An investigative journalist, who was forced to flee from Pakistan after uncovering and publicising details of official corruption, has lodged a fresh asylum claim to stay in the UK. Mansoor Hassan and his family, who are currently living in Manchester, fled from Pakistan in 2002, after alleged incidences of abuse and threats. Mansoor’s journalistic exposés
Algerians desperate to leave
Amid all the furore about foreign ex-prisoners being released rather that deported, it is ironic that four Algerians desperate to leave the UK, are still being held in Long Lartin prison. We reproduce below two letters from Algerians (held under anti-terror laws) who have volunteered to return to Algeria because of the conditions and uncertainty
Highlighting the mental health needs of child asylum seekers and refugees
An expert in child and adolescent psychiatry has called for agencies to be more active in meeting the mental health needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee adolescents. On 17 May, Dr Matthew Hodes, Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Imperial College, London, spoke at a meeting of the Association for Child and Adolescent
Britain’s shame: from multiculturalism to nativism
As every step that Blair takes to ‘cohere’ the nation is at the expense of ethnic minorities, and Muslims in particular, IRR News talked to A. Sivanandan about how he saw the integration debate. IRR News: The concept of integration is becoming a vexed one across Europe and even in the UK Blair and his
In memory of Manuel Bravo
A new project has been established in Leeds in memory of Manuel Bravo, an Angolan asylum seeker, who was found hanged in Yarl’s Wood removal centre on 15 September 2005, where he was detained with his 13-year-old son pending deportation. Before his death, Manuel had settled in Leeds and regularly attended church with his family.
18-month sentence for manslaughter of Pakistani man
Last week, a 17-year-old youth, Mardell Pennant, was sentenced to 18 months’ detention and training order in a young offenders’ institute after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Kamal Raza Butt in a joint enterprise with another youth, against whom charges were dropped. The murder of the Pakistani man, in July 2005, took place just
Until you fight, change never happens
In a church in Piccadilly last week, a small group of families and friends of those who have died in police custody gathered at a press conference, supported by the Bishop of Southwark, to speak about their experiences and to launch a new leaflet for the United Families and Friends Campaign. The United Families and
Racial profiling and shoot to kill
The latest briefing paper, on shoot to kill policies against suspected suicide bomber in the US and UK, will add to the reputation of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law for cutting-edge advocacy and scholarship and path-breaking reports on the legal violations that have arisen
The emergence of a European security-industrial complex
The EU is set to spend billions of euros on ‘security research’. With little accountability, European multinational corporations will be researching new techniques of surveillance, identification and profiling, to be directed mainly at migrants and terrorist suspects. A new report by Statetwatch and the Transnational Institute makes depressing reading for those concerned with issues of
Anger at overseas doctors’ permit requirement
New regulations affecting International Medical Graduates (IMGs) have been criticised by leading members of the medical profession and immigration practitioners. The NHS has developed and utilised the skills of IMGs, essentially Black doctors from Third World countries, since its inception in 1948. The arrangement between IMGs and the health service has traditionally been seen as