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
News Service
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
NASS: chronicle of failure
When the National Asylum Support Service was created in 1999, its policing and deterrent functions were given priority over the provision of welfare for asylum seekers. The system that today forces asylum seekers onto the streets is the inevitable result. It was only the tabloid press and the Home Office which believed (or pretended to)
Racist murder of Zahid Mubarek: questions remain unanswered
An appeal hearing at the House of Lords began this week on behalf of Zahid Mubarek’s family, who are fighting for the right to have a fully independent, public investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. In March 2000, 19-year-old Zahid was murdered by a known racist who had been put in the same cell
Victims of racist harassment need independent support groups, research finds
A study, published this week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has found that independent, community-based support groups offer victims of racism a sense of empowerment and a validation of their experience that they are not finding from other agencies, such as the police, housing departments or racial equality councils. However, these support groups are struggling