Banire Sy Savane, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, whose case IRR News highlighted last week, has been released from Dover Immigration Removal Centre. Banire won a last-minute reprieve from his planned deportation, after a campaign by the Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers Support Group. The group collected dozens of letters of support and drew
Geography: South-East England
Pressure grows on Gypsy site after BNP elected
Gypsies at the Payne’s Lane site are being threatened with prison by Epping Forest District Council if they do not leave. Three BNP councillors were recently elected promising to evict Gypsies. Harry and Linda Smith are the only remaining Gypsies at the Payne’s Lane site on the edge of the Lea Valley Park. Harry has
What happens to those who die on Britain’s borders?
The body of an Iraqi would-be asylum seeker who died trying to enter Britain in 2001 has been left in a mortuary for almost three years because there are no funds to pay for its return. Omid Jamil Ali was born to a poor family in rural Kurdistan in 1980. Like many others, his family
Racist murder in Ashford, Kent
Two White men have been charged with the murder of Bapishankar Kathirgamanathan, a 24-year-old Sri Lankan-born restaurant worker. Kathirgamanathan had been walking home across a footbridge, on 22 April 2004, when he was assaulted in what police are regarding as a racially-motivated attack. During the attack, Kathirgamanathan sustained severe head injuries and died two weeks
Mubarek family win inquiry into Zahid’s murder
After years of campaigning by the Mubarek family, David Blunkett has announced that a judicial inquiry will be held into the racist murder of Zahid Mubarek at Feltham Young Offenders Institute. The inquiry will investigate and report to the Home Secretary on Zahid’s death and the events leading up to the attack on him, and
Tribute to an ‘African rebel’
Four years ago this week, thousands of people lined the streets of Haringey, north London, to follow the last journey of one of Britain’s most outspoken political leaders. Now, an archive has opened dedicated to remembering the life and work of Bernie Grant MP. The seventy cubic feet of items held in the archive cover
Between Iraq and a hard place
Today, Iraqis will protest outside the Home Office against the government’s plan to begin deportations to Baghdad. IRR News spoke to one Iraqi asylum seeker about the hard choice between destitution and deportation. When Sady Hussein walked through the security barrier at the immigration court, he set alarm bells ringing. Worried officials searched him for
Yarl’s Wood update: officer sacked
A security officer at Yarl’s Wood detention centre has been sacked following revelations of racist bullying, exposed by an undercover reporter in December 2003. Following an investigation by the Daily Mirror last year, which documented racist language, a culture of violence in training sessions and staff boasting of their brutal treatment of detainees, three security
Custody death at Heathrow airport
Paul Yorke, a 38-year-old mixed-race man, died after being arrested by police officers at Terminal Two of Heathrow airport on 2 November. He was taken to Heathrow police station where he was charged with being a ‘prohibited person’ (it is alleged that he had been banned from airport property) and then detained in a cell.
Roger Sylvester – police condemned for black death
It has taken the Sylvester family four years to get an inquest into Roger’s death. A verdict of unlawful killing has been returned. But the last successful prosecution of a police officer involved in a black death was in 1971, despite numerous inquest verdicts of unlawful killing since then. Clapping and shouts of joy, mingled