A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.

ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP

ASYLUM AND MIGRANT RIGHTS

22 May: Six UN special rapporteurs and independent experts write to the Italian government demanding the withdrawal of the interior ministry directive that, in prioritising security over refugee rights, justifies the closure of Italian ports and criminalises civil society organisations carrying out search and rescue operations. (Statewatch News, 22 May 2019)

25 May: A 27-year-old Afghan refugee named Habib commits suicide in a park in Strasbourg, where he had been living alongside 50 other migrants. One resident of the camp says Habib had spent the previous evening trying unsuccessfully to find emergency shelter. (France 3, 25 May 2019)

25 May: The court of appeal rules that Home Office policy for assessing the age of young asylum seekers is unlawful. Assessing someone’s age based on their appearance or demeanour, lawyers for an Eritrean asylum seeker successfully argued, was ‘inherently unreliable’. (Free Movement, 28 May 2019; Guardian, 29 May 2019)

26 May: Maltese NGOs issue a joint letter calling for Maurice Mizzi, the head of a government commission promoting sustainable development in state policy to be sacked after he says that  Muslims are ‘taking over’ by a demographic shift , that children born to migrants should not be given Maltese citizenship and that his Guardian for Future Generations commission will support development in migrant origin countries as a means of reducing migration to Europe. (Times of Malta, 26 May 2019)

31 May: A government response to a parliamentary question reveals that Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has rejected around three-quarters of applications for family reunification from refugees in Greece this year. (Deutsche Welle, 31 May 2019)

3 June: Experienced international lawyers submit a 245-page legal indictment to the international criminal court calling for the prosecution of the EU and member states Italy, Germany and France for causing the deaths of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean, the refoulement of migrants to Libya, and the commission of inhuman acts against them. Evidence cited in the submission includes internal Frontex papers which warned that the move away from successful rescue policies in 2014 would result in a ‘higher number of fatalities’. (Guardian, 3 June 2019)

BORDERS, TRANSIT ZONES AND INTERNAL CONTROLS

23 May: Two asylum seekers are acquitted by the court of Trapani, in Sicily, on charges of provoking a ‘revolt’ on board the Vos Thalassa vessel, which had rescued them and 65 other migrants in the Mediterranean last July, but was returning to Libya under orders from the Libyan coastguard. (Alqamah, 23 May 2019)

1 June: Kent Refugee Action Network criticises Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s ‘inflammatory’ rhetoric about migrants crossing the English Channel, after British border police responded to 13 small boats carrying 74 people off the coast of Kent on Saturday morning. (Guardian, 1 June 2019)

RECEPTION AND DETENTION

25 May: In Samos, Greece, police fire warning shots and use tear gas as they block the route of refugees attempting to march from the Samos camp to the city in protest at overcrowding and intolerable living conditions. NGO workers and a photographer who refuses to hand over his photographs are also briefly detained. (Euro News, 26 May 2019)

26 May: The Irish Refugee Council and other migrant rights groups call on the Irish government to fulfil its legal obligation to conduct vulnerability assessments for asylum seekers, many of whom are placed in emergency accommodation as a result of over-capacity in Direct Provision centres. They say that failure to do so puts LGBT and torture victims at risk. (The Journal, 26 May 2019)

28 May: Home Office figures obtained by BBC Scotland reveal that 39 per cent of the people detained in Dungavel immigration removal centre at the end of 2018 were classified as ‘adults at risk’. Asylum charities say this shows that guidance aimed at reducing the detention of vulnerable people, including victims of trafficking and torture, is not working. The figures also reveal that 21 under-18s were detained there between 2010 and 2018. (BBC News, 28 May 2019; BBC News, 1 June 2019)

30 May: An inquest jury finds that a series of institutional failings contributed to the death of Moroccan migrant Amir Siman-Tov in Colnbrook immigration removal centre in February 2016. After being treated at Hillingdon Hospital for overdosing on painkillers he was returned to detention, and was found dead the following morning. (Morning Star, 31 May 2019)

1 June: At least thirty-two people are injured in a fire at a migrant centre in Velika Kladuša, north-west Bosnia-Herzegovina, believed to have been caused accidentally by a cooking device. (Guardian, 1 June 2019)

3 June: Human rights lawyers accuse the Home Office of incompetence and a disregard for the safety of victims of trafficking, after several cases emerged in which vulnerable women, following release from immigration detention, were told to return to addresses where they had been enslaved. (Independent, 3 June 2019)

