Larne House, the first detention centre in Northern Ireland, has opened. The opening of the first purpose-built immigration detention centre in Northern Ireland this month, is a sad day as it will expand the detention estate once again. But we can resist the simultaneous expansion of our own mental barriers against human equality and freedom,
Theme: Education
Tamils deported, Iraqis win reprieve
The government has been organising deportations of Sri Lankans and Iraqis despite the dangers they face on return – but has met with resistance. On 16 June, just two days after the screening of Channel 4’s shocking exposé of the war crimes against Sri Lanka’s Tamils in ‘Sri Lanka’s killing fields’ and the day after
Why did Aminullah die?
French social services have been accused of failing a seventeen-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who apparently took his own life. On 10 June Le Monde reported that Aminullah, a young asylum seeker from Afghanistan who had dreamed of becoming a plumber, committed suicide in Paris, three months before his eighteenth birthday. The full facts of the
The real ‘immigration debate’
A keynote address to the annual conference of the Churches’ Refugee Network by Frances Webber. The political and media campaign against immigration and asylum seekers shows no signs of abating. It is seen by the Home Affairs Committee as a matter of shame that so many asylum seekers, stuck in the system without a decision
Three days of anti-immigrant violence shakes Athens
Following three days of anti-immigrant violence in Athens, questions are being asked about possible far-right involvement in the murder of Bangladeshi migrant worker Alim Abdul Manan. The attacks on immigrants started on Tuesday 10 May after Manolis Kantaris, a 44-year-old Greek man, died after a stabbing in what appeared to be a street robbery in
Living Wage campaign
A few weeks ago, as thousands queued outside Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of Kate’s wedding bouquet, hundreds of others gathered nearby in Central Hall for another kind of celebration. The event was organised by Citizens UK, which has over 240 member organisations – churches, mosques, synagogues, trade unions, community groups, from all over
Brutal and unlawful detention
Corporate Watch has produced a thorough analysis of UK immigration detention policies by examining the detention of children and families at Yarl’s Wood removal centre. The report Immigration Prisons: Brutal, Unlawful, and Profitable: Yarl’s Wood a case study examines the procedures at the centre, the closure of the family unit,[1] and the implications for the
Culture of abuse in treatment of HIV/Aids
Medical Justice, the charity that assists detainees access healthcare in detention, has once again published compelling research about the treatment of people within immigration removal centres. In its latest report, Detained and Denied: The clinical care of immigration detainees living with HIV, Medical Justice provides a thorough analysis of the inhuman way in which people
IPPR: fuelling popular racism?
The hardline message of the new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) on irregular immigration is designed to reassure working-class voters that a Labour government would control immigration. The IPPR, an influential think-tank with strong links to the Labour Party, starts with the policy position that ‘irregular immigration’ must be reduced, because
Child detention still inhumane
Despite Clegg’s pronouncements that ‘one of the most child-friendly immigration systems in the developed world’ is being implemented, the harshness of the government’s new strategies for detaining and deporting children is now becoming clear. The ‘end'[1] of the detention of children in immigration removal centres came after a long fought campaign uniting a diverse array