Against the backdrop of citizens’ protests against the Socialists’ austerity package, the Right made significant gains in Catalonia by focusing on anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim themes. Democratic municipal elections were held in Catalonia (four constituencies and forty-one counties) in 1979 for the first time after General Franco’s death, and since then the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC)
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Eastern European workers under attack
Racist attacks on Eastern Europeans and, in particular, migrant workers continue to occur regularly and are being perpetuated by policies which foster destitution. Earlier this month, speaking through a translator from a hospital bed in Exeter, where he had spent the last three weeks, Daniel Sobieraj pleaded for information regarding three men who attacked him
Three days of anti-immigrant violence shakes Athens
Following three days of anti-immigrant violence in Athens, questions are being asked about possible far-right involvement in the murder of Bangladeshi migrant worker Alim Abdul Manan. The attacks on immigrants started on Tuesday 10 May after Manolis Kantaris, a 44-year-old Greek man, died after a stabbing in what appeared to be a street robbery in
Living Wage campaign
A few weeks ago, as thousands queued outside Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of Kate’s wedding bouquet, hundreds of others gathered nearby in Central Hall for another kind of celebration. The event was organised by Citizens UK, which has over 240 member organisations – churches, mosques, synagogues, trade unions, community groups, from all over
Brutal and unlawful detention
Corporate Watch has produced a thorough analysis of UK immigration detention policies by examining the detention of children and families at Yarl’s Wood removal centre. The report Immigration Prisons: Brutal, Unlawful, and Profitable: Yarl’s Wood a case study examines the procedures at the centre, the closure of the family unit,[1] and the implications for the
Culture of abuse in treatment of HIV/Aids
Medical Justice, the charity that assists detainees access healthcare in detention, has once again published compelling research about the treatment of people within immigration removal centres. In its latest report, Detained and Denied: The clinical care of immigration detainees living with HIV, Medical Justice provides a thorough analysis of the inhuman way in which people
Heathrow death preventable?
Kirsten Heaven, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, writes about the inquest into the death of Jianping Liu, who died at Heathrow airport hours after being released from police custody. Jianping Liu, a Chinese national had settled in the UK with her husband and died at Heathrow airport on 12 November 2009 after jumping from
IPPR: fuelling popular racism?
The hardline message of the new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on irregular immigration is designed to reassure working-class voters that a Labour government would control immigration. The IPPR, an influential think-tank with strong links to the Labour Party, starts with the policy position that ‘irregular immigration’ must be reduced, because
Child detention still inhumane
Despite Clegg’s pronouncements that ‘one of the most child-friendly immigration systems in the developed world’ is being implemented, the harshness of the government’s new strategies for detaining and deporting children is now becoming clear. The ‘end'[1] of the detention of children in immigration removal centres came after a long fought campaign uniting a diverse array
Creating common sense racism – its election time again
To what extent are politicians entrenching a common sense racism as they purport to deal with popular fears? It is election time again and politicians are returning to their core ‘narratives’ and vote winning strategies. The politics of race and prejudice coded as ‘immigration’ dominated media coverage of the 2010 general election. It is certainly