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.
Issue: Books, pamphlets & multimedia
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
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
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
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
Charities criticise Daily Express hostility toward asylum seekers
We reproduce here a response that the Daily Express refused to publish after it had carried a series of articles attacking asylum seekers in Britain. Dear Sir, The stream of aggressive stories about asylum seekers appearing in this paper in recent days is of serious concern to all of us who work with and support people fleeing persecution. Your
Calendar of Racism and Resistance (5 – 18 September 2014)
A resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key news stories in the UK and Europe over the past fortnight. Asylum seekers & refugees 5 September: Migrants and activists rally in Calais for human rights and an end to police violence, as Sauvons Calais announce they will rally on 7 September to ‘say no to
When class becomes a commodity
A new Open Society Foundations research project on Europe’s white working class provides a welcome corrective to those who champion the class as a victim of immigration while colluding in the abandonment of working-class areas. In his classic text examining production processes Labor and Monopoly Capital, published in 1974, Harry Braverman showed how ‘poverty and
Calendar of racism & resistance (27 August – 4 September 2014)
A calendar of stories from the last week. Asylum seekers & refugees 27 August 2014: Medical Justice has published a report: Biased and Unjust: The Immigration Detention Complaints Process, you can download it here (pdf file, 6.4mb). 29 August: 44-year-old Wadih Chourey, who has Down’s syndrome, faces deportation to Lebanon after the Home Office refused
Still being driven to desperate measures
At the weekend, a group of stowaways were found at Tilbury Docks desperately trying to escape a container they had been sealed into. By the time it was opened, one of the migrants, 40-year-old Meet Singh Kapoor was already dead. Thirty-four migrants, Sikhs from Afghanistan, were found in the container, ten men, nine women and