The restraint of a woman, who asked to attend church, sparked the disturbance that led to Yarl’s Wood detention centre being burnt to the ground. Of the eleven men charged in connection with the fire, only four were convicted, after a trial that may have been flawed. And yet, next month, Yarl’s Wood will be
Theme: Education
Legal aid cuts will target those most in need of protection
Last January, the government threw asylum seekers onto the streets, under the new ‘Section 55’ rules. This January, it plans to deny them access to proper legal advice, under new proposals to ration legal aid. The result will be the ‘warehousing’ of cases and the end for many of a chance of a fair hearing.
Hidden voices
An important new booklet from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland records the struggles of asylum seekers in their own words. In Asylum Voices, we hear of experiences usually hidden in British society. Behind the tabloid headlines screaming ‘bogus’, ‘scrounger’, ‘economic migrant’ are the ‘hidden voices’ of people who come to the UK seeking refuge.
Fortress America
As America plunges into a period of imperialist expansion, immigrant communities – particularly of Middle-Eastern and South Asian descent – have been caught in the teeth of a new domestic totalitarianism. Every Friday, a small group of protesters holds a picket outside the New York offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on Manhattan’s
Hull: Hundreds of asylum seekers protest against racism
Around 300 asylum seekers – mostly Iraqi Kurds – gathered at Pearson Park in Hull this week to demand a stronger response from Humberside police to the racist attacks they are suffering. In the last two weeks, the number of assaults against asylum seekers and refugees in Hull has increased dramatically. A number of victims
Death at the border – who is to blame?
The EU Border Control Programme, introduced with scant regard to refugee protection and human rights, is leading to an increasing number of deaths on the borders of Europe – and beyond. The measure of desperation Over the last eighteen months, our research has identified 742 people who have died attempting to reach Europe[1]. In order
The other asylum statistics
Governments count the numbers coming in. But who counts the numbers that do not make it? Research by the Institute of Race Relations has found that, in the last 18 months, at least 742 lives have been lost on Europe’s militarised borders. The actual number of deaths is certainly much higher, as only officially verified
NASS: chronicle of failure
When the National Asylum Support Service was created in 1999, its policing and deterrent functions were given priority over the provision of welfare for asylum seekers. The system that today forces asylum seekers onto the streets is the inevitable result. It was only the tabloid press and the Home Office which believed (or pretended to)
Use of fingerprints to be tested on Sri Lankans
Sri Lankans who apply for a visa to come to the UK are to be fingerprinted in a six-month pilot scheme. If successful, similar measures will be deployed for other countries. The scheme is due to begin on 14 July, after which all applicants for a visa at the British High Commission in Colombo will
Home Office puts misleading spin on own report
The Home Office, this week, tried to present its new research on asylum-seeking in Europe as evidence that its policies were working. But what the research actually says is that attempts to deter asylum seekers through hardline measures are unlikely to be effective. Earlier this year, Tony Blair set a target of halving the number