The new decade has started with a rebuff for British deportation policy from the European Court of Human Rights. On 12 January 2010, the Court in Strasbourg ruled that the proposal to deport 34-year-old Abdul Waheed Khan, who had lived in the UK since the age of three, breached his rights to private and family
Theme: Health
Sponsored walk to raise money for Morecambe Bay families
In a few weeks time, the Morecambe Victims Fund will hold a sponsored walk for the families of the victims of the Morecambe Bay tragedy. To mark the sixth anniversary of the tragic event in which twenty-three Chinese migrant workers drowned while picking cockles, the Morecambe Victims Fund will hold a sponsored walk, from Liverpool
Government failing mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers
A new report has found that restrictive and contradictory government policies have severe implications for the mental health and well-being of refugees and asylum seekers. According to research conducted by Mind, the mental healthcare system in the UK is ‘regularly failing refugees and asylum seekers’ by not responding adequately to the numerous barriers that they
Spirited away
UK Border Agency (UKBA) proposals to remove more people from the country without giving them a realistic chance to challenge their removal are causing anger and concern. Being forcibly removed from the country is a distressing and frightening experience. From 11 January 2010, it will be even more distressing and frightening for those people who
BBC documentary about Roma children sparks outrage
A controversial BBC programme about the trafficking of Roma children in Europe has been branded ‘inaccurate, offensive and racist’. The hour-long documentary titled This World – Gypsy Child Thieves was broadcast on BBC2 on 2 September and led to more than twenty complaints. It shows film-maker Liviu Tipurita visiting Gypsy camps in Romania and ‘uncovering
Forgotten soldiers of the Second World War
Seventy years after the Second World War began there are hundreds of books, films and plays documenting the experiences of British soldiers but the sacrifices made by millions of Black Commonwealth soldiers has been ignored, say veterans. Squadron Leader Mahinder Singh Pujji is one of the two-and-a-half million servicemen who came from the Indian subcontinent,
Conditions at G4S immigration prison ‘worse and worse’
Below we reproduce an article which originally appeared on the website of Corporate Watch. Since it opened earlier this year, the UK’s newest and biggest immigration prison has barely had a day without trouble. However, Corporate Watch has learnt that things have become “much worse” lately, both for the detainees and for their visitors. Meanwhile,
Lord Carlile criticises police procedures
Saleh Mamon, a member of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), assesses a recent report on the arrest of twelve Asian students on suspicion of terrorism. Twelve Pakistani students were arrested on 8 April 2009 in the North-west following a security leak when confidential papers held by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the head of the
Health professionals speak out against detention of children
Every year hundreds of children in the UK are detained in immigration centres because their families face deportation, this policy is harmful and must change say medical experts. The Royal Colleges of Paediatrics, GPs and Psychiatrists say other countries have found alternatives to detention and want the British government to take a different approach to
Sivanandan: writing and fighting
Below we reproduce a review of the IRR director’s most recent book, Catching History on the Wing, which first appeared in the journal Concept. The overthrow of the Institute of Race Relations in 1972; transforming it in the process from a capital serving research unit into a radical think-tank is a pivotal moment in Britain’s