The restraint of a woman, who asked to attend church, sparked the disturbance that led to Yarl’s Wood detention centre being burnt to the ground. Of the eleven men charged in connection with the fire, only four were convicted, after a trial that may have been flawed. And yet, next month, Yarl’s Wood will be
News Service
Legal aid cuts will target those most in need of protection
Last January, the government threw asylum seekers onto the streets, under the new ‘Section 55’ rules. This January, it plans to deny them access to proper legal advice, under new proposals to ration legal aid. The result will be the ‘warehousing’ of cases and the end for many of a chance of a fair hearing.
What happened to my son?
‘I sent him to the airport; he was so excited! It will be his first time living apart from us. I am proud of him and the next time we meet he will be a man!’ – Mr Lee was thinking as he saw his son, Lee Kyung Woon (also known as Michael), off to
If they have your passport, they have your life
It might sound innocent enough. A family brings someone from abroad to work in their home, under the domestic worker visa programme. For the sake of ‘convenience’, the employer hangs on to the worker’s passport. But a new report from Kalayaan, a group supporting the rights of migrant domestic workers, shows how the withholding of
Hidden voices
An important new booklet from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland records the struggles of asylum seekers in their own words. In Asylum Voices, we hear of experiences usually hidden in British society. Behind the tabloid headlines screaming ‘bogus’, ‘scrounger’, ‘economic migrant’ are the ‘hidden voices’ of people who come to the UK seeking refuge.
Fortress America
As America plunges into a period of imperialist expansion, immigrant communities – particularly of Middle-Eastern and South Asian descent – have been caught in the teeth of a new domestic totalitarianism. Every Friday, a small group of protesters holds a picket outside the New York offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on Manhattan’s
Hull: Hundreds of asylum seekers protest against racism
Around 300 asylum seekers – mostly Iraqi Kurds – gathered at Pearson Park in Hull this week to demand a stronger response from Humberside police to the racist attacks they are suffering. In the last two weeks, the number of assaults against asylum seekers and refugees in Hull has increased dramatically. A number of victims
Death at the border – who is to blame?
The EU Border Control Programme, introduced with scant regard to refugee protection and human rights, is leading to an increasing number of deaths on the borders of Europe – and beyond. The measure of desperation Over the last eighteen months, our research has identified 742 people who have died attempting to reach Europe[1]. In order
The other asylum statistics
Governments count the numbers coming in. But who counts the numbers that do not make it? Research by the Institute of Race Relations has found that, in the last 18 months, at least 742 lives have been lost on Europe’s militarised borders. The actual number of deaths is certainly much higher, as only officially verified
Update: far-Right political parties in Europe
In its latest review of the successes and losses of far-Right and anti-immigrant electoral parties in Europe, the Institute of Race Relations notes that extreme-Right immigration and law and order policies are being incorporated into the agenda of mainstream centre-Right parties; extreme-Right electoral parties are appealing increasingly to rural constituencies; and new political parties are