The Platform for Free Expression in Belgium is demanding to know why a language teacher at Saint-Gilles prison in Brussels, who has spoken out against anti-terror laws and the demonisation of Muslims, has been banned from prisons on security grounds. Four university professors have launched a petition to support 57-year-old Luk Vervaet who, on 10
Bad science?
The UK Border Agency is trialing a controversial isotope analysis to determine nationality. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) plans to test people’s nationality by isotope analysis, according to an announcement made on 11 September by the Central Operations and Performance directorate. The ‘Human Provenance Pilot Project’, scheduled to run for ten months from 14 September
Study shows more Leeds asylum seekers left destitute
After conducting research on destitution among asylum seekers in Leeds in 2006 and 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Trust has published a third report which shows that the situation is getting worse. The report, titled Still destitute: a worsening problem for refused asylum seekers, uses data gathered from agencies offering support to asylum seekers over a
UN Human Rights Council listens to migrant voices
A special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has heard calls for an end to the criminalisation of irregular migration and the detention of migrants from NGOs, UN experts and governments of the south. On 17 September a migrants’ rights network was given a rare chance to tell the United Nations (UN)
The human cost of inhuman policies
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has issued a moving report on the experiences of those held in immigration detention. Some of the questions which immediately spring to mind on reading this heartbreaking and shaming report are: how can this situation have been allowed to arise? how can it be allowed to continue? how can we
Subject to British values
New nationality legislation will create a class of subjects not citizens. The one thing which can be said for the empire was that anyone who was born anywhere in its far-flung corners was legally British by birth. True, various stratagems were employed to prevent these imperial subjects from settling in the mother country, but at
Minor crime doesn’t justify deportation, judges say
The government’s tabloid-driven policy to get tough on refugees who commit minor criminal offences has been dealt a blow by a recent legal ruling. For the past few years, human rights lawyers and refugee support groups have expressed increasing concern over Home Office policy to treat refugees who commit minor offences as ‘foreign national criminals’
Racism, elections and the economic down-turn
Below we reproduce the editorial from the latest issue of the European Race Bulletin. June saw elections in Europe for 736 MEPs in twenty-seven countries. But while all eyes were focused on the extreme-Right and anti-immigration parties, the real threat posed by their gains has not been given the attention it deserves. At a time
Godfrey Moyo – prisoner or patient?
On 6 July 2009, an inquest jury recorded a highly critical verdict of neglect in the death of Godfrey Moyo in HMP Belmarsh. Twenty-five-year-old Godfrey Moyo, a Zimbabwean, died while on remand at the Category A Belmarsh prison on 3 January 2005 in the early hours of the morning after suffering an epileptic fit. Godfrey’s
Tackling racism in the very young
A valuable new resource for early years educators has been produced. The format of Young children and racial justice: Taking action for racial equality in the early years – understanding the past, thinking about the present, planning for the future is that of a training manual. And as anyone familiar with such manuals will know,