Four women, who were taking part in a peaceful hunger strike against the conditions of their immigration detention, have been moved to prison following scenes of alleged chaos and mistreatment. Aminata Camara, from Guinea, Gladys Obiyan, from Nigeria, and Sheree Wilson and Shellyann Stupart, both from Jamaica, were moved from Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre
Is it a criminal offence to offer a cup of tea?
On 6 February, French riot police raided a warehouse in Calais and arrested activists who had been providing humanitarian assistance to destitute migrants in the area. Just days before the raid, campaigners held a press conference in London to announce the new space in Calais. The project, organised by local activists and housed in a
Section 44 stop and search ruled illegal
A recent landmark ruling at the European Court of Human Rights found that stop-and-search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 were illegal. Last month, Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton won their case at the European Court, after the judges ruled in their favour, concluding that the stop-and-search powers[1] violated the right to respect for private
How the extreme Right hijacks direct democracy
The IRR European Race Audit (ERA) publishes today two briefing papers on the Swiss referendum against minarets and the ways in which direct democracy can be hijacked by the extreme Right. On 29 November 2009, Switzerland became the first country in Europe to vote to curb the religious practices of Muslims when a referendum, banning
Belgium: arbitrary state power checked in prison teacher case
A Belgian court has condemned the government for the way it barred prisoners’ teacher Luk Vervaet from all Belgian prisons in August 2009. In August 2009, Luk Vervaet, a 57-year-old teacher of Dutch in Belgian prisons and activist campaigning against prison racism, poor prison conditions and double punishment, was unceremoniously barred from entering prisons, with
Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime in London
A new centre for research into anti-Muslim hate crime has published its first report. For the first time, academics are taking the issue of anti-Muslim attacks in the UK seriously. A recent report by Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Robert Lambert on Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: a London Case Study shows how ‘contexts of fear and
Refugee roulette
The risks asylum seekers face if returned to their country of origin must be made clearer to decision makers, says a new report. For eighteen months the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) scrutinised the asylum system focusing on how information (contained in Country of Origin Information reports) regarding the social, judicial and political conditions in a
ID and the final exclusion
Biometrics and surveillance are set to make life virtually impossible for those without legal status here. On 6 January 2010, skilled workers from outside the EU became the latest group to need a biometric identity card in order to extend their stay in the UK. This involves attending one of the dozen or so ‘biometric
Exposed: more government illegality in the ‘war on terror’
On 27 January, the UK Supreme Court held that fundamental rights of suspected Islamist terrorists should not be violated without explicit parliamentary approval and the UN confirmed the UK’s complicity in rendition and torture. Asset-freezing orders illegal Between 2005 and 2007, out of the blue, a number of Muslim British citizens and residents received letters
The reality behind the ‘knife crime’ debate
The media portrayal of, and government response to, the ‘knife crime epidemic’ creates a distorted image of the reality on the ground, according to new research undertaken by the Institute of Race Relations. The evidence suggests that, whilst some marginalised young people are carrying knives, the image of violently nihilist, feral, often Black or ethnic