In true Dickensian fashion, a new report reveals the appalling treatment of society’s forgotten victims, namely female rape survivors and torture victims held at Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre. 15 December saw the launch of the findings of an investigation into the conditions provided for women detained at Bedfordshire’s Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre and the neglect
Protecting ethnic minorities
One would have thought that governments concerned about the impact on social cohesion of a resurgent far-Right would want to reassure members of minority communities that the police service and criminal justice system were there to protect them and were sensitive to their needs. Unfortunately, many police services in Europe have not even come to
Eliminating electoral racism
The failure of states to protect minority communities from racial violence is compounded by the opportunistic way in which race, religion and immigration are discussed in local, regional and federal elections. Over the past year, the following trends have been observed: Xenophobic slogans and propaganda deployed in campaigning shows electoral parties are using language which
Fighting fascism
How can governments combat the activities of racist and far-Right parties that undermine democracy while, at the same time, preserving civil rights and democratic values such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly? Country notes Over the last eighteen months, politicians across Europe have been forced to ask themselves how best to counter the
Schools still failing Black children
After thirty-five years, campaigners have seen fit to re-issue one of the first exposés of racism in the British education system. For racism and exclusion, if in new guises, still blight the lives of young Black people in Britain. ‘How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System’ was first
Flores hands in petition to Home Office
19-year-old campaigner Flores Sukula, of Bolton, went to the Home Office in London this week to hand in a petition of 2,500 signatures in support of her family’s anti-deportation campaign. Five of the Sukula family’s six children – including an eleven-month-old baby – face being taken into care as a result of support being withdrawn
Desperately seeking asylum
In June 2005, the author interviewed five Sudanese men, all but one of whom had been failed by the UK asylum procedures. ‘I am 27, no 28′, said Salah when I met him in June 2005. He looked 35 and spoke no English. Through the interpreter, Hassan, Salah told me he felt utterly frustrated and
Fighting for disabled students
The family of a wheel-chair bound overseas student is, after its own successful struggle, fighting the government’s institutionalised discrimination against disabled ‘foreign’ students. On 9 September 2005, an intelligent severely disabled 19-year old wheel-chair bound overseas student, Nirav Shah, and his parents won a year-long battle to overturn two key decisions by UK immigration officials.
Bail applications begin for men detained under anti-terror laws
On 6 December 2005, a small group of campaigners held a picket outside the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) to mark the start of bail hearings of some of the (many) foreign nationals, asylum seekers and refugees detained under anti-terror laws. Bail applications were made on behalf at least five men, four Algerians and a
Deportation is Freedom!
A new book castigates immigration controls for their Orwellian connotations. On 18 October 2005, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that deportations to Zimbabwe put failed asylum seekers at risk and should cease. The end of the matter, you would think. And yet, last week, the case of RA was being heard at York House