A number of coalition measures will have potentially disastrous consequences for migrants and asylum seekers. First, there is pressure to get foreign offenders to leave. When a Romanian shoplifter was banished from the UK for a year, as part of his community sentence, the High Court quashed the order in December 2012, saying that exclusion
Theme: Education
Capita wrongly telling people to leave the UK
Outsourcing of enforcement role causes confusion and distress as many are wrongly targeted. In the second and third weeks of December 2012, as businesses wound down for Christmas and MPs went home, thousands of migrants, including students, workers and investors, received text messages or emails telling them they had no lawful leave to be in
Calais benefit party
An evening of food and music to collect donations for migrants in Calais during winter. Friday 11 January 2013, 7pm til late Library Street Social Centre, 44-50 Lancaster Street, London SE1 0RY Related links Download a flyer here Library Street Social Centre
Cardiff Migrant Solidarity training
A series of sessions aimed at helping new volunteers understand the asylum process and how to help refugees and migrants living in South Wales. Saturday 12 January 2013, 3-6pm Cardiff
Revealing the impact of immigration detention
Two recent reports add fuel to growing demands to rethink indefinite immigration detention. On any given day between January and March 2012, 3,500 people were held in immigration detention, of whom over forty had been there for over two years: the equivalent of a four-year prison sentence, for being a refused asylum seeker, overstayer or
Miliband’s progress?
A. Sivanandan, known for his trenchant critiques of government ‘race’ policies, has broadly welcomed what Ed Miliband had to say last week. IRR News asks him why. What’s new about the Miliband speech? It seems to carry many of the same old themes – need to curtail immigration, need to integrate and so on. It
From despair comes resistance
Asylum-seekers and migrants across Europe are determined to change the inhuman circumstances of their existence. In his new book Fortress Europe: dispatches from a gated continent, journalist Matthew Carr describes a protest in Lombardy in which five migrants climbed to the top of a crane above Brescia’s new light railway line. ‘For seventeen days they
Spotlight on racial violence: October-December 2012
An overview of racist attacks and convictions over the last three months. Earlier this week, Kick it Out chair Herman Ouseley resigned from the Football Association (FA), describing the authorities’ efforts to fight racism in football in 2012 as ‘wasted in hypocrisy’. Lord Ouseley spoke of an ‘establishment [that] seemed to be looking after its
The fundraiser before Christmas…
A night of music, comedy and food in support of Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS). Thursday 13 December 2012, 6pm Wharf Chambers, 23-25 Wharf Street, Leeds LS2 7EQ Acts include: Mik Artistic’s Ego Trip Downdime Quasimodo RELATED LINKS PAFRAS Wharf Chambers
Medical Justice festive dinner
An evening with doctors, lawyers, campaigners and ex-detainees. Wednesday 5 December 2012, 6.45pm Andover Estate Community Centre, Andover Estate, Finsbury Park, London N7 7RY. RELATED LINKS Medical Justice