Innocent Nkung, a 35-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), suffered such homophobic and political persecution that he had to flee the DRC and is now fighting to stay in the UK after his asylum claim was refused. Innocent, who has a background in campaigning on human rights issues had been arrested
World stage involved in anti-deportation drama
A campaign to save a mother and her two children from deportation has broadened its appeal by seeking support on an international scale and enlisting the help of Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh. Samina Altaf and her two children, Aqsa, 12 and Sumama, 6, fled their native Pakistan following incidences of domestic violence and sought
Detainees punished for protesting after suicide
Asylum detainees at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre have been punished for protesting against conditions there after the suicide of an Eritrean asylum seeker. On 19 January 2006, Bereket Yohannes, a 26-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker was found hanged in a shower block at Harmondsworth – the first death of a detained asylum seeker this year. According
No justice without equality
Lord Herman Ouseley, the former chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, explains his misgivings about the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights. The Equalities Bill has just been through parliament and will be enacted shortly. Its main provision is to create a new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights (CEHR) and abolish the
Understanding the riots in France
Excerpts from ‘France: the riots and the Republic’ an article which will be published in Race & Class, April, 2006. It is France’s Hurricane Katrina. The recent uprising (November 2005) of disenchanted youths that swept across France left parts of the country damaged and shocked. The government saw fit to invoke a state of emergency
Racial violence round-up
We record below incidents of racial violence and harassment that have taken place in the last months of 2005 and also note the results of court proceedings against perpetrators of attacks that took place after 7 July 2005. 9 January 2006: Cambridge Evening News reports that Michelle Whittaker, 20, who racially abused a young schoolboy
Orwell revisited: a film on asylum detention
The organisations No Borders, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns and the Manchester Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers have joined forces to produce a very evocative short film exploring the experience of ‘failed’ asylum seekers in detainment. The promotional video was filmed on location at Dallas Court Enforcement Unit, Salford and involves a group of
New terror law will harm race relations
We reproduce here the letter sent by the Director of Oldham Race Equality Partnership to Tony Blair on proposed anti-terror laws and the damage they are likely to cause. The Executive Committee of the Oldham Race Equality Partnership has asked me to write to government, local MPs and others who are in a position to
Following them home
David Corlett’s Following them home: the fate of the returned asylum seekers is an invaluable addition to the, as yet, scant body of literature that tracks the fate of failed asylum seekers under reckless western deportation programmes. It is particularly important that a UK readership notes this Australian book, as so much of Europe’s asylum
Couple challenge removal on compassionate grounds
The Scottish wife of a failed Mauritian asylum seeker has launched a campaign to keep her husband in the UK. Lynda Donald met Mahmad Salim Yadun four-and-a-half years ago when he moved from London to her native Aberdeen for work purposes and the pair married a year later. Salim had fled from Mauritius in 1992