CITIZENSHIP AND STATUS

24 May: In its investigation into the Home Office’s response to the English language testing scandal, the National Audit Office concludes that some students may indeed have been wrongly accused of cheating and also unfairly deported, though it is unsure of the exact numbers involved. (Guardian, 24 May 2019)

26 May: The Guardian reports that hundreds of destitute children, including many who have British citizenship, have been unlawfully denied support under section 17 of the 1989 Children Act because local authorities are wrongly focusing on the parents’ immigration status, which often has the ‘no recourse to public funds’ condition attached. (Guardian, 26 May 2019)

29 May: The Home Office reaches an agreement with the Scottish government that asylum seekers under the age of 18 with ‘no recourse to public funds’ will be allowed to access the new Best Start Grant, which provides parents with £600 for a first child and £300 for each subsequent child. (Holyrood, 29 May 2019)

RAIDS AND DEPORTATIONS

26 May: A new report by the chief inspector of borders and immigration reveals that police chief constables compiled an intelligence report on the grassroots Anti-Raids Network in 2016 and the Home Office produced over 60 intelligence reports on anti-raid protests between April 2016 and October 2018. Read the report here. (Morning Star , 26 May 2019)

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

21 May: Our Homeland Movement (OHM) leader Laszlo Toroczkai denounces ‘gypsy terrorists’ at a demonstration attended by hundreds of people, including the uniformed militia National Legion, in the provincial town of Törökszentmiklós, in east-central Hungary. The riot police intervene after clashes with local Roma. (France 24, 21 May 2019)

28 May: On a secret audio recording by BBC Northern Ireland, far-right Britain First leader Paul Golding admits to assaulting his former deputy and partner Jayda Fransen and another unnamed woman. (BBC News, 28 May 2019)

29 May: 4,000 people rally against the far-Right Vlaams Belang in the centre of Brussels. (The Brussels Times, 29 May 2019)

29 May: A guide to help high-ranking British officers spot right-wing extremists in their ranks is leaked . The document ‘Extreme Right Wing (XRW) Indicators & Warnings’ was produced in 2017, following the arrest of soldiers linked to the banned neo-nazi organisation National Action (Mail Online, 29 May 2019)

29 May: 29 May: The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) cancels its attendance at the Almedalen political festival after receiving threats from the neo-Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) which also attends the festival. (The Local, 29 May 2019)

31 May: Italy’s cultural heritage ministry says that it has revoked a lease granted to Steve Bannon to rent a monastery and transform it into a far-right training centre after reports of fraud in the tendering process. (Quartz, 31 May 2019)

1 June: The Guardian reports that in the run-up to the European parliament elections, the far-Right Die Rechte party hired a bus, displaying a picture of a convicted Holocaust denier and drove it part a synagogue in Pforzheim shouting ‘Leave Germany’ and ‘Go back to Israel’. (Guardian, 1 June 2019)

1 June: Police in Croatia defend their decision not to ban the civic initiative  ‘I want a normal life’ protest that was targeted at the Roma in the northern town of Čakovec on the grounds that the protest was tolerant and no hate speech took place. (Croatia News, 1 June 2019)

2 June: Peacekeepers sporting  yellow vests rally to protect a group of Muslims breaking fast in Copenhagen’s municipality square against the far-right Stram Kurs and its leader Rasmus Paludan, who burn a Quran and open a banner that reads ‘Europe is ours’. (Hurriyat Daily News, 2 June 2019)

2 June: UKIP leader Gerard Batten, who took over unopposed in April 2018 and steered the party further towards the far right, resigns after the party loses all of its MEPs in the European elections. (Metro, 2 June 2019)

3 June: Dutch Muslim organisations in Eindhoven write to the mayor, protesting at far-right demonstrations at the Al-Fourqaan mosque in Otterstraat and saying that every time Pegida is allowed to demonstrate, they will organise a counter-protest. (Eindhoven News, 3 June 2019)

ELECTORAL POLITICS

25 May: The Middle East Forum is criticised after publishing a paper supporting Alternative for Germany’s billboard in the European parliament election campaign. The poster features a portion of the ‘The Slave Market’ (1866) painting by French painter Jean-Leon Gerome, depicting several dark-skinned men inspecting the teeth of a nude white woman, with the words ‘Europeans vote AfD! ‘So Europe doesn’t become Eurabia!’ (Sputnik News, 25 May 2019)

