News Service


Iranian asylum seeker under death threat wins reprieve

An Iranian deportee, who has been on hunger strike at Campsfield Detention Centre, was thrown a last-minute lifeline after his application for judicial review was accepted. Today, he has been given bail and will return to his home in Warrington. But just one week ago, until lawyers succeeded in delaying his deportation, he was due

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Comment

New Labour and new authoritarianism in criminal justice

Lee Bridges, Chair of the School of Law at Warwick University, comments on the government’s new Criminal Justice Bill. A government’s authoritarianism is marked by the numbers of its citizens it imprisons. Under New Labour the prison population, already rising under the Tories, has soared to over 70,000, so high that even the prison governors

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Man charged with murder of Asian taxi driver

Paul Craig, 46, of Higginshaw, Oldham, has been charged with the murder of taxi driver, Israr Hussain. Craig has also been charged with assault and intent to rob. 42-year-old Israr Hussain, a father-of-six from Glodwick, Oldham, died after a stab wound to his neck following an incident in his taxi in the early hours of

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Nation-wide protests against asylum destitution

Refugee and homelessness organisations have united to protest against new measures in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act which are set to throw tens of thousands of asylum seekers on to the streets. It is estimated that from 8 January 2003, when the new powers to withhold support apply, every day will see a further

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News

West Ham condemned for buying Lee Bowyer

We are disappointed and dismayed at the actions of West Ham United Football Club by buying Lee Bowyer. Suresh Grover from the NCRM and the Najieb Family Campaign said: “Over the past few years West Ham Football Club have done much to distance themselves from racism. It has also worked with local partnerships and secured

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Comment

Analysis: Deaths during forced deportation

Case details of nine deaths during forced deportations in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, France, Austria and the United Kingdom. The right to life, and the right to dignity – not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, are recognised as the most fundamental of all human rights. As such, they are at the heart

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Comment

Asylum: the end of the road

As new immigration laws come into force, human rights and immigration barrister, Frances Webber, gives her view on recent developments. Within days of the 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act coming into force on 7 November, and even before it was published, the first Czech and Slovak Roma were being bundled out of the country

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Comment

Prejudice and contempt: terror trial by media

On 17 November, the Sunday Times claimed on its front page that MI5 had foiled a poison-gas attack on London’s underground. Six men had several days earlier been arrested under the Terrorism Act (2000). The report alleged that the men were part of an Al-Qaeda network operating in Europe and had been planning to build

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Asians do mix, say researchers

The idea that Asians ‘self-segregate’ has been challenged by researchers investigating housing in Leeds and Bradford. Since the riots in Oldham, Burnley, Leeds and Bradford, during the summer of 2001, a number of reports and commentators have promoted the notion of Asian ‘self-segregation’. What began as a racial myth – ‘Asians don’t mix’ – became

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Review

Sweatships: what it’s really like to work on board cruise ships

This little booklet written by Celia Mather and published by the charity War on Want and the International Transport Workers’ Federation tells the horrific story that lies behind the luxury facade of the holiday cruise ships. It is a tale reminiscent of the bad old days of the British Empire. Low wages and long hours

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