The aftermath of September 11 has been felt in Europe not just in terms of anti-terror legislation, but also in an acceleration of plans to fast-track the expulsion of migrants. And at the centre of any expulsion plans is found the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a little-known but hugely important international organisation of member
Theme: Education
Anti-immigrant racism gets academic veneer
A new ‘thinktank’, MigrationWatch UK, has claimed that two million foreigners will be settling in Britain. It says much about the English newspaper industry that two men, with nothing more than a website and a set of alarmist figures about immigration to Britain, were able to set the news agenda for several days at the
Tayman Bahmani – racially murdered
Yesterday a young Iranian asylum seeker was racially murdered on the streets of Sunderland. Tayman Bahmani, aged 28, was stabbed at about 3.30pm on Peel Street, Sunderland, and died a few hours later in a local hospital. As yet no one has been arrested for the incident. He had been in the United Kingdom for
Blunkett expands prison-asylum complex
Asylum seekers in Britain are increasingly facing a system of imprisonment, detention and slave labour. Despite the government’s softer language on asylum at the Labour Party conference in September, when it feared a fight with the grassroots membership, more asylum seekers are being imprisoned. Then David Blunkett conceded that the practice of putting asylum seekers
The challenge of September 11
The events of September 11 and their aftermath, in terms of government policy, have thrown up a series of contradictions for anti-racists about freedom of expression, human rights, religion and Islam, in particular. CARF asked veteran campaigner and anti-imperialist writer A Sivanandan for some pointers. CARF: You have, for a long time, warned us against
Crimes of NASS
The Home Office and the Scottish Executive ordered civil servants to carry out a thorough review of the dispersal system. Its conclusions are expected any day. But will the racial violence that claimed the life of Firsat Dag be on the agenda? A safe haven? As Europe’s overall approach to asylum seekers gets ever harsher,
The emergence of xeno-racism
A new racism directed at the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted ‘It is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted, who are beating at western Europe’s doors, the Europe that helped
Poverty is the new black
The roots of this summer’s violence can be traced to the xenoracist culture of globalisation. Racism has always been both an instrument of discrimination and a tool of exploitation. But it manifests itself as a cultural phenomenon, susceptible to cultural solutions, such as multicultural education and the promotion of ethnic identities. Tackling the problem of
How anti-trafficking initiatives criminalise refugees
The right of refugees to seek protection in Europe is under threat from anti-trafficking initiatives. The context in which refugee policy is framed within the European Union has changed dramatically since the 1980s. From being an issue of human rights and cold-war politics it had, by the early 1990s as the number of asylum claims
Prison for asylum seekers
The government has been drawing up secret plans to increase the numbers of asylum seekers held in prisons. With Ann Widdecombe proposing to lock up all refugees in what are euphemistically called ‘secure reception centres’, Jack Straw is responding with the promise of new immigration detention centres. But in the meantime he has ordered the