26 May: The newly re-elected Labour MEP Neena Gill, who is of British-Asian Sikh heritage, is heckled by people telling her to ‘go home’ during her acceptance speech in the West Midlands. Those responsible are said to be Brexit Party supporters. (Evening Standard, 26 May 2019)

26 May: The far-right UKIP party is decimated in the European elections with only 3.6 per cent of the vote, dropping from first place with nearly 27 per cent in 2014. Party leader Gerard Batten loses the London seat he held since 2004. His political advisor Tommy Robinson sneaks out of the election count in Manchester having won only 2.2 per cent of the vote. (Guardian, 27 May 2019; Guardian, 27 May 2019)

26 May: Magid Magid, the 29-year-old Somali refugee and former mayor of Sheffield, becomes an MEP for the Green Party in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. He is known for previously banning Donald Trump from visiting Sheffield and for defending children skipping school to take part in the climate strikes. (Independent, 27 May 2019)

27 May: Following the European parliament election, the far-right Europe of Nations and Freedom Group, which includes Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, emerges with a projected 58 seats, up 21 from five years ago. Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, home to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, increases its seats from 48 to 54. On the continent, there are gains for  Alternative for Germany, People’s Party – our Slovakia, the League in Italy, Fidesz in Hungary, Vlaams Belang in Belgium, National Rally in France, but the Freedom party in the Netherlands, under pressure from Thiery Baudet’s Forum for Democracy, loses all its seats, the Danish People’s party loses three of its four seats, and an extreme-right coalition in Poland fails to cross the 5 per cent threshold. (Guardian, 27 May 2019)

27 May: In the Sicilian capital of Palermo, Pietro Bartolo, a candidate for the Democratic Party, who is known as the ‘doctor of migrants’ due to his commitment to refugees in Sicily, is elected to the European parliament following a campaign in which he is presented as the last defence against the anti-immigration rhetoric of the extreme Right. (Guardian, 28 May 2019)

27 May: In triple elections in Belgium, for federal, regional and European parliaments, the far-Right Vlaams Belang make huge gains, emerging with 18 seats in the federal parliament (up 15), 23 seats in the Flemish parliament (up 17) and 3 seats in the European parliament. (Politico, 27 May 2019; Euractiv, 28 May 2019)

28 May: After undertaking preliminary investigations since March, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launches an official inquiry into anti-Semitism within the Labour Party, to determine whether the party or its employees have committed unlawful acts of discrimination or failed to effectively respond to complaints of such acts. (Guardian, 28 May 2019)

28 May: The Muslim Council of Britain submits a dossier to the Equality and Human Rights Commission calling for an independent inquiry into Islamophobia within the Conservative Party among both politicians and members, and the alleged failures of the party’s complaints process. (Guardian, 28 May 2019)

28 May: Yiannis Lagos, one of two members of the far-right Golden Dawn elected to the European Parliament, is on trial for the suspected murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas and is banned from leaving Greece until the trial is over. (Keep Talking Greece, 28 May 2019)

28 May: In municipal elections, Moses Elisaf becomes the first Jew ever to become a mayor in Greece as he is elected on an independent ticket in Ioannina, a city that was once at the heartland of Romaniote Jewish tradition but now numbers just fifty people. (Keep Talking Greece, 28 May 2019)

4 June: In Tromello, a small Milanese town knowns as a far-right League stronghold, Gianmarco Negri is elected Italy’s first transgender mayor. (Guardian, 4 June 2019)

POLICE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

29 May: During a landmark court hearing in Cardiff, the independent London policing ethics panel says that live facial recognition technology should only be used by police if they can prove that it won’t introduce racial or gender bias into operations and if the overall benefit to public safety outweighs public distrust. (Guardian, 29 May 2019)

30 May: The Northern Police Monitoring Project publishes an open letter calling on Greater Manchester Police to respond to community concerns about Project Servator, a sweeping patrol tactic involving firearms, plainclothes and dog-handling officers. (Northern Police Monitoring Project, 30 May 2019)

3 June: The education watchdog Ofsted says that staff at the G4S-run Oakhill Secure Training Centre must stop using pain-inducing techniques to discipline boys detained in the young offenders centre near Milton Keynes. (BBC News, 3 June 2019)

4 June: The number of Section 60 stop and searches carried out in London has increased by five times since 2017, the Metropolitan police deputy commissioner tells the London Assembly police and crime committee. (Guardian, 4 June 2019)

