After years of campaigning by the Mubarek family, David Blunkett has announced that a judicial inquiry will be held into the racist murder of Zahid Mubarek at Feltham Young Offenders Institute. The inquiry will investigate and report to the Home Secretary on Zahid’s death and the events leading up to the attack on him, and
Britain locks up twenty-four asylum children
A Home Office minister has revealed that the number of children held in Dungavel and Oakington detention centres has risen from ten at the end of last year to twenty-four today. Baroness Scotland of Asthal, a Home Office minister, has stated that Dungavel detention centre, in Lanarkshire, currently holds six families, with ten children, four
Who votes BNP?
New research into how people voted in local government by-elections in autmumn 2003 shatters some of the myths about who votes for the BNP. The British National Party (BNP) has fifteen councillors. Though not a large number in itself, it demonstrates that in certain parts of England, significant sections of the population are willing to
Destitution intensified
Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is not simply making an asylum seeker destitute. For destitution, itself, opens up a ‘failed’ refugee to yet more racism, indignity and uncertainty. On Friday 16 April, Ali Mohammed Sadegh, a destitute Iranian asylum seeker was viciously beaten and stabbed by a group of White
Athens Olympics under the shadow of anti-Muslim racism
The Olympics in Athens this August will be the first summer games since September 11. Amid the fears about a possible terror attack, it is the Muslim community of Athens – many of whose members are actually involved in building the Olympic Village – which is bearing the brunt of a new form of racism.
Campaign victory: Home Office backs down on Iraq deportation plan
The government has backed down on its plan to begin deportations to Baghdad this month after nation-wide protests by Iraqi asylum seekers. Home Office officials have told the Observer that the repatriation scheme, which could have affected thousands of Iraqi asylum seekers, has been put on hold. The UK would have been the first country
Hungry and homeless: the impact of Section 55
A report from the Refugee Council details the impact of Section 55 on asylum seekers and the voluntary organisations that support them. The Refugee Council has published a report, written by Bharti Patel and Saoirse Kerrigan, Hungry and Homeless: the impact of the withdrawal of state support on asylum seekers, refugee communities and the voluntary
Tribute to an ‘African rebel’
Four years ago this week, thousands of people lined the streets of Haringey, north London, to follow the last journey of one of Britain’s most outspoken political leaders. Now, an archive has opened dedicated to remembering the life and work of Bernie Grant MP. The seventy cubic feet of items held in the archive cover
Learning the lessons of history
A new booklet published by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) compares the experiences of the Kindertransporte with those of refugee children today. At a time of collective amnesia, when we look set fair to repeat the dangerous politicisation of race and immigration of an election forty years ago, it is heartening to find
Between Iraq and a hard place
Today, Iraqis will protest outside the Home Office against the government’s plan to begin deportations to Baghdad. IRR News spoke to one Iraqi asylum seeker about the hard choice between destitution and deportation. When Sady Hussein walked through the security barrier at the immigration court, he set alarm bells ringing. Worried officials searched him for