ELECTORAL POLITICS| GOVERNMENT POLICY
13 January: West Midlands police and crime commissioner Simon Foster says that MPs on parliament’s home affairs committee are biased against chief constable Craig Guildford, calling for him to lose his job while their inquiry into his decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a Europa League match against Aston Villa in October is still ongoing. (Guardian, 13 January 2026; Counterfire, 16 January 2026)
14 January: Home secretary Shabana Mahmood tells parliament she has lost confidence in West Midlands chief constable Craig Guildford, would sack him if she could, and will take powers to force resignations of chief constables, after a preliminary report by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary found errors, including focussing on public order and community relations and not global consequences and exaggerating the risk from Maccabi fans. (Independent, 14 January 2026; Counterfire, 16 January 2026)
15 January: German socialist MEP Birgit Sippel faces far-right pressure to be removed from her role as rapporteur for the European parliament’s civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee over her insistence that humanitarian workers should not be criminalised in new EU legislation on facilitation of illegal entry. (EU Observer, 16 January 2026)
17 January: Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, a British-born Muslim of Egyptian descent, is criticised by the Muslim Women’s Network after she says that women who wear the burqa should be subject to stop-and-search, adding that it ‘has to be assumed’ that people hide their faces for criminal reasons. (Guardian, 17 January 2026)
18 January: New Research from the IRR finds that the government response to the summer 2024 riots failed to address root causes and links to racism, with this obfuscation legitimising further far-right mobilisation and vigilante violence. The research also draws attention to the prosecution of Muslim and other BME defendants who responded to the riots. (Guardian, 18 January 2026)
🚨EXCLUSIVE 🚨Our new briefing shows that policy and prosecutorial responses to the summer 2024 riots delink the violence from racism – paving the way for anti-immigration and Islamophobic protests and far-right vigilantism to form an infinite loop. https://t.co/YN2w7CdU3K
— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) January 18, 2026
19 January: In the first round of Portugal’s presidential elections, far-right candidate Andre Ventura (Chega, Enough) scores 24 percent of the vote and enters the second ballot. His campaign included putting up billboards across the country saying ‘this isn’t Bangladesh’, ‘immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to live on welfare’ and ‘Portugal is ours’. (Morning Star, 19 January 2026)
ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT
8 January: Four Italian activists from the youth wing of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party are beaten while putting up posters commemorating victims of a 7 January 1978 attack, in which three teenagers from the youth wing of the now-defunct neo-fascist Italian Social Movement were killed, prompting Meloni to condemn politically motivated hatred and violence. (BNN News, 8 January 2026)
12 January: A Ukrainian teenager stabs a teacher and a fellow student at a school in Kyiv and also injures himself before being detained by police. Police say the 14-year-old wore a mask and helmet during the attack and is later photographed in custody wearing a T-shirt reading ‘Hitler kaputt’. (Barron’s, 12 January 2026)
14 January: The interior minister of France issues territorial bans against ten British members of the Raise the Colours movement for conducting anti-migrant activities on French soil, after members, along with Ukip members, livestreamed footage of themselves harassing asylum seekers waiting to cross the Channel. The Home Office declines to comment on any action it proposes to take. (Guardian, 14 January 2026)
19 January: Raise the Colours splits, renames it activities in northern France Operation Stop the Boats, and claims it has recruited 22,000 volunteers, including military and data experts, to support stopping the boats in northern France, as well as donations of equipment including thermal cameras and stab-proof vests. (Guardian, 19 January 2026)
19 January: The Falkirk anti-immigration group Save Our Future and Our Kids Future, the organiser of protests outside the Cadhan Hotel, says it will disband because of the attendance of neo-nazis, including from Patriotic Alternative and the Homeland Party, at demonstrations. (STV News, 20 January 2026; National, 19 January 2026)
20 January: At the latest anti-asylum protest outside the Bell Hotel, Epping, a police officer is temporarily blinded after a laser is shone into his eyes while he was driving a police van. (BBC News, 20 January 2026)
20 January: Portuguese judicial police launch a nationwide operation against the neo-Nazi group 1143, carrying out more than 30 arrest warrants over suspected crimes of violence and hatred against immigrants. (Portugal Resident, 20 January 2026)
