A recently-published report by Ireland’s Ombudsman for Children puts the media’s power to influence state action under the spotlight. Last year, while the world’s media was shocked by an apparent case of child abduction by a Roma family in Greece, Ireland’s police took two blonde-haired children from their dark-haired Roma parents, following tip-offs from the
IRR News 18-24 July 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, we publish an excerpt from an article in the current issue of Race & Class. ‘The Business of child detention’ raises important questions for charities and voluntary organisations about the consequences of operating inside the detention estate. We also have news on the death of a Bangladeshi woman in
Taking on the fraudulent anti-globalisation rhetoric of the Front National
A timely pamphlet aimed primarily at French trades unionists provides an opportunity to reflect on the FN’s growing appeal to working-class voters. ‘If we don’t stop the waves of immigration, in ten years whites will become a minority in France.’ ‘If we had real freedom of expression we would be able to say anything, including
Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan and the evidential approach to justice
A racialised justice system providing second-class protection to Muslims can be challenged. So rare is it to encounter a human, non-racist attitude to Muslims accused of support for terrorism, that a judge’s reasonable and evidence-based approach to the sentencing of Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan took everyone by surprise. On 17 July, Connecticut chief judge
The business of child detention
Below we reproduce an excerpt from an article in the current issue of Race & Class on the consequences of the co-option of charities and voluntary organisations within the immigration detention market. As a principle, migrant children should not be subjected to detention. (Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights)[1] At Barnado’s, we believe in
Death of Bangladeshi woman in police custody
A 30-year-old Bangladeshi woman has died in police custody in Walsall, West Midlands, shortly after being arrested. Sharmilla Ullah was detained on suspicion of shoplifting and taken to Bloxwich police station on 9 July. She became unwell whilst in custody and was taken to Walsall Manor hospital where she received treatment, before she was released
IRR News 11-17 July 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, Earlier this week, a landmark case at the High Court found that the government’s attempts to introduce a residence test for legal aid is discriminatory and unlawful. High Court judges have also indicated that a decision on whether the inquest verdict into the death of Mark Duggan will be quashed will
IRR News 4 – 10 July 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, The Macpherson inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Stephen Lawrence’s death was one of the most important inquiries of the 1990s, laying bare the extent of institutional racism within the Metropolitan police. But now the Ellison review into police corruption and undercover policing has revealed that the Special Demonstration Squad was spying
Black justice campaigns prepare for new inquiry into undercover policing
Below we publish an edited version of the speech given by Suresh Grover, Director of The Monitoring Group and former coordinator of the Stephen Lawrence Family Campaign, at the parliamentary meeting ‘Police Corruption and racism: an endless legacy‘ on 23 June 2014. Why do the police treat anti-racist and black justice campaigns as though they are subversive
The business of child detention
The latest issue of Race & Class examines the consequences of the co-option of charities and voluntary organisations within the immigration detention market. In 2010 the British government announced that the outrage of child detention for immigration purposes was to end. Simultaneously, however, it commissioned the opening of a new family detention centre, CEDARS, which