When Neil Clarke of UNITED[1] organised a conference in Sheffield, he stumbled across a new series of obstacles for those seeking visas for the UK. Organising a conference bringing together delegates from the 560 or so anti-racist, anti-fascist, refugee and migrant support groups in seventy European countries which make up UNITED is no easy task
Islington’s not so silent voices
In June 2009, Reel Islington Screenings (RIS) held its second film festival to showcase up and coming young film-making talent in Islington. Islington has been acclaimed for its outstanding youth work throughout the borough. Young Muslim Voices (YMV), part of the youth engagement programme of the Listen Up project, won the prestigious Phillip Lawrence award
Black groups in cleft stick
The government’s strategy to prevent young Black people’s over-representation in the criminal justice system is deeply contradictory, says a new report. ‘Policy, purpose and pragmatism: dilemmas for voluntary and community organisations working with black young people affected by crime’ written by researcher Helen Mills for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) and based
Segregating foreign national prisoners
Government plans to concentrate foreign national prisoners in a few prisons, currently being implemented under a secret agreement, are likely to lead to segregation and exacerbate prisoners’ isolation. A restricted but recently leaked document, the ‘Service Level Agreement between the Ministry of Justice, the National Offenders Management Service (NOMS) and the UK Border Agency to
Remembering Habib Ullah – one year on
On 3 July 2009 the Justice for Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah campaign held a vigil and public meeting to mark the first anniversary of his death. The vigil outside High Wycombe police station from 3-7pm was attended by over sixty people, giving the campaign the opportunity to draw public attention to the death. The highlight came
The ordeal of Kessie Moyo
The refusal of a visa to attend the inquest of her son’s death added to the grief and distress of a bereaved mother. On 3 January 2005, Godfrey Moyo, a 25-year-old Zimbabwean who suffered from epilepsy, died at Belmarsh prison after being restrained face down outside his cell by prison officers. The inquest into his
Ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka
The Institute of Race Relations’ director explains the roots of ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka in a speech to ‘Marxism 2009’. ‘It’s difficult to talk dispassionately about what is going on in my country, when the horror of what the government is doing to a civilian Tamil population – already shelled and burned out of
Asylum seeker stitches eyes and mouth in protest
An Iranian asylum seeker has sewn his face up and is on hunger strike in protest at his ‘inhumane treatment’ in immigration detention. Fariat Mohammadi, an Iranian asylum seeker who fought against the Islamic regime in Iran, has been held in detention since his arrival in the UK eleven months ago. Currently held in Colnbrook
Germany: why did Marwa al-Sherbini die?
On 1 July, Marwa al-Sherbini, an Egyptian woman who wore the headscarf and was three months pregnant, was brutally murdered in a Dresden courtroom by a German man of Russian descent who declared ‘you have no right to live’. Marwa al-Sherbini was stabbed eighteen times in the space of thirty seconds. It was a frenzied
Christopher Caldwell dissected
The author of key works on contemporary terrorism and the concept of Eurabia dissects the latest anti-Muslim tome. Since the late Oriana Fallaci published her anti-Muslim diatribe The Rage and the Pride in 2001, the Islamic threat to Europe has become something of a minor publishing phenomenon. Mark Steyn, Bat Ye’or, Bruce Bawer and Melanie