Testimony about special bail conditions’ intrusive impact on personal life reinforces the concerns recently expressed by Lord Carlile, the parliamentary anti-terror watchdog about control orders. We publish an excerpted version of the verbatim account compiled by the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) from Mr Qavi, who was a bail-accommodation provider for someone released by the
Theme: Employment
Racial profiling and anti-terror stop and search
Amid growing public concern about stop and search powers under terror laws and the challenge by Liberty in the High Court over their misuse, Arun Kundnani examines some of the key issues in the debate. The new powers introduced under the Terrorism Act Under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) stops could only be
New terror law will harm race relations
We reproduce here the letter sent by the Director of Oldham Race Equality Partnership to Tony Blair on proposed anti-terror laws and the damage they are likely to cause. The Executive Committee of the Oldham Race Equality Partnership has asked me to write to government, local MPs and others who are in a position to
Bail applications begin for men detained under anti-terror laws
On 6 December 2005, a small group of campaigners held a picket outside the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) to mark the start of bail hearings of some of the (many) foreign nationals, asylum seekers and refugees detained under anti-terror laws. Bail applications were made on behalf at least five men, four Algerians and a
Launch of European Civil Liberties Network
An online network of groups concerned with civil liberties, democracy and equality has been launched to counter unprecedented attacks on freedoms in Europe. The European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) brings together groups and individuals who seek to create a European society based on freedom and equality, personal and political freedom, freedom of information and equality
It’s anti-racism that was failed, not multiculturalism that failed
No country in Europe could be more proud of its multicultural experiment than Britain. But, in the wake of 7 July, or rather because Blair refuses to accept that the war in Iraq could have played a part in breeding home-grown suicide bombers, multiculturalism has become the whipping boy. And the more he divaricates from
Deporting Muslim clerics: lessons from Europe
The proposal, to deport Muslim clerics whose words foment violence or glorify terrorism (as indicated by Blair) is already being applied in other European countries. A report by the Institute of Race Relations on ‘the Integration Debate’ in Europe shows how deportations for ‘speech crimes’ has set back community relations and led to serious human
‘Speech crime’ and deportation
Throughout Europe, immigration reforms are being introduced which build in to citizenship and residence rights measures which constrain freedom of speech. If those constraining measures are breached, the punishment could be deportation. There can be no reasonable objection to the deportation of a foreign national who incites violence and hatred, if a court rules that
Government’s anti-terror briefing does not add up
Research by the Institute of Race Relations suggests that one of the briefing document that accompanied the new anti-terror bill may have been somewhat misleading. In the week the government published details of its new Prevention of Terrorism Bill, it also published four background papers to justify the new legislation. Paper 1 details the current
No apology as courts expose double discrimination
In December, the Law Lords found that the government disciminated against Roma in immigration controls and against foreign nationals in anti-terrorist detentions. Together, the judgments reveal a mindset that has not changed since the creation of a ‘Fortress Europe’ in the 1980s. In two landmark legal judgments, the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, has