The recent decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to grant bail to three men detained without trial since December 2001 and the release of an Egyptian refugee have been met with incredulity by human rights organisations, MPs and lawyers. On Monday 31 January, campaigners and community activists gathered outside the Special Immigration Appeals Commission
Theme: Employment
Continued unlawful detention
On 20 January 2005, over 300 people gathered outside Downing Street to protest against the continued detention without trial of eleven men under the Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. Those present, many of whom were from Muslim organisations, were protesting at the government’s refusal to release those held without trial under anti-terror laws,
Returns to Algeria: inaccurate Home Office information corrected
Very quietly last week, the Country Information and Policy Unit (CIPU) of the Immigration and Nationality Department issued a Bulletin about its Algeria country information report, correcting an earlier report used in the asylum decision-making process. The Bulletin, drawing on a UNHCR paper of December 2004, pointedly states that it ‘supersedes all previous UNHCR statements
The politics of a phoney Britishness
This week the government launched its new community cohesion strategy. But there can be no community cohesion while an entire group of citizens is cast as the enemy within. The demand, since September 11, has been for a recharging of the batteries of national belonging, for the state to once again connect with the nation.
Significant deterioration to detainees’ mental health
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has stated that the ‘sense of powerlessness’ experienced by the Belmarsh detainees ‘is likely to cause significant deterioration to [their] mental health’. The College is asking the government to consider these findings when the government ponders its response to the recent House of Lords ruling that the detention of the
Law Lords rule ‘terror detentions’ discriminatory and disproportionate
David Blunkett’s anti-terrorist measures were thrown into disarray this morning as the highest court in the land ruled that the indefinite detention of foreign nationals under the 2001 Terror Act was incompatible with human rights. Lord Bingham of Cornhill said that ‘the measures unjustifiably discriminate against foreign nationals on the ground of their nationality or
The psychological toll of ATCSA detention
On 13 October 2004, a panel of psychologists and a psychiatrist made public a report showing that the damage to men held indefinitely without trial under the Anti Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA) was both grave and predictable. The experts reported that there had been a ‘progressive deterioration in the mental health of
Suspected of something – accused of nothing
On Sunday 3 October over 300 people – campaigners, families and concerned individuals – gathered outside Belmarsh prison to protest against the detention without trial of eleven men, all ‘foreign nationals’ and all Muslim. On 19 December 2001, just three months after the September 11 attacks, the British government arrested eight men under the Anti-terrorism
New study highlights discrimination in use of anti-terror laws
The Institute of Race Relations publishes today a catalogue that details how hundreds of Muslims have been arrested under terrorism powers before being released without charge; how the special powers granted by parliament to tackle terrorism are being deployed in other spheres, such as in routine criminal investigations or in the policing of immigration; how
Hundreds demonstrate outside Home Office against ‘war on terror’
The campaign against the criminalisation of Muslim communities under anti-terror laws stepped up a gear this week as over 300 people protested outside the Home Office. The emergency protest on 13 August 2004 was called following the re-arrest two weeks earlier of Babar Ahmad, a 30-year-old university IT officer. Babar was first arrested under anti-terror