Deportation charter flights from the UK to the Kurdish controlled area of northern Iraq have been regular occurrences, now, other European countries are carrying out forced returns. On 14 June, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that a total of 111 failed Iraqi asylum seekers have now been deported to Iraq from Sweden. The summary
Theme: Education
Asylum seekers wrongly refused legal aid
A local law centre project to help unrepresented asylum seekers has demonstrated that the vast majority are wrongly refused legal help for their appeals. In June 2007, Devon Law Centre set up its Asylum Appellate Project (AAP), to help asylum seekers refused public funding for their appeals to obtain it, and to obtain the evidence
Peaceful protest punished
A culture of fear seems to be re-establishing itself at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC), where a recent report reveals that peaceful protests about detention have led to those concerned being transferred to prison. The latest annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), published in March 2009,[1] reveals that in April 2008 a group
Play at the National – neither very nice nor very funny
Why has the National Theatre extended the run of a play which has been accused of fuelling racism? In April 2009, we saw England People Very Nice by Richard Bean at the National Theatre. This was meant to be the last week the play was showing. Imagine our shock when we saw the website of
PR and the selling of border controls
Below Jon Burnett analyses a recent Sky TV series, UK Border Force, which portrayed the work of the UK Border Agency. In 2008, the Home Office paid £400,000 to Steadfast Television,[1] an independent production company, to help fund a documentary for Sky TV on UK border control. The programme, according to Sky, was ‘a revealing
No charges – and no bail
Ten students arrested in anti-terror raids in April face continued immigration detention and deportation despite the lack of evidence against them. In a pattern which is becoming increasingly familiar, a high-profile operation by anti-terrorism police amid rumours of imminent atrocities ended with no charges, but with the men turned over to immigration officials for deportation.
Rulings in age assessment cases
In two recent cases, the courts have returned to the controversial issue of how the Home Office and local authorities assess the age of asylum seekers who claim to be children. On 6 May 2009, Justice Keith ruled unlawful a Home Office decision that a young Chinese asylum seeker was over 18 which led to
New project to end immigration detention of children
A new project has been launched to end the detention of children and their families for immigration purposes. The Children’s Society and Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) are working in partnership on the End Immigration Detention of Children and their Families (EIDOC) project, which seeks to provide advice and support to asylum-seeking children and young
New campaign by PCS union
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have launched a campaign to prohibit the employment of members of racist organisations within the Home Office and UK Border Agency. PCS’s members believe that it is unacceptable for members of racist organisations to implement asylum and immigration policy, as their political beliefs are incompatible with
Waking nightmares: arrest and detention of children
A new report by the Children’s Commissioner reveals the impact of immigration detention on children and calls for its abolition. To come out of sleep to loud knocking and shouted orders, to open your eyes to uniformed strangers milling about in your home, sometimes pulling you by the arm or pushing you onto the floor,