Britain’s immigration detention regime has been subjected to a damning condemnation by prison inspectors this week, revealing that detainees are not given basic information about their cases, are exploited by unscrupulous legal representatives and are routinely strip-searched without reason. In one centre, Campsfield House, 12 per cent of detainees said that they had experienced sexual
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Home Office caves in to populist anti-asylum movement
The populist movement against asylum seekers scored another victory this week, as the Home Office abandoned plans to build induction centres in Sittingbourne and Saltdean. Sittingbourne, Kent, has been the scene of a strong local campaign opposed to government plans to convert the Coniston Hotel into an induction centre for 111 asylum seekers. The protests,
Britain ‘fast-tracks’ Roma back to discrimination
Members of one of the most socially deprived communities in Europe, the Roma, are being deported in large numbers and at huge expense, even though in a year’s time, when their home countries become EU members, they will be able to legally reside in the UK. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Roma Affairs in Stage
From refugee protection to managed migration: the EU’s border control programme
Since the Seville Summit of June 2002, European heads of state are increasingly questioning the continuing relevance of the 1951 Geneva Convention. In this – the first in a series of reports examining various aspects of the EU’s new focus on ‘managed migration’ – we examine the EU Council’s new Border Control Programme in relation
Summary – the EU’s new Border Control Programme
Under plans to be presented tomorrow by the home secretary, David Blunkett, to the European Union summit in Brussels, asylum seekers will be held in ‘temporary processing centres’ outside the EU – possibly in Ukraine, Russia, Turkey or North Africa. A report by the Institute of Race Relations, published today, shows how this proposal is
Stop and search: police step up targetting of Blacks and Asians
An analysis by the Institute of Race Relations has revealed that the number of stops and searches conducted by the police in England and Wales has gone up for the first time since the publication of the Macpherson report, with Blacks and Asians bearing the brunt of the increase.* Black people are now eight times
Libraries rebuff police surveillance of asylum seekers
Police in Plymouth have asked local libraries to log internet activity by asylum seekers in the city, following an unfounded terrorism scare. But library bosses have told police that they are unwilling to violate the public’s right to privacy. Recently, a member of the public called the police after seeing a foreign student using a
Rural campaign against the BNP launched in South West
A broad coalition of local campaigners in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset have launched a major drive to stop the British National Party from making gains in the forthcoming council elections. The ‘Unite to Stop the BNP’ campaign, led by the South West branch of the National Civil Rights Movement, has drawn support from a range
Inquiry into the death of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett begins
The public part of the inquiry into the death of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett began this week. Rocky Bennett, a 38-year-old Black man, was certified dead in the early hours of Saturday 31 October 1998. He had been a detained patient in the Norvic Clinic, an NHS medium secure unit in Norwich, for three years. His
Blunkett loses appeal over asylum support
The appeal court has upheld Justice Collin’s high court ruling that the Home Secretary was in breach of the human rights convention by denying support to destitute asylum seekers. On Tuesday 18 March, three appeal court judges led by the Master of Rolls, Lord Phillips, dismissed David Blunkett’s appeal against the earlier high court ruling