20 January: As it emerges that nearly 50 children were referred to social services as potential victims of child criminal exploitation following the 2024 and 2025 racist riots in Northern Ireland, the PSNI expressed concern about paramilitary involvement, noted by the Independent Reporting Commission, and anti-racist group End Deportations Belfast feared that the Loyalist paramilitaries used racist violence to recruit children. (Belfast Telegraph, 20 January 2026)
🚨Important warning from End Deportations Belfast ⤵
Anti-racist group in Northern Ireland concerned that racist violence was being used by paramilitaries for recruitment.https://t.co/kMvsIuQ5qW
— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) January 20, 2026
ANTI-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY
11 January: The government pays 54-year-old Guantánamo detainee Abu Zubaydah an undisclosed ‘substantial’ sum in settlement of his claim that British intelligence provided questions to his CIA interrogators to put to him while he was undergoing torture between 2002 and 2006, demonstrating the UK’s complicity with the US’ torture and rendition programme. (Guardian, 11 January 2026)
POLICING| PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
13 January: Arguments over government attempts to exempt security services from disclosure delay the progress through Parliament of the Hillsborough Law, which will impose a duty of candour on police and public bodies to tell the truth after disasters. (Guardian, 13 January 2026)
14 January: Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners end their hunger strike after up to 73 days, citing the defence ministry’s decision not to award a new contract to Elbit Systems UK and a meeting called by the Ministry of Justice with their representatives and national leaders of prison healthcare, where prison conditions and treatment recommendations were discussed. (Guardian, 14 January 2026)
14 January: The CPS launches a High Court challenge as it seeks to reinstate a terrorism charge against Irish rap group member Mo Chara, arguing that the chief magistrate who dismissed the case committed a technical error. (Al Jazeera, 14 January 2026)
16 January: West Midlands chief constable Craig Guildford resigns, prompting concerns regarding the marginalisation of Muslim communities in the investigation of the Maccabi ban, and the threats to democracy through overt political interference and capitulation to pro-Israel groups. (Al Jazeera, 19 January 2026)
19 January: The High Court rejects a challenge brought by the Howard League for Penal Reform and rules that the use of Pava, a synthetic form of pepper spray, is lawful in young offender institutions, despite its likely disproportionate use against disabled and BME children. (Guardian, 19 January 2026)
19 January: The Children’s Commissioner expresses deep concern after FOI data reveals that staff at Feltham, Hounslow and Werrington YOI’s sprayed Pava on 18 children and young people during six incidents between April and November 2025. Muslim children are over-represented in these YOIs. (Hyphen, 19 January 2026)
19 January: El Hacen Diarra, a 35-year-old Mauritanian man, dies in Paris, France, after police arrest him outside his migrant dormitory. An internal police investigation commences as the family launch a legal complaint of ‘intentional violence’ leading to death. (Le Monde, 19 January 2026; RFI, 19 January 2026)
ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS| CITIZENSHIP
Asylum and migrant rights
7 January: Palestinian academic Bassem Abudagga’s application to reunite with his wife and two children in the UK is refused by the Home Office, which says their case is not urgent and that attendance at a visa application centre to give biometrics could not be deferred despite no such facility being available in Gaza. (Guardian, 7 January 2026)
9 January: UNHCR expresses concern over the proposal to restrict refugees’ residence and family reunion rights in its official observations on the government’s November asylum policy statement, Restoring Order and Control. (UNHCR, 9 January 2026)
14 January: A Palestinian citizen of Israel is granted refugee status in recognition that he has a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ in Israel, three home secretaries, both Tory and Labour, trying to block his claim. (Guardian, 14 January 2026)
15 January: Reforms to the Windrush compensation scheme include prioritising over-75s and vulnerable people and making advance payments, though Justice4Windrush founder Colin McFarlane says that root problems remain, as 60 per cent of claimants receive nil awards. (Independent, 15 January 2026)
Borders and internal controls
6 January: A comprehensive study by Migrant Voice and the Open Rights Group reveals systemic failures in the move to a fully digital immigration status system, finding that migrants experience high levels of confusion, stress, anxiety and exhaustion and suffer through employers, landlords and airline and border officials having little understanding of the system. (EIN, 6 January 2026)
With this government reportedly rethinking plans to introduce digital id to check for the right to work, through our work on this report we helped identify a number of issues with the existing digital immigration system, and the exclusion it creates.
