On the eve of the launch of her book, Borderline Justice, IRR News interviews its regular contributor, Frances Webber, about a life in the law. IRR News: What took you into the law? Were you a radical who chose the law as an arena of struggle or did the law radicalise you? Frances Webber: As
A recent conference presented the challenges facing separated children seeking asylum as they turn 18. The conference, organised by the Royal Holloway and the Tavistock and Portman NHS on 19 September, brought together lawyers, teachers, mental health workers, social workers, refugee organisations and young asylum seekers to share their knowledge and experiences and to establish
The life and work of a dynamic anti racism campaigner was recently celebrated in Dublin. Anti racism and refugee rights campaigners, past and present, gathered on 6 September in Dublin to celebrate the life and work of Josephine Olusola Olapeju Olajumoke Amuwo, whose untimely death occurred in London this August. Although she had been based
A campaign has been launched to provide people with vital information if they are subject to or witness a raid by the UK Border Agency (UKBA). IRR News spoke to Indira Kartallozi and Phil Miller, activists in the fast-growing campaign to ensure that undocumented migrants know their rights. IRR: How did the campaign start and
The wholesale deportation of Sri Lankan Tamils in defiance of human rights concerns, and the feting of a leader accused of war crimes, demonstrate that asylum policy has as little to do with humanitarian considerations as it did a generation ago. For the British government, entertaining Sri Lanka’s president Rajapaksa at the diamond jubilee celebrations
An imaginative project highlights migrant deaths at sea and seeks to restore traditions of humanity and rescue endangered by migration control. The callous and deliberate failure by the Italian and Spanish governments and NATO to rescue seventy-two migrants in their drifting dinghy in a Mediterranean ‘search and rescue area’, leading to the deaths of sixty-three
The government’s rebranding of the UK Border Agency (UKBA)’s operational arm from immigration service to Border Force encapsulates the approach which treats migrants as criminals. Suddenly, there were all these references to ‘border force’ officials on the news. Border Force. The name brands the organisation as somehow more powerful, hard-hitting, but also and contradictorily tells
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has announced the launch of an advice line for undocumented migrants in London. The free advice line is aimed at irregular migrants, which includes migrants who have overstayed their visas, those whose asylum applications have been refused and those cases where refugee status has been revoked.[1]
A respected academic has won his fight against deportation on the ground that his bank balance fell below £800. This is the sort of story that the tabloids would love if it was about a sturdy British fight against a barmy EU directive or health and safety regulation. But because it’s about an outspoken Muslim
A report on the UK Border Agency’s management of foreign national offenders bears little relation to the press’ coverage. ‘The 5,000 crooks we can’t deport’: was the Sun headline which was repeated, with more or less polite variations, across Britain’s press on 27 October, from the Express to the Guardian, the message all the papers
