On 31 January 2003, Sylbert Farquharson won a civil case against police officers who subjected him to a racist beating in Stockwell, south London. The facts before Judge Michael Dean, sitting at the Central London County Court, must have been so horrific as to make him cast aside the normal reserve of his office. Mr
News Service
Haslar – a place of no return
Ukrainian asylum seeker, 42-year-old Mikhail Bognarchuk, was found hanged by his shoelaces in a toilet at Haslar Removal Centre on 31 January. He was due to be deported that day to the Ukraine – a country with a questionable human rights record. A Home Office Country Assessment Report on the Ukraine states that ‘police and
Passer-by joins in attack on asylum seekers
Two asylum-seeking brothers in their early 30s were left with serious injuries at the weekend after confronting a group of youths harassing them outside their home. About ten youths had gathered outside the asylum seekers’ home in Hemlington, Middlesbrough, on the evening of Saturday 1 February – throwing snowballs at the house. After a while,
Jason McGowan inquest – family walks out
Relatives of Jason McGowan, a black man found hanged in Telford three years ago, yesterday walked out of the inquest into his death in protest at the proceedings. As soon as the jury had been sworn in, family members, along with their legal team, left the court. The McGowan family says it has no confidence
Four sentences reduced, eleven upheld, in appeal for Bradford rioters
In what has effectively become a test case for the sentencing of hundreds of Asians charged with participating in the Bradford riot of July 2001, the Court of Appeal has ruled that four individuals were given excessive sentences but a further eleven did deserve terms of between four and six-and-a-half years. During a two-day hearing,
Britain gripped by populist campaigns against immigrants
An explosive mix of prejudices, often verging on paranoia, is fuelling local campaigns against immigration. While the government’s plans to house asylum seekers outside major cities are being challenged by a wave of mass protests in Kent, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Lincolnshire, elsewhere, asylum seekers are being made the scapegoats for an NHS in crisis.
Asylum seekers face rising violence in the South West
A gang of twelve men launched an unprovoked attack in broad daylight on three Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers in Plymouth on Monday 20 January 2003. The attackers were reportedly in their twenties and thirties and inflicted facial and other injuries on their victims. To date, there have been no arrests. On average, one racially motivated
Private security firms suggest new removals regime
Group 4 Falck, Britain’s biggest immigration detention company, today called for the right to report ‘disruptive’ detainees to the immigration authorities so that asylum seekers’ behaviour in detention be taken into account when decisions on refugee status are made. At the House of Commons, members of the Home Affairs Committee on Removals questioned representatives from
Anti-asylum hysteria carries BNP to fifth council seat
The British National Party (BNP) won another council seat yesterday, gaining 679 votes in the Mixenden ward of Halifax, West Yorkshire. The far-Right party managed to gain 29 per cent of the votes cast. Their candidate, Adrian Marsden, 42, overturned the Labour majority in an election which had a turnout of 37 per cent –
Now asylum seekers blamed for dwindling fish stocks
In a bid to win the anglers’ vote, the British National Party has drawn attention to the declining numbers of carp and roach in the River Lea, Hertfordshire. In a surprise move, asylum seekers and refugees have been singled out for blame. According to the January issue of the BNP newspaper, Voice of Freedom, illegal