This graphic account of the plight of the undocumented in Amsterdam first appeared on the web site Dreaming in Exile. Since 2012, a group of people from a number of countries have formed a group in Amsterdam called ‘We Are Here’. There are men and women, old and young. Some have been here for many years.
News Service
African refugees under attack in Israel
A Human Rights Watch report, criticising Israel’s inhumane treatment of African asylum seekers, provides an opportunity to reflect on the extension of the Prevention of Infiltration Law, first used against Palestinians in 1954. In recent weeks, Israeli nationalists, including ministers from the far-right Jewish Home party, have marched through the streets of Tel Aviv, with
‘Hell on Earth’ – a new film on immigration detention
A compelling documentary by Standoff Films lays bare the horror of Campsfield immigration removal centre in Oxfordshire. When Injustice, Ken Fero’s pathbreaking 2001 documentary about black deaths in custody was recently re-shown on London’s South Bank, Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw was part of the post-screening panel. Bradshaw, describing his shock when he first watched
The hopeful migrant
A personal account of the everyday problems encountered by one eastern European attempting to make a new life in the UK. I should have realised from the start that Elena lived in a fairy land with her God. I had broken my arm in the snow and we needed help in the house. She came
‘We revolt simply because … we can no longer breathe’
An impressive new film on the death of Mark Duggan, and the riots that followed, provides a welcome radical alternative narrative. Ken Fero’s new film, Burn, (dedicated to those who burn for justice) describes itself as a movie about memory. He asks ‘why Britain burns?’ and there are a variety of responses, but the consensus
Memory and hope: new perspectives on the Kashmir conflict
The latest issue of Race & Class, ‘Memory and hope’, contains a special section on the possibilities for peace and autonomy in Kashmir. As the ceasefire along the Line of Control breaks down and Pakistani and Indian troops are involved in a new outbreak of hostilities causing 20,000 civilians to flee their homes, Race &
Institutional indifference – in life and death
The treatment of a homeless French man who died in immigration detention makes grim reading and shows up a callous system. On 26 September, nearly two years after the inquest, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) published a fatal incident report into the death on 6 December 2011 of an unnamed 40-year-old French man in
IRR News 19 September – 2 October 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, The 1980s was a time when the New Right, with its most influential journal The Salisbury Review, edited by Roger Scruton, had a poisonous hold over mainstream debates on race, nation and culture. Now, in the wake of the ‘no’ vote in the Scottish referendum, David Cameron is building an ever-divisive
Calendar of racism and resistance (19 September-3 October)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting the key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees September: The ECtHR rules that conditions for migrants detained in a number of Greek police stations and immigration detention centres are so bad that they amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, in two
Albion: a review
A dramatic exploration of fascism is needed in the UK, but unfortunately Albion does not provide this. How do we explain the rise of the far Right in Britain? This is the question at the heart of Albion, a play by Chris Thompson, which ends up titillating its audience but providing few answers. Set in