On 5 July 2006, Abiy Fessfha Abebe, an Ethiopian asylum seeker, was found hanged in Liverpool following news that his claim for asylum in this country had been refused. UPDATE 1 AUGUST 2006: ABIY’S BURIAL HAS NOW TAKEN PLACE. Abiy was in the UK for less than three weeks before his sad death and lived
News Service
First death under new community fast-track system
Last Wednesday, on 5 July 2006, a 35-year-old Ethiopian asylum seeker, Abiy Fessfha Abebe, was found hanged in accommodation in Liverpool, after recently being told his asylum claim had been refused. His death is the 25th such death of an asylum seeker in the last five years. Other asylum seekers who were housed at the
Racism and Islamophobia in France: the far Right and the grassroots
In debates surrounding the complex social, political and economic situation that France is facing, the far Right has continued to exercise its political voice. Yet young people from the banlieues (suburbs), many of whom are affected by racism and discrimination as part of their everyday lives, suffer from a dearth of political representation and are
The ‘Mediterranean Solution’: rescinding the rights of boat people
In May, a ‘ghost ship’ with eleven petrified corpses washed up in Barbados. The Africans onboard the sea-battered yacht had set sail four months previously from the Cape Verde islands – and had been heading for Europe. As the EU draws on Australia’s ‘Pacific Solution’ to further militarise its sea borders, and enters into new
What next for Europe’s boat people?
As EU leaders and their North African counterparts host a series of immigration summits, the European Race Bulletin seeks to establish what is really going on behind the scenes. In The Mediterranean Solution, Liz Fekete argues that under cover of combating human trafficking, EU countries are rescinding the rights of boat people travelling from Africa
Coalition to stop deportations to Iraq
A recent conference called by a coalition of groups and organisations against the deportation of asylum seekers to Iraq, called on the government to stop deportations. It also wants the government to grant protection to all Iraqi asylum seekers and recognise them as victims of war and allow them the right to work or to
No escape
According to a recent report, discrimination on the basis of caste is one of the most insidious and unacknowledged forms of discrimination in the UK today. It may well come as a shock to those who associate racism in Britain with White views of racial or ethnic superiority that an older form of discrimination within
Birthday wish for freedom
Coventry Refugee Centre is fighting to keep a Congolese asylum seeker in the UK, claiming that she could face danger and sexual violence if deported. Birthdays have traditionally been seen as an annual celebration, offering us release from the monotony of the everyday and providing us with an opportunity to laugh and enjoy ourselves with
Research with refugees
A new publication examines the methodological challenges in doing research with refugees. Three decades ago, the issue of how to conduct research on Britain’s Black communities (BME had not yet been coined) rocked academia and caused a palace revolution within the Institute of Race Relations and threw a spanner into the works of race relations
Police allow anti-terror protest
On 22 June, political comedian Mark Thomas, members of CAMPACC and other groups and individuals were given police permission to demonstrate in support of a proscribed political organisation and against the new ‘glorification of terrorism’ clause. The Metropolitan Police approved the demonstration in Parliament Square, which was called ‘to support the PKK’s [Kurdistan Workers’ Party]