A report from the Refugee Council details the impact of Section 55 on asylum seekers and the voluntary organisations that support them. The Refugee Council has published a report, written by Bharti Patel and Saoirse Kerrigan, Hungry and Homeless: the impact of the withdrawal of state support on asylum seekers, refugee communities and the voluntary
News Service
Tribute to an ‘African rebel’
Four years ago this week, thousands of people lined the streets of Haringey, north London, to follow the last journey of one of Britain’s most outspoken political leaders. Now, an archive has opened dedicated to remembering the life and work of Bernie Grant MP. The seventy cubic feet of items held in the archive cover
Learning the lessons of history
A new booklet published by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) compares the experiences of the Kindertransporte with those of refugee children today. At a time of collective amnesia, when we look set fair to repeat the dangerous politicisation of race and immigration of an election forty years ago, it is heartening to find
Between Iraq and a hard place
Today, Iraqis will protest outside the Home Office against the government’s plan to begin deportations to Baghdad. IRR News spoke to one Iraqi asylum seeker about the hard choice between destitution and deportation. When Sady Hussein walked through the security barrier at the immigration court, he set alarm bells ringing. Worried officials searched him for
Rally round the flag
In calling for ‘integration’, Trevor Phillips has taken Britain a step closer to the assimilation policies sweeping Europe. Across Europe, hysteria has gripped the political classes. The questions of what to do about desperate immigrants and angry Muslims have coalesced into ‘the integration debate’. In France, the official answer is forced assimilation, symbolised by the
Detention without trial at Belmarsh
On Sunday 4 April, over 250 people gathered outside Belmarsh maximum-security prison to mark the detention without trial of fourteen men, all foreign nationals, held under the Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act. The men, who have not been charged or convicted of any offences, are being detained indefinitely because they are suspected of being
What diversity means in public broadcasting
BBC Radio London presenter Henry Bonsu has been axed because his bosses said he was ‘too intellectual’. Whereas in the past, distinct Black media voices were shut down in the name of ‘multiculturalism’, today it is done under the fashionable banner of ‘diversity’. Something about the taunt ‘too intellectual’ rang a bell. This was one
Justice for Andrew Jordan
On 7 October 2003, Andrew Jordan, a 27-year-old Black man, died after up to nine police officers entered his flat in Erith, south London. The Police Complaints Authority has told Andrew’s family that he was punched three times by one of the officers. Andrew was a physically fit, tall, well-built young man, who was suffering
Disquiet at far-right activity
As the June elections approach, the BNP and the NF are marking the deaths of white murder victims. But, the families of the victims do not see the murders in terms of race. Last week the far-right BNP descended on Glasgow to launch ‘Project Handshake’ – its avowed bid ‘to sink once and for all
Deportations ‘a second war against the Iraqi people’
The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) has launched a campaign against the planned deportation of Iraqi asylum seekers from the UK, saying that the general climate of instability in Iraq, along with the lack of basic services, makes it dangerous to force Iraqis to return. The Home Office has announced that it plans to