The Labour MP Kevin McNamara has tabled a motion in the House of Commons complaining about recent articles in the Daily Express on Roma coming to Britain. As the Daily Express continues its campaign against potential Roma immigration from the European Union accession states – on Monday the front page headline was ‘Gypsy crisis’ –
Issue: Books, pamphlets & multimedia
The media war against migrants: a new front
Newspapers have been scaremongering over Europe’s Roma communities, some of whom will, from May, have the right to migrate to Britain. Are these the first shots in a press campaign against Blunkett’s ‘new migrants’? The Sun claimed that it would be ‘tens of thousands’. The Sunday Times predicted 100,000. The Express announced that 1.6 million
Netherlands: anti-immigration and the road to intolerance
Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has this week advocated the idea of a two-tier justice system in which foreigners who commit crime would be sentenced differently from Dutch nationals. How has a country which once had a reputation for tolerance descended to such illiberalism? During the second half of 2004, the Dutch government will
Listen to the Refugee’s Story
A new booklet co-published by The Corner House, Ilisu Dam Campaign Refugee Project and Peace in Kurdistan explores how UK foreign investment creates refugees and asylum seekers. This is one of the most exciting and challenging recent books on refugees. Exciting because for the first time groups of Tamil, Kurdish, Somali, Afghan and other refugees
Canary Islands tragedy: did the RAF put border security before human safety?
An official inquiry was prompted in Spain after twenty-one migrants, trying to cross from the North African coast to the Canary Islands, drowned in two separate incidents in June. Their boats capsized after being intercepted by Spanish patrols. But now questions are being asked about the role of British planes deployed in the region as
Research finds racism against overseas teachers
New research into the training of overseas teachers reports that they are often unprepared for the racism they face and that school staff do not do enough to counter pupil prejudice and develop an equality ethos within schools. Because of teacher shortages in the UK, recruitment of teachers is taking place in Western and Eastern
Legal aid cuts will target those most in need of protection
Last January, the government threw asylum seekers onto the streets, under the new ‘Section 55’ rules. This January, it plans to deny them access to proper legal advice, under new proposals to ration legal aid. The result will be the ‘warehousing’ of cases and the end for many of a chance of a fair hearing.
If they have your passport, they have your life
It might sound innocent enough. A family brings someone from abroad to work in their home, under the domestic worker visa programme. For the sake of ‘convenience’, the employer hangs on to the worker’s passport. But a new report from Kalayaan, a group supporting the rights of migrant domestic workers, shows how the withholding of
Death at the border – who is to blame?
The EU Border Control Programme, introduced with scant regard to refugee protection and human rights, is leading to an increasing number of deaths on the borders of Europe – and beyond. The measure of desperation Over the last eighteen months, our research has identified 742 people who have died attempting to reach Europe[1]. In order
The other asylum statistics
Governments count the numbers coming in. But who counts the numbers that do not make it? Research by the Institute of Race Relations has found that, in the last 18 months, at least 742 lives have been lost on Europe’s militarised borders. The actual number of deaths is certainly much higher, as only officially verified