An interview with Gloria Morrison, Campaign Coordinator of JENGbA (Joint Enterprise – Not Guilty by Association) which is a prisoners’ support group made up of the friends and families of people convicted under the doctrine of joint enterprise. Liz Fekete: Since its launch in 2010, JENGbA has pointed out that the law on joint enterprise
News Service
Victory for campaign against daft deportation
A respected academic has won his fight against deportation on the ground that his bank balance fell below £800. This is the sort of story that the tabloids would love if it was about a sturdy British fight against a barmy EU directive or health and safety regulation. But because it’s about an outspoken Muslim
Gill Butler 1942-2012
Remembering a unique campaigner for asylum and human rights. Gill Butler was a dedicated campaigner for the rights of asylum seekers and against the injustices of the asylum system. A trained, specialist nurse until she retired, she brought this knowledge to bear in her work as both Chair of Yarl’s Wood Befrienders and as a
Asians in Britain
A new learning resource, Asians in Britain[1] produced by the British Library[2], explores the contribution that South Asians have made to Britain’s cultural, social and economic life. Focusing on the period 1858-1950, this online resource debunks prevailing myths about the Asian presence in Britain, and the tendency to associate this presence solely with post-World War
Abu Qatada decision causes alarm – to rights activists
As the prime minister derides the European Court of Human Rights as a ‘small claims court’, it isn’t just the anti-human rights brigade who are worried by its recent judgment. ‘Once again, he has made fools of us’, announced the Telegraph,[1] in response to the Strasbourg court’s ruling that Omar Othman, aka Abu Qatada, the
The international language of football
Reading of the allegations of racism in football, it struck me as the more sad, that, over the years, football has been for me the great leveller, the international language which speaks across countries, class and gender. It was 1986, my husband and I were on the cheapest of cheapest jolly holidays in Tunisia, packaged
Where detention is the norm
A report on the UK Border Agency’s management of foreign national offenders bears little relation to the press’ coverage. ‘The 5,000 crooks we can’t deport’: was the Sun headline which was repeated, with more or less polite variations, across Britain’s press on 27 October, from the Express to the Guardian, the message all the papers
Total disaster
Bernard Hogan-Howe’s recent talk on ‘total policing’ at the LSE didn’t go down too well. ‘Total policing’ is how the Metropolitan Police chief, Bernard Hogan-Howe, describes the criminal justice strategy he is importing into London. And part of this strategy, he says, is regularly communicating with the public. At a talk at the London School
Two deaths in three weeks in Spain’s notorious detention centres
Allegations of institutional neglect surround the deaths of two migrants within weeks of a report calling for the centres’ closure. In the early hours of 5 January, a 21-year-old man from Guinea-Conraky, died in Barcelona’s immigration detention centre after complaining of chest pains or (according to another report) breathing problems. The age of the deceased,
Unsafe return
A new report on returns to the DRC challenges the government’s assertion that refused asylum seekers are not at risk. In Unsafe return: refoulement of Congolese asylum seekers, Catherine Ramos examines the experiences of seventeen Congolese refused asylum seekers returned to Democratic Republic of the Congo and finds that most of them were subjected to