David (also known as Sonia) Burgess, an immigration lawyer who died in tragic circumstances on 25 October 2010, will long be remembered for his pioneering work defending the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. The firm he helped to set up in 1975, Winstanley Burgess, soon set the standard for all legal aid immigration practices
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Dispatches from the dark side
In this series of essays the solicitor Gareth Peirce, who over decades has represented people subjected to the most egregious human rights violations in the UK, has laid bare the frightening current picture of legal and governmental practice in the UK and the US which shames our civilisation. The essays, which were previously published in
Families on the march
On Saturday families from across the UK will meet in London for the twelfth remembrance procession for those that have died in police, prison and psychiatric custody. The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of the families and friends of those that have died in custody, and includes the families of Leon
Asylum seekers wrongly imprisoned
A recent case[1] reveals that refugees are still being prosecuted and imprisoned for using false documents in their quest for safety, eleven years after the courts declared the practice unlawful. An Iranian man goes on a demonstration and is beaten up, detained and tortured for sixteen days. Relatives organise his escape, and he is bundled
Inspired art by detained people
The latest Koestler Trust exhibition of ‘offender’ art is currently on show at the Royal Festival hall, Southbank in London. Approximately 150 pieces of art created by those held at prisons, removal centres, young offenders’ institutes and secure mental hospitals in the UK and people in contact with the probation service, are being exhibited until
Driven to Desperate Measures
The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) publishes today a report on deaths of asylum seekers and migrants which damns government policies for putting vulnerable people at risk. On Tuesday, an Angolan asylum seeker died during his deportation. But this is not an isolated case. According to IRR’s report, Driven to Desperate Measures: 2006-2010, forty-four people
Freedom of speech finally vindicated
The prosecutor has withdrawn an appeal against Dr Sabine Schiffer’s acquittal in Germany for slandering a police officer. On 24 March 2010, Dr Sabine Schiffer, an anti-racist academic and Director of the Institute for Media Responsibility in Erlangen, was acquitted of slander of a police officer. She had been prosecuted for her suggestion that institutional
The Abatans need funds for inquest
Next week, on 11 October, the inquest is due to begin into the death of Jay Abatan, who was murdered eleven years ago in January 1999. Jay’s family have had to fight for an inquest to be held at all. It was thought by the coroner that an inquest was not required as there had
Macbeth goes to jail
The Educational Shakespeare Company, which worked with prisoners at Belfast’s Maghaberry prison, has finally released the DVD Mickey B, a powerful adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth which could prove an important resource for use with young people. Mickey B, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, shot in Belfast’s Maghaberry Prison (where adult male long-term prisoners provided
Remembering Sean Rigg – two years on
On Saturday 21 August 2010, sisters Marcia Rigg-Samuel and Samantha Rigg-David were joined by family, friends and members of the public in marking the second anniversary of the death of their brother Sean Rigg, killed during an altercation with police in Brixton on 21 August 2008. A vigil was held outside Brixton police station where