An inspection report into three short-term holding centres is another damning indictment of the way asylum seekers are treated in the UK. On 6 June, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, published her first report of unannounced inspections of three ‘short-term holding centres’ for asylum seekers. The short-term holding centres, at Harwich International Port
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Lives in our Hands: Darfuri asylum seekers facing removal to Khartoum
A new report by the Aegis Trust backs up calls for a moratorium on deportations from the UK of Darfuri asylum seekers. The Aegis Trust, which coordinates the Project Darfur campaign, has published Lives in our Hands: Darfuri asylum seekers facing removal to Khartoum, a painstakingly researched 55-page dossier. Researched and edited by David M
The anti-Muslim backlash begins
In the hours after the bombings in London, the backlash began. Innocent people, as in the bombings, were targeted in what appear to be racially motivated attacks. 13 July 2005: Guardian reports that a schoolboy has been attacked in the West Country. (Guardian 13.7.05) 12 July 2005: A 16-year-old Asian boy suffers head and facial
Asylum seeker death in Dover from ‘natural causes’
The family of 40-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker, Elmas Ozmico, have expressed concerns at a recent inquest verdict into her death that found that she died of natural causes. Concerns centre around the fact that despite asking for medical help she was not taken to hospital until 19 hours after she arrived at Dover. Elmas Ozmico
Fight to prevent deportation of injured asylum seeker
Despite a 21-year-old asylum seeker being served with three removal notices and sustaining a broken hand during one attempted deportation to Congo-Brazzaville, he has, with the help of campaigners, now been given temporary admission to the UK and submitted a fresh asylum application based on new evidence. Anicet Mayela, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Congo
Death case throws up police failings
On 29 June, at a second disciplinary tribunal of police officers involved in the failed police investigations into the murder of Jay Abatan in January 1999 in Brighton, two police officers were found guilty of various misconduct charges – for which they were reprimanded or cautioned. The tribunal revealed many troubling details about the police
Should more be done to prevent suicides in immigration detention centres?
After another apparent self-harm death in an immigration detention centre, campaigners are asking whether more should be done to prevent suicides in detention centres. Over the last few months, the detention of asylum seekers in the UK has been widely criticised for the mental pressures it puts on vulnerable asylum seekers. Most recently, Amnesty International
Dying to reach Europe?
To mark refugee week, UNITED for Intercultural Action, the pan-European network against racism, has revealed details of 6,300 deaths of migrants and refugees at Europe’s borders. UNITED has monitored refugee deaths since 1993. With the help of their network of more than 560 anti-racist and refugee rights organisations they have documented the six-thousand deaths in
Mass hunger strike against deportations to Zimbabwe
With the UK government issuing strong condemnations of Robert Mugabe, ninety-seven Zimbabwean asylum seekers, in detention centres across England, have gone on hunger strike to protest against the increasing number of deportations to Harare. Zimbabwean asylum seekers in detention centres across England have launched a mass hunger strike to draw attention to their plight. Ninety-seven
Seeking asylum is not a crime
A new report by Amnesty International (AI) calls on the government to ‘justify the lawfulness of detention’ of each and every single asylum seeker in the UK. AI concludes that in many cases the detention of asylum seekers is ‘protracted, inappropriate and disproportionate’. The report, Seeking asylum is not a crime: Detention of people who