In this article Phil Scraton recalls a defining month in the career of Boris Johnson that laid bare his deep-seated prejudices, disregard for factual accuracy and self-serving arrogance. On 7 October 2004 Ken Bigley, a civil engineer, was beheaded in Iraq by Islamic extremists. Just two days later a respectful silence was held in his
Dear IRR News subscriber, The law-breaking captain of a pirate ship, she is not! But that is how far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini described German national Carola Rackete, captain of the SAR NGO vessel, Sea Watch 3 who, in a series of dramatic events, was arrested, placed under house arrest, then released only to be
An exhibition that bears witness to migrant deaths in the Mediterranean challenges us to confront the UK’s complicity in Europe’s war on asylum. Two image-events bookended Refugee Week 2019. The first was artist-provocateur Christoph Büchel’s ‘installation’ of the migrant shipwreck known as The Boat of Innocents in Venice’s Arsenale. Rechristening it Barca Nostra (Our Boat) was
In a major blow for one of the few BAME women-led organisations left in the UK, Newham council has decommissioned London Black Women’s Project’s refuges for BAME women escaping violence. With one in four women in the UK experiencing domestic violence in the course of a lifetime, the scale of violence against women in the
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP ASYLUM AND MIGRANT RIGHTS 19 June: The Supreme Court rules that the Home Office acted illegally in requiring EU citizens from eastern Europe to register after 2009 to have residence rights, making hundreds of
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week marks the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower Fire which claimed seventy-two lives and displaced and traumatised hundreds of others. As we report in our regular calendar of racism and resistance, the occasion was marked by Grenfell United, which represents the survivors and bereaved, by the projected illuminations of
On the third anniversary of the death of Jo Cox, the IRR reports on racist violence across Europe, highlighting also cases involving police officers and soldiers. Following the arrest in Germany on 17 June of a far-right extremist in connection with the murder of Walter Lübcke , the Christian Democrat head of city administration in
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP REFUGEES AND THE CONFLICT IN LIBYA 7 June: In the context of renewed clashes around Tripoli, the UN human rights office says that 22 people have died of tuberculosis since last September at the
Dear IRR News subscriber, The state visit of the US president, with its army helicopters and security service convoys, promises of trade deals, privatised health and chlorinated chicken, brought out many thousands of protesters, amongst whom were many migrant solidarity activists angered by the proposed border wall, horrified by children’s separation from parents at the
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP ASYLUM AND MIGRANT RIGHTS 22 May: Six UN special rapporteurs and independent experts write to the Italian government demanding the withdrawal of the interior ministry directive that, in prioritising security over refugee rights, justifies
