Dale Farm residents’ hopes of an eleventh hour reprieve from eviction have been crushed by the House of Lords’ refusal to hear their appeal – a matter of hours after a spirited meeting in parliament saw the UN pledge its support. Residents from Dale Farm in Essex, often described as the largest ‘illegal’ Traveller site
News Service
Austria: ‘provoking and connecting’ the Kanafani way
Below we reproduce a discussion with members of the Austrian Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative. How did the Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative get started and what are its main goals? Baruch Wolski: To start with we were just a circle of Kurdish, Austrian, Turkish and Arab friends. One of the first things we organised were women-only dance events.
Kanafanis challenge Austrian integration policy
The Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative (Kulturverein Kanafani) in Vienna, which publishes the journal der.wisch, has set itself a goal: to challenge the mainstream political debate in Austria over ‘integration’. The IRR’s ‘Alternative Voices on Integration’ project attended the Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative discussion forum ‘Integration – a miracle cure put to the test’ in Vienna on 5
No charges – and no bail
Ten students arrested in anti-terror raids in April face continued immigration detention and deportation despite the lack of evidence against them. In a pattern which is becoming increasingly familiar, a high-profile operation by anti-terrorism police amid rumours of imminent atrocities ended with no charges, but with the men turned over to immigration officials for deportation.
Rulings in age assessment cases
In two recent cases, the courts have returned to the controversial issue of how the Home Office and local authorities assess the age of asylum seekers who claim to be children. On 6 May 2009, Justice Keith ruled unlawful a Home Office decision that a young Chinese asylum seeker was over 18 which led to
Academics refuse to police immigration
IRR News reproduces a collective letter by academics who ‘decry the insidious way in which [they] are being used to monitor foreign students and staff’.[1] ‘We are among the growing number of academics across the UK voicing our concern about being drawn into playing a key role in an ever-tightening system of immigration control. Many
New project to end immigration detention of children
A new project has been launched to end the detention of children and their families for immigration purposes. The Children’s Society and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) are working in partnership on the End Immigration Detention of Children and their Families (EIDOC) project, which seeks to provide advice and support to asylum-seeking children and young
New campaign by PCS union
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have launched a campaign to prohibit the employment of members of racist organisations within the Home Office and UK Border Agency. PCS’s members believe that it is unacceptable for members of racist organisations to implement asylum and immigration policy, as their political beliefs are incompatible with
Remembering Kelso Cochrane
Next weekend, a series of events will take place in west London to remember Kelso Cochrane, one of the first recorded victims of racially motivated murder in the UK. Fifty years ago on 17 May 1959, Kelso Cochrane, an immigrant from Antigua, was murdered in Notting Hill by a gang of White men as he
‘Our parents did not come to this country to bury their children’
Below we reproduce a statement from the brother and sister of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah, who died after being arrested by police in High Wycombe on 3 July 2008. ‘It has now been almost nine months since Habib/Paps, our brother died in High Wycombe whilst being arrested during a routine drugs search. No one knows what