A recent case[1] reveals that refugees are still being prosecuted and imprisoned for using false documents in their quest for safety, eleven years after the courts declared the practice unlawful. An Iranian man goes on a demonstration and is beaten up, detained and tortured for sixteen days. Relatives organise his escape, and he is bundled
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Germany has failed multiculturalism not vice versa
Angela Merkel tells a CDU conference that multiculturalism in Germany has ‘utterly failed’, yet Germany has not even tried it. Germany has until recently not extended citizenship rights to its many Turkish residents, or even to the descendants of the Gastarbeiter who were born on its soil, unlike the UK which gave citizenship automatically to
Inspired art by detained people
The latest Koestler Trust exhibition of ‘offender’ art is currently on show at the Royal Festival hall, Southbank in London. Approximately 150 pieces of art created by those held at prisons, removal centres, young offenders’ institutes and secure mental hospitals in the UK and people in contact with the probation service, are being exhibited until
Deportation imminent – detention indefinite
The futility of indefinite immigration detention is laid bare in a recent report by the London Detainee Support Group (LDSG), No Return No Release No Reason. The report, No Return No Release No Reason, launched in September 2010, updates London Detainee Support Group’s previous report about the UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) detention practices. It focuses
Full list of deaths during deportations from Europe
We publish a full list of all those who have died during deportation from European countries. There have been fourteen deaths (twelve men and two women) since 1991 during forced deportations. The official cause of death in most cases was positional asphyxia or cardiac arrest. Of the fourteen that died, ten were Africans (of which
Driven to Desperate Measures
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes today a report on deaths of asylum seekers and migrants which damns government policies for putting vulnerable people at risk. On Tuesday, an Angolan asylum seeker died during his deportation. But this is not an isolated case. According to IRR’s report, Driven to Desperate Measures: 2006-2010, forty-four people
Freedom of speech finally vindicated
The prosecutor has withdrawn an appeal against Dr Sabine Schiffer’s acquittal in Germany for slandering a police officer. On 24 March 2010, Dr Sabine Schiffer, an anti-racist academic and Director of the Institute for Media Responsibility in Erlangen, was acquitted of slander of a police officer. She had been prosecuted for her suggestion that institutional
Alone and unprotected, taxi drivers fear for their safety
Up and down the country, taxi drivers are bearing the brunt of late-night drinking and aggressive racist behaviour – and are now turning to self-defence. On 5 October 2010, Daniel Miller was handed a twelve month community order from an Exeter court for racially abusing and physically assaulting Hackney carriage driver, Mohammed Numan. Miller had
The Abatans need funds for inquest
Next week, on 11 October, the inquest is due to begin into the death of Jay Abatan, who was murdered eleven years ago in January 1999. Jay’s family have had to fight for an inquest to be held at all. It was thought by the coroner that an inquest was not required as there had
A. Ragunathan 1931-2010
The IRR is very sad to announce the death of one its most stalwart of volunteers, A. Ragunathan, brother of IRR director A. Sivanandan. Until ill-health overtook him, this retired world-renowned marine engineer (who had given of his expertise to ports and docks in thirty-six countries, most of them in the Third World) beat a