On May 28, 24-year-old Azrar Ayub, a patient at the secure Edenfield Unit at Prestwich hospital near Manchester was found dead after being sedated and restrained by staff at the hospital. According to news reports, Azrar, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been detained at the unit since June 2000. On the day of his death, Azrar
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BNP bags 800,000 votes but no ticket to Brussels
The BNP has failed to make a major electoral breakthrough, partly because the anti-immigrant vote was split with UKIP and partly because of a strong, united anti-BNP campaign. It was, according to British National Party (BNP) propaganda, supposed to be the election that would see the BNP gain its first member of the European parliament,
Work regime for asylum seekers in legal limbo
David Blunkett has tabled a last-minute package of amendments to the Asylum and Immigration Bill currently passing through parliament, including a measure forcing unpaid community work onto rejected asylum seekers who cannot be deported. At present there are thousands of asylum seekers left in a legal limbo because their claim for asylum has been rejected
Managed migration: a permanent crisis?
The Sunday Telegraph this week published a leaked memo revealing the latest u-turn in the government’s managed migration policy. And a new pamphlet from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants suggests we should expect more of these twists and turns in the future because managed migration is inherently prone to crisis. The Commonwealth
Wrongly accused Man Utd. fans call for apology
Manchester United supporters have been helping Iraqi Kurdish refugees who were wrongly accused of plotting to bomb Old Trafford. On 19 April 2004, over 400 police officers conducted dawn ‘anti-terror’ raids across the UK and arrested ten people on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Within hours, the arrests were
Protests against separation call for Roma children
Nobel Prize-winning writer Günter Grass is among the first 700 signatories to a petition calling for the resignation of Eric Van der Linden, the EU ambassador to Slovakia. A month ago, Van der Linden called for Roma (Gypsy) children to be forcibly separated from their parents during the week and put in boarding schools. Speaking
Foreign prisoners – forgotten prisoners?
The Prison Reform Trust has recently published Forgotten Prisoners – the plight of foreign national prisoners in England and Wales, which examines the increasing numbers of foreign nationals being held in British prisons, the problems that they encounter, and the inconsistency of their treatment. Key facts and figures include: 12 per cent of the prison
Photographer witnessed and prevented deportation
Concerns are being raised by UK NGOs about the possible use of excessive force during deportations. A witness to an attempted deportation describes the humiliation and distress she saw. On, 29 April 2004, just two days before ten new states, including Lithuania, joined the EU, British photographer, Jess Hurd, on her way to Lithuania to
What happens to those who die on Britain’s borders?
The body of an Iraqi would-be asylum seeker who died trying to enter Britain in 2001 has been left in a mortuary for almost three years because there are no funds to pay for its return. Omid Jamil Ali was born to a poor family in rural Kurdistan in 1980. Like many others, his family
Another asylum seeker takes own life
On 18 May 2004, 27-year-old Afghan asylum seeker Zekria Ghulam Mohammed was found dead at his flat in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow. Zekria apparently took his own life and was found by a friend who had to break the door down to gain entry to the flat. Zekria, who had been living in Scotland