Dear IRR News subscriber,

This week, we reproduce a letter to the Guardian by IRR director A. Sivanandan on the recent controversy surrounding Kick it Out and the Football Association’s response to racism in football. The IRR’s Victoria Brittain reports on the Home Office’s double standards in the Gary McKinnon case, and the IRR’s Jon Burnett overviews racist attacks and convictions that have taken place across the UK in the last three months.

Also, regular contributor John Grayson, in an exclusive for IRR News, investigates the conditions in a new G4S-run hostel for asylum seeking mothers and their babies in Stockton-on-Tees. And we publish a speech by Helen Bamber at the launch of Borderline Justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights by IRR vice-chair Frances Webber.

In other news from around the UK, a mental health unit in Leicester has been accused of ‘gross failure’ to provide adequate care to Gagandip Singh Sandhu who took his own life. Two police officers are to be questioned after new evidence has come to light surrounding the death of Phillmore Mills after he was restrained by police in a hospital in Slough. And 53 EDL supporters including their leader Tommy Robinson have been arrested, allegedly on their way to attack a mosque.

Finally, the IRR is still looking for volunteers. If you are interested, please download details here.

Harmit Athwal

Editor, IRR News