Unpicking one tabloid story shows how the campaign against the Human Rights Act works by stoking fear, racism and jingoism. ‘Nigerian rapist can’t be deported because of EU judges’, screams the Mail headline[1], managing to resurrect a fearsome folk devil (the image of the big black sexual predator was a potent stereotype a generation ago),
Issue: Books, pamphlets & multimedia
Human rights: the assault continues
The government is poised to cut down the reach of human rights law, paving the way for easier deportation of foreign national prisoners. The government’s announcements in the wake of the riots that non-British citizens convicted of riot-related offences will be deported ‘at the earliest opportunity'[1] is part of a new attempt to strip foreign
Deprivation of citizenship – by stealth
Lawyer Amanda Weston, at a seminar at the IRR, described the impact that the loss of appeal rights under deprivation of citizenship clauses has had on those affected and their families. When David Blunkett informed Abu Hamza of the decision to deprive him of his British citizenship in April 2003,[1] there hadn’t been a similar
The real ‘immigration debate’
A keynote address to the annual conference of the Churches’ Refugee Network by Frances Webber. The political and media campaign against immigration and asylum seekers shows no signs of abating. It is seen by the Home Affairs Committee as a matter of shame that so many asylum seekers, stuck in the system without a decision
Heathrow death preventable?
Kirsten Heaven, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, writes about the inquest into the death of Jianping Liu, who died at Heathrow airport hours after being released from police custody. Jianping Liu, a Chinese national had settled in the UK with her husband and died at Heathrow airport on 12 November 2009 after jumping from
IPPR: fuelling popular racism?
The hardline message of the new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on irregular immigration is designed to reassure working-class voters that a Labour government would control immigration. The IPPR, an influential think-tank with strong links to the Labour Party, starts with the policy position that ‘irregular immigration’ must be reduced, because
The secret world of immigration bail hearings uncovered
A new report by the Campaign to Close Campsfield on immigration bail hearings is a thorough piece of research but makes for very depressing reading. The report, Immigration bail hearings: a travesty of justice? Observations from the public gallery, was written and researched by the Bail Observation project of the Campaign to Close Campsfield, a
No Borders oppose new deportation centre
No Borders London and Brighton have begun campaigning against the Home Office’s proposed ‘pre-departure accommodation’ centre for families and children in Pease Pottage, Sussex. The campaign is calling on ‘anyone concerned with the ongoing detention of children’ to contact the Mid Sussex District Central Area Planning Committee and/or all fifty-four Mid Sussex district councillors to
The cap that never was
Anne Singh reports on recent changes to policy affecting migrant care workers. You would be forgiven for missing it, but in mid December 2010, amidst the sustained stream of government announcements about restricting the numbers of spouses, students, migrant workers – pretty much anyone – coming to the UK from outside the EEA, there was
Sledgehammer approach to forced marriage rejected
The Court of Appeal has told the Home Office to disapply marriage rules for the majority of couples applying for a visa. In November 2008, the Home Office amended the immigration rules to require that only couples over 21 could benefit from family reunion. Applications by under-21s to join spouses here, or applications by older