On Saturday 1 April, over 200 people gathered for a demonstration outside Plumstead police station in south-east London, to protest against the death of Nuur Saeed, a young Somali who died during a police raid. On 24 January 2006, 22-year-old Nuur Saeed died in hospital from head injuries. He had been found on the ground
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Challenging detention of children
As campaigners across the world prepare for the first ever coordinated international day of action against immigration detention on 8 April, Liz Fekete charts the growing resistance to the detention of asylum-seeking children in Europe. Over the years, European governments have been locking up more and more asylum- seeking children and, in this way, rendering
Crime: driving while Black
A Black man is to sue Dorset police for an alleged racial attack after being sprayed in the face at close range with CS gas in his car – and he has the video footage to prove it. Femi Ijebuode, whose ordeal at the hands of Bournemouth police was shown on Channel 4 News on
Inquest indicts three agencies in restraint death of Black schizophrenic
A two-week inquest at the end of January recorded a detailed narrative verdict critical of the care that 28-year-old Andrew Jordan, a Guyanese man who had a history of schizophrenia, received from police, mental health officials and ambulance service staff in south-east London. Andrew’s mental health problems had begun in 1999 when he returned to
Living under a control order
Testimony about special bail conditions’ intrusive impact on personal life reinforces the concerns recently expressed by Lord Carlile, the parliamentary anti-terror watchdog about control orders. We publish an excerpted version of the verbatim account compiled by the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) from Mr Qavi, who was a bail-accommodation provider for someone released by the
Are homes being turned into detention centres?
The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) and has branded the tagging of a growing number of asylum seekers as a means of ‘criminalising’ the innocent. Asylum seekers are being fitted with an electronic monitoring device around their ankles. A monitoring unit is then installed in the accommodation address where the individual resides. During periods
Damages paid to man cleared in custody death case
A two-week civil hearing has cleared Jason Paul of any involvement in the death of fellow Afro-Caribbean Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in 1998, and has awarded him £30,500 in damages against the police. The civil hearing marked Mr Paul’s second attempt at claiming false imprisonment and malicious prosecution against Humberside Police. Mr
Man dies during police operation
The Somali community in the Woolwich area is in deep shock after the death of a 22-year-old Somali, Nuur Saeed, after an ‘operation’ by Woolwich police. The police say that on 10 January Nuur was in a house at which they executed a search warrant in Plumstead. ‘At 5pm Mr Saeed was found to be
Vigil for Bereket Yohannes at Harmondsworth
On a bitterly cold Sunday morning last week, over eighty people gathered outside Harmondsworth removal centre for a vigil in memory of 26-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker, Bereket Yohannes, who was found hanged in a shower block at Harmondsworth on 19 January. Bereket’s is the eighth asylum seeker to take his own life in an immigration
Racial profiling and anti-terror stop and search
Amid growing public concern about stop and search powers under terror laws and the challenge by Liberty in the High Court over their misuse, Arun Kundnani examines some of the key issues in the debate. The new powers introduced under the Terrorism Act Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) stops could only be