A campaign calling for an amnesty for irregular migrant workers has been launched. ‘Strangers into Citizens’ is a year-long campaign aimed at stimulating a public call for a government policy to introduce a one-off limited regularisation of the many thousands of people who have made new lives in the UK without having official status. Such
Fighting a ghost
An Algerian national security detainee speaks out against his indefinite detention in the UK. On 12 January, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), will hear from the lawyers for Reda Dendani, an Algerian national security detainee. He was first held under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act provisions which were declared illegal by the House
Teachers – we need your help!
Do you teach citizenship at key stages 3 or 4? The Institute of Race Relations is hoping to develop some teaching materials for the citizenship curriculum based around the themes of identity, the role of media, political participation and campaigning, using its Black history collection. If you are willing to help us by participating in
Human rights advocacy graduates speak out
Two days before Human Rights Day, sixteen asylum seekers and refugees graduated from an intensive human rights advocacy course. On Friday 8 December, Amnesty International hosted a graduation ceremony in London, which was attended by family, friends, activists and sympathetic MPs. After hearing speeches by Cameron Bowles of Education Action and Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty,
Ugandan gay rights activist struggles to stay
After enduring torture and imprisonment in Uganda and hardship in detention at Harmondsworth removal centre, a gay rights activist is still struggling to stay in the UK. After enduring the loss of family members and extreme persecution in his native country, mistreatment, detention and abuse in the UK, as well as a previous attempt to
Sergey Baranyuk forgotten at Harmondsworth
A recent inquest into the death of Ukrainian asylum seeker Sergey Baranyuk provided a glimpse of how asylum seekers are treated behind the closed doors of removal centres in the UK – detained, forgotten and slowly driven to despair. Sergey Baranyuk travelled from the Ukraine to the UK and claimed asylum. He died awaiting voluntary
Roll call of deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 1989-2010
IRR has, since 1989, been recording the deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants – two of the most vulnerable sections of our society – as a result of attempting to enter the UK, self-harm, denial of medical treatment, destitution, hazardous working conditions or racist attacks. Forced by circumstances beyond their control to seek a
Roll call of deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 2002-2004
IRR has, since 1989, been recording the deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants – two of the most vulnerable sections of our society – as a result of attempting to enter the UK, self-harm, denial of medical treatment, destitution, hazardous working conditions or racist attacks. Forced by circumstances beyond their control to seek a
Tributes paid to James Ozigi
Most Senior Apostle James Ozigi, general secretary of the Council of African and Caribbean Churches and chair of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in the UK, has died in Nigeria. On 8 November he was travelling in a car from Lagos to Ibadan, when a tyre on the car burst and the car crashed. He
Forced deportations are leading to death and injury
The violence that arises out of forced deportation policies has been in the news in Austria, Germany and France where, last week, a police officer was convicted of the manslaughter of Ethiopian asylum seeker Mariame Getu Hagos in 2003. Austria Austria’s story begins with the intensely anti-foreigner atmosphere created by extremist parties in recent years.