A report seeking to assess levels of destitution experienced by asylum seekers in Leeds has shown that figures have increased substantially over the past eighteen months. The report, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, was intended to measure progress following the original 2006 survey for their Inquiry into Destitution Among Refused Asylum Seekers. The
Revival of the numbers game?
The new Migrationwatch report is dissected by immigration lawyer Frances Webber. From the press reports greeting the launch in September 2008 of Balanced Migration: a new approach to controlling immigration, it sounded as though this was an official or at least authoritative report by a cross-party group of MPs, perhaps under the House of Commons
Call for end to deportations to Iraq
A protest calling for an end to the continuing policy of deportations to Iraq was held outside the Home Office on 11 September 2008. Organised by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees and the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq, it not only called for an end to the policy of deportations to Iraq, but
Man dies following raid by police and immigration
An investigation is underway as to how a man died following a raid by police and immigration officers at his home in Woodford Green, Essex. 36-year-old Frank Odame was found with head injuries below a block of flats after ‘police officers and UK immigration officials attended a residential address in Lambourne Court, Woodford Green’. A
Two thirds of newspaper stories say British Muslims are ‘a threat’ or ‘problem’
A new report has found that, since 2000, two thirds of newspaper articles about Muslims in Britain portray British Muslims as either ‘a threat’ or ‘problem’ and increasingly utilise negative and stereotypical imagery. The forty-page report, entitled Images of Islam in the UK, set out to analyse a representative sample of newspaper articles in British
Pressure to deport foreign national prisoners
As the drive to deport foreign criminals goes on, Frances Webber, a leading human rights lawyer, reports on new legislation affecting foreign national prisoners and their families. The automatic deportation provisions of the 2007 UK Borders Act came into force on 1 August 2008. From that date it became possible for the UK Borders Agency
Two suspicious Black deaths in south London
The family of a Black man who died after being arrested by Brixton police is appealing for witnesses to come forward. On 21 August, 40-year-old Sean Rigg was arrested, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which investigates deaths in custody, on suspicion of public order offences and alleged assault on a police officer
Two asylum seekers take their own lives
In August, two asylum seekers apparently took their own lives: one was found hanged in a Manchester park and another shot himself two days after being deported to Kurdistan. According to Indymedia, on 5 August, an Iranian asylum seeker, Nadir Zarabee, was found hanged in a park in Longsight, Manchester after being asked to leave
How are thinktanks shaping the political agenda on Muslims in Britain?
Policy Exchange, the Social Affairs Unit and the Centre for Social Cohesion are driving the political agenda on Muslims in Britain while thinktanks on the left are largely silent. Over the last two months, a number of writers, journalists and policymakers associated with the Policy Exchange (PX) thinktank have taken up key positions on Boris
Two murders investigated as racist
In the recent furore about the murders of young people, it may have been overlooked that two look distinctly as though they were racially motivated. Hastings On Sunday evening, 24 August 2008, 16-year-old Mohammed Al-Majed died in Kings College hospital in London after suffering brain damage two days earlier in an attack outside a Hastings