Following the recent disappearance of Lufu Ndombasi after he was deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo, anti-deportation campaigners have launched a petition to stop a Home Office charter flight to Kinshasa in August. The statement reads: ‘We protest in the strongest possible terms at the plans to deport failed asylum seekers en bloc to
Kala Tara
An important new resource for History, Citizenship and English teachers, based on interviews with former members of Britain’s Asian Youth Movements and fellow activists, explores how Asian communities across Britain successfully resisted racism and fascism in the 1970s and 1980s. Produced as Part of the Second Generation Asians Resisting Racism Project, Kala Tara: a History
Birmingham parents challenge educational underachievement
More than 70 concerned parents, teachers, governors, councillors and local people came together in Digbeth, Birmingham, last week to discuss how to get local schools to do better for their underachieving pupils. The meeting was co-ordinated by mother-of-two Naseem Akhtar, who wanted to see how much community interest there was in an issue she has
Legal action over Harmondsworth public inquiry refusal
Liberty, the civil and human rights organisation, has started legal proceedings on behalf of three detainees held at Harmondsworth removal centre in west London, who alleged that they were mistreated in the aftermath of a disturbance at the centre in November 2006. Liberty’s request for a public inquiry into the disturbance was refused in June
Remembering Babak Ahadi
Last week, the Iranian Refugee Association in Birmingham held a picket in memory of Babak Ahadi, who took his life in July 2005 after his asylum claim was dismissed by the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal (IAT) in Sheldon, Birmingham. Babak, 33, died in Frenchay hospital the day after he set himself alight at his NASS
Racism in European elections
A report on the role that racism has played in recent elections and electioneering across Europe has just been published by the IRR. Focusing on the French presidential election and the general and provincial elections in the Netherlands, the special issue of the European Race Bulletin also covers twenty-one other countries and the European Parliament.
Detention archipelago: jailing immigrants for profit
The US experience of detaining asylum seekers and migrants in centres operated by private companies has many parallels with what is happening in the UK. Below we reproduce an article that appeared in the May/June issue of the journal NACLA – Report on the Americas, on the private companies involved in the detention of asylum
New publication criticises the detention of migrant families
A new publication from the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) criticises the UK government’s policy of detaining migrant families and examines the negative impacts it has on children. ‘Obstacles to accountability: challenging the immigration detention of families’ is based on BID’s experience of providing free advice and assistance to families with children in detention
Landmark fight against police racism in Norway
The campaign for a full, independent inquiry into the death in police custody of a 48-year-old Nigerian man last autumn is proving a watershed in the fight against institutionalised racism in Norway. On 7 September 2006, Eugene Ejike Obiora had much to look forward to. It was his son’s twelfth birthday and he wanted to
Medical Justice launch party
The fun was definitely put into fundraising at the launch party of campaigning charity Medical Justice at London nightclub Cargo on 3 July. Featuring a musical line-up good enough to coax even the most uncharitable of folk out on a school night, Cargo’s bare brick arches were filled with hundreds of people dancing to a