Why has the National Theatre extended the run of a play which has been accused of fuelling racism? In April 2009, we saw England People Very Nice by Richard Bean at the National Theatre. This was meant to be the last week the play was showing. Imagine our shock when we saw the website of
PR and the selling of border controls
Below Jon Burnett analyses a recent Sky TV series, UK Border Force, which portrayed the work of the UK Border Agency. In 2008, the Home Office paid £400,000 to Steadfast Television,[1] an independent production company, to help fund a documentary for Sky TV on UK border control. The programme, according to Sky, was ‘a revealing
Fifty years on – remembering Kelso Cochrane
Last weekend, a series of events were held in west London to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the racially motivated murder of Kelso Cochrane. Kelso, a 32-year-old immigrant from Antigua, was murdered on 17 May 1959 in Notting Hill by a gang of White men as he walked home from a local hospital after receiving
Lords refuse to hear Travellers’ appeal, whilst UN pledges support
Dale Farm residents’ hopes of an eleventh hour reprieve from eviction have been crushed by the House of Lords’ refusal to hear their appeal – a matter of hours after a spirited meeting in parliament saw the UN pledge its support. Residents from Dale Farm in Essex, often described as the largest ‘illegal’ Traveller site
Austria: ‘provoking and connecting’ the Kanafani way
Below we reproduce a discussion with members of the Austrian Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative. How did the Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative get started and what are its main goals? Baruch Wolski: To start with we were just a circle of Kurdish, Austrian, Turkish and Arab friends. One of the first things we organised were women-only dance events.
Kanafanis challenge Austrian integration policy
The Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative (Kulturverein Kanafani) in Vienna, which publishes the journal der.wisch, has set itself a goal: to challenge the mainstream political debate in Austria over ‘integration’. The IRR’s ‘Alternative Voices on Integration’ project attended the Kanafani Inter-Cultural Initiative discussion forum ‘Integration – a miracle cure put to the test’ in Vienna on 5
No charges – and no bail
Ten students arrested in anti-terror raids in April face continued immigration detention and deportation despite the lack of evidence against them. In a pattern which is becoming increasingly familiar, a high-profile operation by anti-terrorism police amid rumours of imminent atrocities ended with no charges, but with the men turned over to immigration officials for deportation.
Rulings in age assessment cases
In two recent cases, the courts have returned to the controversial issue of how the Home Office and local authorities assess the age of asylum seekers who claim to be children. On 6 May 2009, Justice Keith ruled unlawful a Home Office decision that a young Chinese asylum seeker was over 18 which led to
Academics refuse to police immigration
IRR News reproduces a collective letter by academics who ‘decry the insidious way in which [they] are being used to monitor foreign students and staff’.[1] ‘We are among the growing number of academics across the UK voicing our concern about being drawn into playing a key role in an ever-tightening system of immigration control. Many
New project to end immigration detention of children
A new project has been launched to end the detention of children and their families for immigration purposes. The Children’s Society and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) are working in partnership on the End Immigration Detention of Children and their Families (EIDOC) project, which seeks to provide advice and support to asylum-seeking children and young