many to ensure ‘cultural coherence’. (Guardian, 30 October 2025)

 31 October: After disappointing results for the far-right PVV party in the Dutch general election (loss of 11 seats, total 26 seats), Geert Wilders claims that the election was rigged. Many previous PVV voters switch to the far-right JA21 as well as Forum for Democracy. (Netherlands Times, 31 October 2025; Guardian, 31 October 2025)

31 October: Reform UK Brighton branch puts out an antisemitic ‘happy Halloween’ poster of Zack Polanski, echoing Nazi propaganda. (SUTR, 3 November 2025)

 2 November: In a letter to the housing secretary, over forty Labour and independent MPs call on the government to adopt a definition of Islamophobia, pointing out that recent figures reveal hate crimes against Muslims are up by nearly a fifth. (Guardian, 2 November 2025)

2 November: In a submission to the Home Affairs Committee on asylum accommodation, Middlesbrough council said it was given ‘little or no strategic guidance’ during the August 2024 riots by the government or asylum accommodation provider Mears on how to respond, with only one email circulated by the Home Office. (BBC News, 2 November 2025)

 5 November: After nine people are injured in an incident where a car is driven toward pedestrians on the French Atlantic island of Ile d’Orleron, a Rassemblement National representative immediately describes it as the ‘latest Islamist attack’ to affect a country where ‘no town… or neighbourhood… feels safe’. (Deutsche Welle, 5 November 2025)

 6 November: Medway council says that illegally erected flags will be taken down and that it will not allow the national flag to be ‘hijacked’ and used as a sign of ‘division and intolerance’ after many local residents write to the council to say they no longer feel safe in their own neighbourhoods. (Kent Online, 6 November 2025)

 8 November: The government is reportedly looking at Denmark’s immigration and asylum system, one of the toughest in Europe with severe restrictions on family reunion and settlement for refugees, as a model for future policy. (BBC, 8 November 2025)

10 November: Independent MP Rupert Lowe is criticised by Zack Polanski, leader of the Green party, and Jeremy Corbyn after he posts on social media, ‘We need to create such a hostile and unwelcoming environment for illegal immigrants that the vast majority deport themselves’. (Left Foot Forward, 12 November 2025)

 ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

 30 October: Four men in Sweden go on trial accused of hate crimes and attacking immigrants, exposing the rise of far-right ‘fitness clubs’ that use gyms to promote white nationalist ideology. Prosecutors say the men, linked to Aktivklubb Sverige (Active Club Sweden), randomly targeted victims of ‘foreign origin’ while giving Nazi salutes. (France24, 30 October 2025)

 30 October: 57-year-old Catholic priest Father Mark Rowles admits sending racist and violent messages in a neo-Nazi chatroom under the name ‘skinheadlad1488’, in which he discussed bombing mosques and shooting Black people. Rowles receives a 12-month community order, 150 hours of community service, and a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order, while the Catholic Church in Wales launches its own review. (BBC News, 30 October 2025)

 31 October: A French court jails four Bulgarian men for vandalising a Paris Jewish memorial with red handprints, an act prosecutors suspect was linked to Russian intelligence. Judges say the desecration aimed to deepen social divisions in France. (Guardian, 31 October 2025)

1 November: Anti-racists march in Newhaven and outnumber far-right activists protesting at an asylum hotel in Gloucester. Mobilisations also take place in towns including Southsea and Southampton, and in Dartford and Portsmouth the following week. (Stand Up to Racism, 3 November 2025; Stand Up to Racism, 10 November 2025)

 4 November: Tommy Robinson is cleared of a terror-related charge after refusing to give police his phone PIN during a border stop. Judge Sam Goozee rules the stop unlawful, saying Robinson was targeted for his political ideas and beliefs rather than any real link to terrorism. Outside the court, Robinson thanks Elon Musk, who paid for his legal defence. (Guardian, 4 November 2025; Reuters, 4 November 2025)

