The Home Office refuses to publish figures on what proportion of initial asylum decisions are eventually overturned on appeal. But IRR News estimates that, for some nationalities, two out of every five initial decisions are proven to be wrong on appeal: a shocking indictment of the Home Office’s decision-making process. A case in point is
Report on grant-making will affect community groups
A Review by the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts of grants made to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) by the Community Fund is likely to affect a number of voluntary groups in the future. The Review was set up after a second grant of £336,000 (following one of £191,000 in 1998)
Scandal of coerced sterilisation of Romani women
As evidence emerges of gross violations of Roma rights – women are being sterilised without their informed consent – Roma leaders like Rudko Kawczynski of the Roma National Congress are asking why Brussels did not make better conditions for the Roma a condition for the accession of the ten central and eastern European countries to
Lobbying for change
23 February 2003 saw over 100 asylum rights campaigners and supporters lobbying parliament as the Asylum and Immigration bill was being debated in parliament. Campaigners heard from Jeremy Corbyn MP – ‘I feel constantly disgusted at the way we treat asylum seekers… the most serious part of this bill is the removal of rights of
A Gap in the Curtains
A Gap in the Curtains is a deeply moving collection of first hand stories from asylum seekers and refugees residing in York during 2003. They come from countries as diverse as Albania, China, Iran and Turkey, desperately in search of a place of refuge, by a variety of modes of transport to a strange and
New study critical of funding for black voluntary groups
A research project on the BME voluntary sector by the 1990 Trust, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, has revealed that a significant gulf exists between funders and recipients. The report ‘Black voluntary and community sector funding: Its impact on civic engagement and capacity building‘ by Karen Chouhan and Clarence Lusane, has found that: Small
Conference heralds new anti-racism initiative in South West
Over 500 people packed out Plymouth’s extensive Guildhall for a conference to launch The Monitoring Group’s Rural Racism Project. For the South West of England, an assembly of 500 people talking about racism is a major success in itself. That the conference, held on Wednesday 11 February, heard some excellent speeches and is the launch
Rocky Bennett – killed by institutional racism?
The NHS, and especially its mental health services, have been branded institutionally racist by an inquiry team set up to examine the care and treatment that 38-year-old Rocky Bennett received at the Norvic secure psychiatric clinic in Norwich before he died, in October 1998, after being restrained by up to five nurses. The report, Independent
Anger grows over Daily Express reporting of Roma
The Labour MP Kevin McNamara has tabled a motion in the House of Commons complaining about recent articles in the Daily Express on Roma coming to Britain. As the Daily Express continues its campaign against potential Roma immigration from the European Union accession states – on Monday the front page headline was ‘Gypsy crisis’ –
Legacy of intolerance: racism and Unionism in South Belfast
What lies behind the recent spate of racist attacks on Africans and Asians in the Village, a Unionist stronghold in south Belfast? On 6 February 2004 the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) announced that it had stood down its commander in the Village area of South Belfast. Such a move is rare among the North’s loyalist