Earlier this year, the Daily Express dedicated numerous front pages to the threat of ‘1.6 million Gipsies’ who were ‘ready to flood in’ to Britain on 1 May, when the European Union was expanded. Today, an article on page eight of the paper admits that only 10,000 have come. It was billed as the ‘Great
News Service
Are Chinese lives cheaper?
This was one of the questions asked at a meeting held in London on 7 July 2004, to discuss the Morecambe Bay tragedy in which 21 Chinese cockle-pickers drowned after being caught in bad weather and high tides. The meeting, which had been organised by Min Quan, the Chinese Monitoring Project, heard from Lin Guo,
Challenging detention without trial
On 6 July 2004, at the High Court in central London, the appeals began of ten men, all foreign nationals, who are challenging their continued detention without trial under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. The men, many of whom are refugees or asylum seekers, and all of whom are Muslim, have been held
Analysis: the war on terror leads to racial profiling
As IRR News first warned last year, the threat of terrorism is being used as a pretext to discriminate in police stops and searches, particularly against British Asians, a trend confirmed by new figures published last week. Even before September 11, the fight against terrorism was being used to justify a host of new powers
Where is my family?
A Sudanese asylum seeker, 39-year-old Tariq Abdulrahman Mohammed, who is currently detained in Bijlmerbajes deportation prison in Amsterdam, is desperate to find his wife and children, whom he last saw when he was in the UK – before he was deported back to the Netherlands. Tariq and his family had lived in the Netherlands for
Pressure grows on Gypsy site after BNP elected
Gypsies at the Payne’s Lane site are being threatened with prison by Epping Forest District Council if they do not leave. Three BNP councillors were recently elected promising to evict Gypsies. Harry and Linda Smith are the only remaining Gypsies at the Payne’s Lane site on the edge of the Lea Valley Park. Harry has
Royal Mail and racial bullying
On 25 May 2004, Mahmood Siddiqui, a 59-year-old postal worker at the Royal Mail sorting office in Harlow, was awarded £178,542 in compensation for racial discrimination by an employment tribunal. Mahmood had suffered four years of racist abuse at the hands of his white colleagues which the tribunal found was ‘vicious and sly’. He was
Another Black death in psychiatric custody
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
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