Demonstrations in protest against the deportation of students and children will be staged this Saturday in Manchester and London. The Stop Deporting Children and Students day of action aims to raise awareness of the plight of many young asylum seekers, who arrive in the UK seeking a safer life and a decent education but are
Theme: Education
Opposition in Scotland to Westminster’s immigration policies is growing
Last week, the UK’s minister on immigration Tony McNulty, in a high-handed intervention, forbade the assistant head of Immigration Services in Scotland from meeting a delegation of concerned Scottish church, charity and political representatives. Rolf Toollen, the Scottish official, was all ready for the meeting. In fact, it was reported that he had cancelled a
Appearance battles against reality in Zimbabwe deportation policy
The Home Office has been accused of deliberately ignoring the national identity of failed asylum seekers in order to return Zimbabwean nationals to their homeland, despite the High Court’s suspension of removals of Zimbabweans subject to a reappraisal of the situation. Immigration lawyers have claimed that Home Office officials are choosing not to investigate false
Digital Diaries – the right to stay
A series of short online videos by Manchester-based groups tells the ‘untold stories behind the political and media hype’ surrounding asylum seekers. Asylum seekers, the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC), the Basement café, Community Arts North West and No Borders Manchester have joined forces for this project that focuses on asylum seekers in the
Asylum seeker suicide: ‘depressed and preoccupied’
On 20 October 2005, no family or friends were present at the inquest of Iranian asylum seeker Majid Rafieei at the Upperthorpe Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield – which lasted just one hour. The inquest into the death of 32-year-old Majid, whose claim for political asylum had been refused but who was not scheduled to be
Campaign gathers momentum as Afghan youth faces deportation
A campaign launched to prevent an Afghan youth from being deported is the latest in a series of vociferous crusades championed by the Kent Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers. According to the group, many young Afghans, who arrive in the UK as ‘unaccompanied minors’, are being forced to return to their country of origin because
Holding the state to account for the deaths of vulnerable asylum seekers
A recent meeting on deaths in immigration detention centres called for the state to be held accountable for the deaths of vulnerable asylum seekers. The meeting, which was organised by Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) after the death of Manuel Bravo in Yarl’s Wood was addressed by campaigners on deaths in custody and those working
Haslar staff routinely carry weapons, alleges inspector
A report on the inspection of Haslar Immigration Removal Centre, conducted in May by Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, has elucidated a number of serious concerns regarding the safety, accommodation and legal representation of detainees. Some custody staff at Haslar, which is run by the Prison Service on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality
‘This policy is ripping apart our family’
Here we reproduce a speech given by 19-year-old Flores Sukula to a meeting in parliament on 17 October. She is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose family (mother, brothers and sisters) was one of the first to be made destitute under new asylum laws. ‘Our lives are very difficult now.
Letting the words come out
The Write to Life project of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture has published A story from There to Here in which thirteen refugees record their experiences as short stories. Established in 1997 as a therapeutic writing group, Write to Life now has twenty clients and seven volunteer professional writers. Its