The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has recently published a report into the death of a Zimbabwean man in September 2008 who had been released from Colnbrook immigration removal centre (IRC) a few weeks before his death. The unnamed 32-year-old Zimbabwean man came to the UK in 2002 on a visitors visa which he overstayed.
Theme: Education
Bad science?
The UK Border Agency is trialing a controversial isotope analysis to determine nationality. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) plans to test people’s nationality by isotope analysis, according to an announcement made on 11 September by the Central Operations and Performance directorate. The ‘Human Provenance Pilot Project’, scheduled to run for ten months from 14 September
UN Human Rights Council listens to migrant voices
A special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has heard calls for an end to the criminalisation of irregular migration and the detention of migrants from NGOs, UN experts and governments of the south. On 17 September a migrants’ rights network was given a rare chance to tell the United Nations (UN)
Study shows more Leeds asylum seekers left destitute
After conducting research on destitution among asylum seekers in Leeds in 2006 and 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Trust has published a third report which shows that the situation is getting worse. The report, titled Still destitute: a worsening problem for refused asylum seekers, uses data gathered from agencies offering support to asylum seekers over a
The human cost of inhuman policies
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has issued a moving report on the experiences of those held in immigration detention. Some of the questions which immediately spring to mind on reading this heartbreaking and shaming report are: how can this situation have been allowed to arise? how can it be allowed to continue? how can we
Minor crime doesn’t justify deportation, judges say
The government’s tabloid-driven policy to get tough on refugees who commit minor criminal offences has been dealt a blow by a recent legal ruling. For the past few years, human rights lawyers and refugee support groups have expressed increasing concern over Home Office policy to treat refugees who commit minor offences as ‘foreign national criminals’
Asylum seeker stitches eyes and mouth in protest
An Iranian asylum seeker has sewn his face up and is on hunger strike in protest at his ‘inhumane treatment’ in immigration detention. Fariat Mohammadi, an Iranian asylum seeker who fought against the Islamic regime in Iran, has been held in detention since his arrival in the UK eleven months ago. Currently held in Colnbrook
Christopher Caldwell dissected
The author of key works on contemporary terrorism and the concept of Eurabia dissects the latest anti-Muslim tome. Since the late Oriana Fallaci published her anti-Muslim diatribe The Rage and the Pride in 2001, the Islamic threat to Europe has become something of a minor publishing phenomenon. Mark Steyn, Bat Ye’or, Bruce Bawer and Melanie
Migrant coalition-building in Amsterdam
If you want change, argues the Transnational Migrant Platform (TMP) in Amsterdam, you need to build a broad coalition capable of working simultaneously both on the domestic and the international front. Over the last six months, the IRR has been trying to find out more about the pioneering work of the TMP which was launched
Calais No Border camp
Before it even started, the Calais No Border Camp was attacked in the right-wing press. The Mail on Sunday denounced the camp with the headline: ‘Police arrest 17 anarchists threatening to lead swarms of illegal migrants through Channel tunnel to Britain’. The Calais No Border camp is being held from 23-29 June 2009 and is