www.migrantvoice.org/resources/re…
— Migrant Voice (@migrantvoice.bsky.social) 14 January 2026 at 15:52
7 January: Teenager Aman Naseri, 18, the first person to be prosecuted for the new offence under Border Security Act, pleads not guilty at Margate magistrates’ court to ‘endangering others during sea crossing’, saying he was forced to pilot a boat with 46 people on board. (BBC News, 7 January 2026)
13 January: Ministers retract plans to make digital ID cards compulsory for right-to-work checks, while insisting that tougher checks on eligibility to work in the UK would involve production of some form of digital ID. (Guardian, 13 January 2026)
13 January: Boosted by additional funding, immigration enforcement teams carried out 17,400 raids on businesses, mostly nail bars, barbershops, car washes and take-aways, in the 18 months to December 2025, a 77 percent increase on the previous 18 months and ‘the highest level in history’ according to the Home Office, resulting in 12,300 arrests, an 83 percent increase. (InfoMigrants, 14 January 2026)
16 January: Law professor Werner Schroeder sues the German government for maintaining illegal border controls after border police used force to check his ID when he refused to show it as he returned to Germany from Austria. (EU Observer, 16 January 2026)
Reception and detention
8 January: An HMCIP inspection of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre in Durham raises concerns of repeated failure to identify women at risk, including those with acute mental illness, histories of sexual exploitation and modern slavery, and pregnant women, as staff lacked sufficient training. (EIN, 8 January 2026)
15 January: An independent inquiry opens into conditions between June and November 2022 at Manston processing centre in Kent, where Kurdish asylum seeker Hussein Haseeb Ahmed died of diphtheria and a Syrian woman suffered a miscarriage after being denied immediate medical attention. (Guardian, 15 January 2026)
16 January: Clearsprings Ready Homes, whose ten-year asylum housing contract with the Home Office is believed to be worth £7 billion, pays fines of £140,000 to Swindon Borough Council, avoiding a five-day trial for breaches of housing safety regulations in HMOs for asylum seekers and for failing to disclose previous convictions. (BBC News, 16 January 2026)
19 January: A survey by Medical Justice of 33 people awaiting deportation to France in the ‘one in, one out’ scheme finds that 18 show clinical evidence of torture or trafficking, and states that clinical safeguards in detention are ‘a futile exercise’ with ‘near total disregard for identified vulnerabilities’. (Guardian, 19 January 2026)
Deportations
See also culture, media and sport
7 January: The first ‘one in, one out’ deportation flight to France is cancelled. (Guardian, 7 January 2026)
15 January: Around 200 officers with riot shields, dogs and teargas violently attack 100 asylum seekers conducting a peaceful sit-in protest during the night of 14-15 January against forced removal to France across two detention centres – Harmondsworth, near Heathrow, and Brook House, near Gatwick. Testimony from protesters is published by Detained Voices. (Guardian, 15 January 2026; Detained Voices, 16 January 2026)
Crimes of solidarity
15 January: 24 volunteers who faced up to 20 years in prison for providing rescue and first response to refugees in Lesvos, Greece, including Sara Mardini and Seán Binder, are acquitted of all charges by a Lesvos court, seven years after their arrest. (Guardian, 16 January 2026)
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.
