Research by the Institute of Race Relations suggests that one of the briefing document that accompanied the new anti-terror bill may have been somewhat misleading. In the week the government published details of its new Prevention of Terrorism Bill, it also published four background papers to justify the new legislation. Paper 1 details the current
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Police launch investigation into Black man’s death at Belmarsh
IRR News has learnt that a young Black man has died in suspicious circumstances at Belmarsh maximum-security prison in south-east London. A police investigation is currently underway into the death of 25-year-old Godfrey Moyo, a Zimbabwean. The Home Office told IRR News that Godfrey, who was on remand, was pronounced dead at 5:40am on 3
Did delay in treatment contribute to the death of a Turkish asylum seeker?
The family of Elmas Ozmico, a Turkish asylum seeker, believe that earlier medical intervention might have saved her life. This is one of the questions the family desperately want answered at the inquest into her death. On 8 July 2003, a Turkish woman, 40-year-old Elmas Ozmico with her two children aged eight and nine and
Dossier reveals failure to investigate complaints of racism at Leeds Prison
Solicitors are urging the Commission for Racial Equality, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) and the Prison Service to take action over allegations of prison officer abuse and racism at Leeds prison, where Shahid Aziz was murdered earlier this year. The murder of Shahid Aziz at HMP Leeds and subsequent allegations of racism that surfaced
Death trap: the human cost of the war on asylum
The IRR publishes today a roll call of death of the 180 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants who have died either in the UK or attempting to reach the UK in the past fifteen years. No section of our society is more vulnerable than asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. Forced by circumstances beyond their control
New study highlights discrimination in use of anti-terror laws
The Institute of Race Relations publishes today a catalogue that details how hundreds of Muslims have been arrested under terrorism powers before being released without charge; how the special powers granted by parliament to tackle terrorism are being deployed in other spheres, such as in routine criminal investigations or in the policing of immigration; how
Hundreds demonstrate outside Home Office against ‘war on terror’
The campaign against the criminalisation of Muslim communities under anti-terror laws stepped up a gear this week as over 300 people protested outside the Home Office. The emergency protest on 13 August 2004 was called following the re-arrest two weeks earlier of Babar Ahmad, a 30-year-old university IT officer. Babar was first arrested under anti-terror
‘Deadly detention’ protests
Over the weekend, 31 July/ 1August, campaigners held demonstrations against ‘deadly detention’ outside detention centres and prisons across UK. These were organised after two asylum seekers were found hanged, one in Harmondsworth and another in Dungavel. As a result, protests were held on Saturday at Campsfield and Dover removal centres and outside Liverpool Prison. The
The human cost of immigration detention
Concern is mounting that the issues behind the recent disturbance at Harmondsworth detention centre – the apparent failure of the private firms which run detention centres to provide full care to detainees and the emerging evidence of assaults by officers – will be ignored as prosecutions of at least seventeen detainees proceed. On 19 July
Analysis: the war on terror leads to racial profiling
As IRR News first warned last year, the threat of terrorism is being used as a pretext to discriminate in police stops and searches, particularly against British Asians, a trend confirmed by new figures published last week. Even before September 11, the fight against terrorism was being used to justify a host of new powers