On 6 November, thirty people gathered outside the Australian High Commission in Holborn, London to support Aboriginal, Lex Wotton on trial following a protest after a death in custody in Australia. Lex Wotton led a protest in November 2004 outside a police station on Palm Island, Queensland, over the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee,
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Two families unite for justice
Last week two grieving families gathered outside Brixton police station to extend solidarity to one another. A weekly vigil outside Brixton police station for Sean Rigg, who died in police custody on 21 August 2008 after being arrested by local police (read an IRR News story: Two suspicious Black deaths in south London), was also
Secret inquest plans thrown out
The government has thrown out plans to hold inquests in secret. The proposal under the Counter Terrorism Bill would have allowed the Home Secretary to issue a certificate requiring an inquest to be held without a jury ‘in the interests of national security’. The inquest would then have been held in front of a specially
Man dies following raid by police and immigration
An investigation is underway as to how a man died following a raid by police and immigration officers at his home in Woodford Green, Essex. 36-year-old Frank Odame was found with head injuries below a block of flats after ‘police officers and UK immigration officials attended a residential address in Lambourne Court, Woodford Green’. A
Pressure to deport foreign national prisoners
As the drive to deport foreign criminals goes on, Frances Webber, a leading human rights lawyer, reports on new legislation affecting foreign national prisoners and their families. The automatic deportation provisions of the 2007 UK Borders Act came into force on 1 August 2008. From that date it became possible for the UK Borders Agency
Two suspicious Black deaths in south London
The family of a Black man who died after being arrested by Brixton police is appealing for witnesses to come forward. On 21 August, 40-year-old Sean Rigg was arrested, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which investigates deaths in custody, on suspicion of public order offences and alleged assault on a police officer
Vigils in memory of Habib Ullah
Last week, members of the local community and family and friends of Habib Ullah, who died after being arrested by police on 3 July, gathered in High Wycombe town centre to hold two vigils in his memory. The vigils were held to provide the local community with more information and to raise awareness about Habib’s
Family question police role in death of Asian man
On 3 July 2008, during a police search of a car in High Wycombe, 39-year-old Habib Ullah, became ill, was taken to hospital and pronounced dead. His family are concerned that the police version of what happened may not be accurate. They also are angry that they were not informed about the death till the
A tribute to Abdelhakim Ajimi
A death in police custody in south-east France is causing community concern. Behind a banner proclaiming ‘police blunder, assassins’, hundreds of people, a thousand perhaps (according to the organisers), took part in a largely silent demonstration (except when marching past the police station) on Sunday 11 May in the centre of the south-eastern city of
Europe: mobilising against ‘foreign criminals’
Populist politicians – mostly, although not entirely, from centre and extreme-Right parties – are seeking to win elections by mobilising voters against foreign criminals, ‘immigrant’ youth and the Roma. But this resort to xenophobia via crime comes at a high social cost. Politicians who make use of divisive and reckless populism to gain votes, put