15 January: Ofsted conducts a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy after it was revealed that the school cancelled a visit by local MP Damien Egan, vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, in September over concerns raised by pro-Palestine activists and NEU members. (Guardian, 15 January 2026)
HOUSING| POVERTY| WELFARE
20 January: Poorer and ethnically diverse communities in northern cities including Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle are exposed to one-third more air pollution than those in cities without the same industrial histories, where poor and racially minoritised groups suffer 15 percent more air pollution than residents of wealthier areas, a Sheffield University study reveals. (LocalGov, 20 January 2026)
Poorer residents in Northern cities exposed to more pollutionhttps://t.co/53EEzxs0y0
— Localgov.co.uk (@localgoveditors) January 20, 2026
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
14 January: Research by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies finds that a quarter of teenagers in care have attempted suicide – four times more than their peers – and that adverse impacts of care on mental health persist into adulthood. (LocalGov, 15 January 2026; Guardian, 14 January 2026)
EMPLOYMENT| EXPLOITATION| INDUSTRIAL ACTION
9 January: The Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service rejects a case brought by the General Medical Council against renowned reconstructive plastic surgery consultant and Palestinian rights advocate Dr Ghassam Abu Sittah following a complaint made by UK Lawyers for Israel. (ICJP, 9 January 2026)
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
7 January: TikTok removes six videos by Polish far-right politician Grzegorz Braun, including footage linked to his extinguishing of Hanukkah candles in parliament, after the Never Again Association files a hate speech complaint. (Reuters, 7 January 2026)
7 January: The Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding accuses the Times columnist Melanie Phillips of racism after she accuses Palestinians of pursuing a ‘final solution’ and describes Palestine’s embassy in London as a ‘non-embassy for a non-state for a non-people’. (Middle East Eye, 7 January 2026)
13 January: A Home Office TikTok account posts videos of deportations, raids and migrant arrests set to dramatic music, drawing criticism from campaigners including Freedom From Torture and the Refugee Council for turning ‘brutality into clickbait’. They say the account, branded with the slogan ‘restoring order and control to our borders’, fuels fear and anxiety, while the Home Office says it aims to deter illegal migration and tackle online misinformation. (Guardian, 13 January 2026)
19 January: The annual report of the Senior President of Tribunals highlights media scrutiny of judicial decision-making and expresses concern over unwarranted media commentary and abuse directed at judges. (EIN, 19 January 2026)
RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.
9 January: Greater Manchester police launch a hate crime investigation after a pig’s head is mounted on a spike of the gates of a Muslim family’s home in Stockport. (Manchester Evening News, 19 January 2026)
13 January: A man in his 30s is arrested on suspicion of arson attacks carried out two years ago on an empty house in Kildare, Ireland, which was wrongly believed to be earmarked for asylum accommodation. (Irish Mirror, 13 January 2026)
16 January: An art installation exploring issues of migration and identity at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation in London is forced to close after vandals attack the exhibition, smashing windows with an ice axe, scrawling ‘FREE UK’ in orange lipstick and sticking Union flags and St George’s crosses across artworks. Article 19 describes the attack as ‘censorship by violence’. (Article 19, 16 January 2026)
17 January: The Muslim Women’s Network says that a sharp rise in the number of abusive and threatening emails it receives has led the charity to remove signage outside its offices and profile pictures of staff from its website. (Guardian, 17 January 2026)
18 January: Edinburgh Central mosque is daubed with hate graffiti in the latest in a series of incidents at Muslim religious centres across Scotland. (Herald, 18 January 2026)
19 January: Aid groups in northern France report that far-right activists, emboldened by mainstream political rhetoric, are harassing asylum seekers, sabotaging water containers and livestreaming their intimidation. An uptick in hateful graffiti includes a hangman’s noose with a figure dangling next to the word ‘migrant’ and a Jewish Star of David painted in black surrounded by red swastikas. (Guardian, 19 January 2026)
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.