 5 November: Greek lawmaker George Koumoutsakos is beaten by suspected far-right activists during a protest in Athens and suffers facial bruises. He accuses neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn of orchestrating the attack, calling the assailants ‘purveyors of racism and xenophobia.’ Police make no arrests. (Naharnet, 5 November 2025)

 6 November: Police in Hanau, Germany, investigate after nearly 50 cars, mailboxes, and building facades are defaced overnight with swastikas reportedly painted using human blood. Authorities say the motive and source of the blood are unknown, and there are no reports of injuries. (INKL, 6 November 2025)

 7 November: Two thousand anti-fascists take to the streets in Sheffield, in defiance of a police restriction order, to combat a 100-strong UKIP march to an asylum hotel, part of its ‘mass deportations’ tour. (Morning Star, 9 November 2025)

7 November: In Ireland, two men allegedly linked to a violent right-wing extremist group are arrested following the discovery of explosives in a cross-border counter-terrorism operation. They appear before Portlaoise District Court accused of threatening on a video to attack a Galway mosque, IPAS centres and hotels housing migrants around Ireland. (RTE, 7 November 2025)

ANTI-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

6 November: Annual Prevent data reveals that for the first time, far-right extremists outnumber ‘Islamists’ in anti-terror programme referrals, which have reached a record high, with 21 percent being due to ‘extreme right-wing concerns’ and 10 percent to Islamist ideology.  (Guardian, 6 November 2025)

 POLICING | PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

30 October: EU policing agency Europol’s close and often murky relationships with private tech companies are examined in a new Statewatch report, Behind Closed Doors. (Statewatch, 30 October 2025)

 30 October: Two men are found guilty of the murder of Croatian man Josip Strok in Dublin, Ireland, on 30 March 2024. The prosecution say ‘There is a difference between protest and vigilante violence because you think a foreign national has assaulted two kids.’ (RTE, 30 October 2025; Sunday World, 30 October 2025)

 2 November: After police investigating multiple stabbings on a train in Cambridgeshire release the ethnicity of two suspects in a bid to counter far-right speculation, former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu says that disclosures on race are an ‘unintended consequence’ of new National Police Chiefs’ Council guidelines. (Guardian, 2 November 2025)

 3 November: A Cambridgeshire police officer who used a racist slur towards a Black nightclub doorman is dismissed without notice after a High Court judge, in response to a judicial review bought by the IOPC, ruled that his original punishment was unlawfully lenient. (Misconduct 999, 3 November 2025)

 3 November: In Ireland, a man alleged to have falsely claimed that an asylum seeker had exposed himself on a bus in Co Wicklow to women and girls appears in court, charged under the Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act with publishing a grossly offensive communication with intent to cause harm.  (MSN, 4 November 2025; Irish Times, 3 November 2025)

 4 November: Peaceful protests outside MPs’ homes could result in six months’ imprisonment under a new clause in the Crime and Policing Bill goes through parliament. (Guardian, 3 November 2025)

 5 November: Following an investigation by the IOPC, a Derbyshire police officer is charged with assaulting a 17-year-old boy at a care home. No details of the boy’s ethnicity are given. (BBC News, 5 November 2025)

 5 November: As Germany bans ‘Muslim Interactive’ on constitutional grounds, as it had called for a Caliphate to replace the German state, police search the premises of ‘Islamist’ organisations in Hamburg, Berlin and Hesse. (Deutsche Welle, 5 November 2025)

 7 November: 30 Patterns of Harm, an internal police review by Dr Shereen Daniels, finds that the ‘racial harm’ the Metropolitan police inflicts on Black people is ‘institutionally defended’, with its leadership and culture protecting the force from real change. HR systems are criticised for dismissing complaints as ‘banter’ or personality clashes, with those speaking up accused of ‘playing the race card’ or being overly sensitive. (Guardian, 7 November 2025; Morning Star, 7 November 2025)

7 November: Groups including Sheffield Communities against Racism and Fascism (SCARF) and Sheffield Stand Up to Racism condemn South Yorkshire police for permitting UKIP to march through the city from Sheffield Cathedral and for their order preventing anti-racists from assembling at the same point, which they say puts vulnerable people at risk of violence. (Morning Star, 7 November 2025)

