The Hawthorn Archive book launch

Les Back, Brenna Bhandar and Kodwo Eshun join Avery Gordon to discuss her new book, ‘The Hawthorn Archive: Letters from the Utopian Margins’, which presents a selection of the Hawthorn Archive’s collections. Friday 15 December 2017, 5-7 pm The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London NW8 8PQ The Hawthorn Archive, named after the richly fabled tree, is a disorganised and

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Comment

Deaths in the Direct Provision system in Ireland

In the fourth of a series, asylum campaigner John Grayson examines the deaths that have occurred of asylum seekers housed in the Direct Provision (DP) system in Ireland. Sharon Waters of the Irish Refugee Service described the lack of information on deaths and the number of suicides in direct provision accommodation centres as ‘shambolic’ …Waters

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News

Calendar of racism and resistance (17 – 30 November 2017)

A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum and migration 13 November: Nepalese man, Suraj Sapkota, is awarded £24,515.43 by the High Court for false imprisonment, after he was arrested and detained for thirty-six days because immigration officials wrongly believed he was marrying bigamously. (Free

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Comment

Daisy and the £4 billion asylum housing contracts

© J. Grayson

As the tendering process for £4 billion worth of contracts over ten years gets under way, asylum campaigner John Grayson examines the market for asylum seekers’ housing in the UK. G4S dumps toddler with rare cancer in dirty asylum house with rats in the yard. Can G4S be trusted to be given part of the new

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Comment

2017: the deadliest year in immigration detention 

This year six men have died in immigration detention centres — the deadliest year since the IRR began recording deaths in immigration detention. The most recent death occurred, on 19 November, when 27-year-old Arim Bakar, an Iraqi man was found dead at the Prison Service-run Morton Hall, where two others have died this year. Detainees at

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Review

The Lions of Grunwick

‘We are the Lions Mr Manager’ is a small but perfectly formed play which tells the story of the Grunwick strike. A two-hander, it tells a digested version of the Grunwick saga, a major moment in labour history which seems to have faded in the collective memory.  The work of the Grunwick 40 campaign over

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Comment

‘We are human beings, we should not be locked up like animals’

© Lily Fox

The IRR’s Sophia Siddiqui reports on a recent demonstration at Yarl’s Wood. The demonstrations outside Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre are a palpable and direct act of solidarity. Standing facing the detention centre, separated by a prison-like metal fence, barbed wire and security cameras, you can see, wave, and interact with the women inside who

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News

Calendar of racism and resistance (3 -16 November 2017)

A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum and migration 27 October: Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, and Arbitrary Executions, presents a new report to the UN General Assembly on ‘Unlawful Death of Refugees and Migrants’, download it here. (Der Spiegel, 28

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Migrant Children Dreams and Realities

A fundraiser for Hackney Migrant Centre with films, discussion and live music. Sunday 26 November 2017, 2-5pm Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High Street, London E8 2PB Films include:  Calais Children: A Case to Answer (UK, 2017) 60 min Passing Tides (UK, 2016) 18 min Ugwumpiti (UK, 2016) 20 min Discussion with: Sue Clayton – director

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Stop the criminalisation of human rights defenders

To mark the publication of IRR’s new research into the hostile political and legal environment facing humanitarian actors who seek to protect life at Europe’s sea and land borders, the IRR invites you to a wide-ranging discussion of how EU policies are shrinking the space for humanitarian action while feeding the far Right. Monday 4

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