Dear IRR News subscriber,

This week, Andy Shallice lays bare the impact of new measures to restrict the rights of EU migrants, particularly the Roma. And the IRR’s European researchers home in on Swiss asylum policy, describing the institutional neglect and exclusionary policies that characterise its detention system.

And in news from across the UK, police are investigating the murder of 31-year-old Saudi student Nahid Almaneam who was stabbed 16 times in an attack in Colchester that is being investigated as a ‘hate crime’. Three people, two men and a woman, have been jailed for 52 years for the murder of Barry Smith who died after being beaten and set alight by the gang who had previously racially abused him for being a Gypsy.

An inquest has begun into the death of 35-year-old American tourist Brian Dalrymple, who died of a ruptured aorta, after being held for six weeks at Harmondsworth and Colnbrook immigration removal centres in 2011.

The family of an Asian man who died after being arrested by police in Camden have complained of an information ‘blackout’. While the Independent Police Complaints Commission has announced that five police officers will be re-investigated, over their involvement in the death of Sean Rigg who died in 2008 after being restrained. The Commission for Equality and Human Rights has also launched an investigation into the deaths of those with mental health conditions in state custody, it will report next year.

Harmit Athwal

Editor, IRR News