8 November: Whistleblower Seyed Mohammed Marandi, German-Moroccan and Jewish says that counter-terrorism police raided his home and seized electronic devices after he exposed footage, taken at a Jewish community centre last March, of the Israeli Ambassador to Austria calling for the death penalty for Palestinian children involved in the war. (Almayadeen, 8 November 2025)

10 November: An independent commission including Ireland’s former chief justice, a former attorney-general and a former global counter-terrorism head of MI6, criticises the process used to ban Palestine Action, saying the definition of terrorism is too loose and allows too much ministerial discretion, risking ‘inconsistency, perceptions of unfairness, and the treatment of legitimate protest as terrorism’. (Guardian, 10 November 2025)

11 November: The Children’s Commissioner for England and Wales publishes new research and calls for the closure of all young offender institutions. In 2023-24, more than half (62 per cent) of all children remanded to custody in England and Wales did not receive a custodial sentence, and 168 children (17 percent) had their case dismissed altogether. In 2021-22, more than half (56 percent) of children remanded were from an Asian, Black, mixed or other minority ethnic group. (Guardian, 11 November 2025)

 ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP

 Asylum and migrant rights

 31 October: Statewatch publishes a data protection handbook showing how data protection law can be used to seek remedies and redress for people in the EU’s asylum and immigration system. (Statewatch, 31 October 2025)

 

1/ NEW GUIDE: We’ve just published a new Data Protection Handbook on Asylum and Migration in Europe. ⚠️

Who it is for:
This handbook is for anyone who works in immigration, in asylum, or who advocates for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.

[image or embed]

— Statewatch (@statewatch.bsky.social) 31 October 2025 at 10:45

 1 November: Freedom of information data received by the Guardian reveals that 345 children arriving in the UK on ‘small boats’ went missing from Kent county council, with 56 still missing and thought to be taken by traffickers and held in conditions known to ‘include being chained to furniture, physically and sexually assaulted, and punished by being starved of food’. (Guardian, 1 November 2025)

3 November: Nearly 300 organisations sign an open letter calling on the government to defend the European Convention on Human Rights and to resist calls for change or withdrawal in order to restrict migrants’ rights. (Statewatch, 3 November 2025)

 7 November: An 8-year-old girl, waiting to be reunited with her parents due to high UK visa fees, remains in Jamaica with neither shelter nor security following the destruction of the family home by hurricane Melissa. Her parents are appealing to the Home Office to grant the visa as a matter of urgency. (Guardian, 7 November 2025)

Borders and internal controls

6 November: Six people, believed to be from Afghanistan, die as a van chased by border police in Bulgaria goes out of control, crashes and plunges into a lake. The driver and three other passengers sustain minor injuries. (EuroNews, 7 November 2025)

 7 November: Over a dozen NGO rescue vessels in the Mediterranean suspend communication with the Libyan coastguard, funded by the EU and Italy, citing escalating violence, interceptions and kidnapping of asylum seekers to torture camps. (Guardian, 7 November 2025)

9 November: Prosecutors in Greece accept the appeal of the survivors of the Pylos shipwreck of June 2023, in which up to 650 migrants drowned, and bring criminal charges against the current head of the Greek coastguard and three more senior officers, in addition to the 17 coastguard members already charged. (Legal Centre Lesvos, 9 November 2025)

 Reception and detention

 30 October: Residents of asylum hotels in Manchester write an open letter explaining their situation and saying they want to contribute to society in response to the protests and concerns about safety and costs. (ITVX, 30 October 2025)

 3 November: As the government plans to use military sites to accommodate asylum seekers, Wealden District Council calls on the Home Office to reverse its plans to accommodate 600 men at a training camp on the outskirts of Crowborough, East Sussex, accusing the Home Office of ‘dire mismanagement’ and lack of consultation. The Sussex police and crime commissioner is one of hundreds protesting against the plans (BBC News, 3 November 2025; BBC News, 8 November 2025)