4 June: The coroner for the inquest into the murder of Vietnamese migrant Quyen Ngoc Nguyen near Sunderland in August 2017 concludes that Northumbria Police and the National Probation Service failed to coordinate and act upon intelligence about Nguyen’s two killers, both of whom were convicted murderers who had breached their licence conditions. (Independent, 4 June 2019)

EDUCATION

27 May: Cornwall Live publishes a story about a ‘mixed-race’ ethnicity 11-year-old child in a primary school in West Cornwall who endures regular racist comments from his peers like ‘black idiot’ and ‘slave’. The child’s parents say they have visited the headteacher several times but no action has been taken. (Cornwall Live, 27 May 2019)

29 May: Following a tribunal hearing, the University of Essex dismisses Dr Maaruf Ali, lecturer in computers and electronics, after he publicly opposed the creation of a Jewish society on campus and made allegedly anti-Semitic Facebook posts. (The Jewish Chronicle, 29 May 2019)

4 June: The University and College Union (UCU) launches a petition calling for the reinstatement of branch secretary and maths lecturer David Muritu, dismissed from Sandwell College for gross misconduct after writing ‘racist’ on a poster promoting the Prevent programme. Sign the petition here. (Birmingham Mail, 4 June 2019)

MEDIA AND CULTURE

24 May: After Morrissey was seen publicly wearing a far-right For Britain badge earlier this month, Merseyrail removes posters promoting the Manchester-born singer’s new album from train stations across Liverpool, while Spillers Records in Cardiff bans the sale of his albums. (Guardian, 23 May 2019; Sky News, 24 May 2019)

3 June: TalkRadio sacks former Labour and Respect MP George Galloway after Tottenham Hotspur F.C. condemned him for ‘blatant anti-Semitism’ for his tweet that read ‘no Israel flags on the cup’ following the club’s loss against Liverpool in the Champions League final. (Guardian, 3 June 2019)

HEALTH

1 June: The Royal College of GPs withdraws an invitation to the TalkRadio presenter and Telegraph columnist Julia Hartley-Brewer to speak at its annual conference after 729 family doctors launch a petition drawing attention to her views on immigration, including a tweet in 2016 in which she said she could not see anything in Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech that he had got wrong. (Guardian, 1 June 2019)

HOUSING

28 May: A year after its original damning report, a new report by the Galway Travellers’ Movement says that many Traveller sites across Galway city and county are still neglected by local authorities, with no progress being made on overcrowding, structural damage, rodent infestations and several other problems. (Irish Times, 28 May 2019)

EMPLOYMENT AND EXPLOITATION

30 May: A University of Sheffield study finds that global fashion companies selling clothes in the UK are still failing to ensure that subcontracted workers receive living wages and decent work conditions, six years after the Rana Plaza disaster. Read the report here. (Independent, 31 May 2019)

31 May: A three-year Guardian investigation into the global supply chain for Italy’s multi-million Euro tobacco industry finds that 80 per cent of migrant workers do not have contracts; and that African migrant labour, including children, in Calabria suffer deep exploitation, working up 12 hours a day without sufficient health and safety equipment, with no access to clean water, and subject to verbal and racial discrimination. (Guardian, 31 May 2019)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

28 May: After the artist Luigi Toscano’s ‘Lest We Forget’ installation – photographs of Holocaust survivors mounted on textiles and displayed on Vienna’s Ringstrasse road – is slashed and daubed with swastikas, Muslim and Catholic youth organisations organise nightly security vigils, with Muslim women arriving with sewing kits to stitch the pictures back together. (Deutsche Welle, 29 May 2019)

30 May: Using official police figures, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children finds that in 2017-18 there were over 10,000 racially-motivated hate crimes against children under 18, adding new evidence of rising racism in British society. Children report being told to go home and being insulted for their skin colour, with some telling counsellors they conceal the pain from their parents to avoid upsetting them. (Guardian, 30 May 2019)

30 May: A man who was convicted of racially harassing a black colleague during their work Christmas party in Cardiff, at which he dressed up as a black and white minstrel and performed a racist singing routine, wins his appeal. (Wales Online, 30 May 2019)

1 June: German ombudsman Felix Klein, having previously warned Jews not to wear the kippah in public because of anti-Semitism, now calls on Germans to wear skull caps in solidarity with the Jewish community, to coincide with al-Quds day. Earlier in the week, chancellor Angela Merkel said that the country has a historic duty to confront the problem of rising anti-Semitism. (Guardian, 28 May 2019; Guardian, 1 June 2019)

This calendar was compiled by Joseph Maggs with help from Graeme Atkinson and the IRR News Team.