A series of short online videos by Manchester-based groups tells the ‘untold stories behind the political and media hype’ surrounding asylum seekers. Asylum seekers, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC), the Basement café, Community Arts North West and No Borders Manchester have joined forces for this project that focuses on asylum seekers in the
Asylum seeker suicide: ‘depressed and preoccupied’
On 20 October 2005, no family or friends were present at the inquest of Iranian asylum seeker Majid Rafieei at the Upperthorpe Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield – which lasted just one hour. The inquest into the death of 32-year-old Majid, whose claim for political asylum had been refused but who was not scheduled to be
Campaign gathers momentum as Afghan youth faces deportation
A campaign launched to prevent an Afghan youth from being deported is the latest in a series of vociferous crusades championed by the Kent Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers. According to the group, many young Afghans, who arrive in the UK as ‘unaccompanied minors’, are being forced to return to their country of origin because
Holding the state to account for the deaths of vulnerable asylum seekers
A recent meeting on deaths in immigration detention centres called for the state to be held accountable for the deaths of vulnerable asylum seekers. The meeting, which was organised by Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) after the death of Manuel Bravo in Yarl’s Wood was addressed by campaigners on deaths in custody and those working
London becomes BNP heartland
New research has found that support for the British National Party is higher in London than any other part of the UK, with 23 per cent of Londoners saying they would consider voting for the far-Right party. Speaking at the launch of The Far Right in London: a challenge for local democracy?, Professor Helen Margetts
Race libraries on the move
The main library collection of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has moved from London to the University of Warwick, freeing the IRR to develop a unique Black history collection. According to A. Sivanandan, the IRR’s director and its chief librarian since 1964, the library ‘had reached the end of its natural life with us’.
Launch of European Civil Liberties Network
An online network of groups concerned with civil liberties, democracy and equality has been launched to counter unprecedented attacks on freedoms in Europe. The European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) brings together groups and individuals who seek to create a European society based on freedom and equality, personal and political freedom, freedom of information and equality
Haslar staff routinely carry weapons, alleges inspector
A report on the inspection of Haslar Immigration Removal Centre, conducted in May by Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, has elucidated a number of serious concerns regarding the safety, accommodation and legal representation of detainees. Some custody staff at Haslar, which is run by the Prison Service on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality
‘This policy is ripping apart our family’
Here we reproduce a speech given by 19-year-old Flores Sukula to a meeting in parliament on 17 October. She is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose family (mother, brothers and sisters) was one of the first to be made destitute under new asylum laws. ‘Our lives are very difficult now.
It’s anti-racism that was failed, not multiculturalism that failed
No country in Europe could be more proud of its multicultural experiment than Britain. But, in the wake of 7 July, or rather because Blair refuses to accept that the war in Iraq could have played a part in breeding home-grown suicide bombers, multiculturalism has become the whipping boy. And the more he divaricates from