3 November: Freedom from Torture reports on the harm caused to survivors of torture by the current asylum accommodation model, and how to change the conversation around asylum housing. (Freedom from Torture, 3 November 2025)

4 November: Highland Council officials urgently call on the Home Office to provide clarity over the planned accommodation of 300 male asylum seekers at the Cameron Barracks, Inverness. (BBC News, 4 November 2025)

11 November: Epping Forest District Council loses its High Court battle to prevent the Bell Hotel, Epping, the site of anti-immigrant protests, being used to house asylum seekers. (LocalGov, 11 November 2025)

11 November: RAMFEL reports on squalid conditions in asylum hotels in the south of England, including rats, overcrowding and inedible food leading to malnutrition and weight loss in children. (The i paper, 11 November 2025)

 Deportations

 5 November: An Iranian man, who insists he is a victim of modern slavery and was returned to the UK following his deportation to France under the ‘one in, one out’ policy, is deported to France a second time despite concerns over his mental health, being considered vulnerable and having hourly welfare checks. (Guardian, 5 November 2025)

7 November: Cyprus has deported or repatriated over 10,000 undocumented migrants since the beginning of 2025, police announce, compared with 8,500 in 2024. (Cyprus Mail, 7 November 2025)

10 November: Marcus Decker, a German national imprisoned for peacefully unveiling a Just Stop Oil banner over the Queen Elizabeth Bridge in October 2022, appeals his automatic deportation following his prison sentence. (Guardian, 10 November 2025)

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION

 27 October: The Supreme Constitutional Court in Cyprus annuls the government decision to deregister the migrant rights support group KISA, saying that the decision was not justified and violated basic human rights principles, in particular the right of association and assembly and freedom of expression. (KISA, 27 October 2025)

HOUSING | POVERTY |WELFARE

10 November: Crisis reports that nearly 300,000 households experienced the most acute forms of homelessness in 2024, meaning rough sleeping, sleeping in tents, squats or hostels – a 21 percent rise since 2022. (LocalGov, 10 November 2025)

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

4 November: An NHS study examining data on babies admitted to an NHS neonatal unit between 2012 and 2022 finds that babies born to Black mothers are 81 percent more likely to die in neonatal care than their white counterparts; babies born to Asian mothers have a 36 percent higher risk of death; and babies whose mothers live in the most deprived areas had a 63 percent higher risk of death. (Guardian, 4 November 2025)

EMPLOYMENT/ EXPLOITATION/ INDUSTRIAL ACTION

30 October: Research by the law firm Freeths suggests that more than half of UK businesses with revenue over £100m are changing the way they approach ethical policies, with the Trump administration’s criticisms of ‘diversity’ initiatives and the ‘woke agenda’ leading them to review or even scrap such policies. (Guardian, 30 October 2025)

7 November: The RMT union pickets Downing Street to protest changes to skilled worker visas, which threaten hundreds of permanent transport staff with deportation, while Unison warns that the changes make it harder to recruit in the hard-pressed health and care sectors. (Morning Star, 7 November 2025)

11 November: The chief executive of an NHS Trust says that Black and Asian NHS staff who care for patients at home feel intimidated by St George’s Flags, with some areas becoming ‘no go zones’. The Royal College of Nursing also expresses concern. The Department of Health advises workers to report any incidents to police. (Guardian, 11 November 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.

2 November: ‘British Patriot’, who have with 5,000 followers on X, are amongst far-right social media accounts exploiting the knife attack on a Cambridgeshire train, posting an  unsubstantiated claim that the assailant shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’. After police reveal that the suspects were two British nationals, far-right accounts suggest that information is being withheld. (Guardian, 3 November 2025) 

5 November: Doncaster Reform councillor Alexander Jones apologises for ‘any offence caused’ after posting on Facebook claims that the knife attack in Cambridgeshire was carried out by individuals who ‘are not English’, and that ‘discussion about the impact of mass immigration on public safety’ was needed. (BBC News, 5 November 2025)

5 November: Conservative Cornwall councillor Pauline Giles resigns after she is criticised for Facebook comments in support of a petition calling for mass deportations, which she said were necessary because ‘we cannot sustain the volume of young black males flooding our country’. (BBC News, 7 November 2025; Byline Times, 5 November 2025)

6 November: BBC Middle East editor Raffi Berg sues journalist Owen Jones for libel over his article on the BBC’s Gaza coverage, which Berg says led to death threats and harassment. The article accused Berg of promoting ‘systematic Israeli propaganda’ and downplaying Palestinian perspectives, which he denies. (Jewish News, 6 November 2025)

6 November: Hundreds of protesters gather outside Villa Park ahead of Aston Villa’s Europa League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv, prompting 11 arrests and a major police operation with over 700 officers deployed. (BBC News, 6 November 2025)

7 November: Bob Vylan singer Pascal Robinson receives damages and an apology from the Manchester Evening News for a piece accusing him of throwing Nazi salutes on stage. (Morning Star, 9 November 2025)

9 November: BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resign following criticism over coverage of Donald Trump, in what insiders term a ‘right-wing coup’. A leaked internal memo also raised concerns about systemic bias in BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict and alleged pro-trans editorial influence. (BBC News, 9 November 2025)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

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

31 October: A 40-year-old man from Essex is sentenced to an 18-month community order for threatening to bomb a hotel housing asylum seekers and assaulting a man he wrongly believed was one. (BBC News, 31 October 2025)

31 October: Police examine video footage of an Islamophobic incident at Earl’s Court Station, west London. Green party deputy leader Mothin Ali says he was abused by a ‘racist thug’ who threatened to ‘smash my head’ and said ‘I know you. I’ve seen all about you online. You should be deported’. (Standard, 31 October 2025)

31 October: Police in West Belfast treat a home burglary, during which the house was invaded while the family was inside and ransacked by a number of men, as a racially motivated hate incident. (Belfast Media, 31 October 2025)

31 October: A Brazilian refugee family leave their home in Ormesby, Teesside, after being targeted by youths, who over a period of months threw stones at the children in the garden and shouted racial abuse. (Teesside Live, 31 October 2025)

 31 October: In Wolverhampton, a group of men attack a woman with a handheld electrical stun device and a metal bar in what police are calling a racially aggravated assault. (BBC News, 31 October 2025)

31 October: Irish police investigate an attempted arson attack on asylum accommodation in Drogheda, County Louth. Five people, including four children, are rescued from the top floor of the building. The Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland criticise initial claims that the fire was caused by fireworks. The Irish Refugee Council says that the targeting of people at an IPAS centre while people were sleeping inside amounted to a ‘crossing of the Rubicon’. (BBC News, 1 November 2025; The Journal, 3 November 2025)

2 November: The Irish government orders an urgent security review of all IPAS centres in the wake of the arson attack on an asylum facility in Drogheda, with it now emerging that it was not fireworks but accelerant that was used to set the stairs on the building alight, with suspects now wanted for attempted murder. (RTE, 2 November 2025)

6 November: A Directory of Social Change resource advises charities to consider the effect of rising racist and sectarian hate in their strategic planning and risk assessments. (Third Sector, 6 November 2025)

7 November: In a new report, A Summer of Division, the British Muslim Trust says that between July and October, 25 mosques were targeted in 27 attacks. More than a quarter of attacks were violent or destructive, with 40 incidents featuring British or English flags and Christian nationalist symbols or slogans such as ‘Christ is King’. (Guardian, 7 November 2025) 

8 November: Sukhvinder Kaur, chair of Sikh Women’s Aid, a domestic abuse charity in the West Midlands, says women are changing their daily routines to protect themselves following a series of religiously-aggravated rapes and assaults. (Guardian, 8 November 2025)

10 November: British Transport police, investigating an incident close to Bond Street station, say that a woman was sprayed with suspected pepper spray, subjected to racial abuse and assaulted by a well-dressed couple during a family day out in central London. (Standard, 10 November 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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