The threatened Council take-over of a Leicester community centre illustrates the contradictions in the government’s ‘community cohesion’ agenda. The withdrawal of funds from the hugely successful Highfields Youth and Community Centre (HYCC), in inner-city Leicester, has become the focus for a strong local campaign aimed at challenging the whole approach of the City Council and
Theme: Health
Another asylum seeker dies in detention
Yet another asylum seeker appears to have taken his own life while in detention – bringing to four the number of asylum seekers who have died in self-harm incidents in British prisons or immigration removal centres so far this year. A week ago, on 7 November, Kenny Peter an asylum seeker (from either Liberia or
Dossier reveals failure to investigate complaints of racism at Leeds Prison
Solicitors are urging the Commission for Racial Equality, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) and the Prison Service to take action over allegations of prison officer abuse and racism at Leeds prison, where Shahid Aziz was murdered earlier this year. The murder of Shahid Aziz at HMP Leeds and subsequent allegations of racism that surfaced
A new anti-racist toolkit for youth workers
I Ain’t Racist But… aims to give youth workers the knowledge and tools ‘to respond constructively to racist incidents and deal appropriately with victims and perpetrators’. Written by Mandeep Rupra of the Racial Harassment Action Group Monitoring Project at Leicester Racial Equality Council, the stated intent of the toolkit is to encourage youth workers to
Did undue pressure on an asylum seeker lead to his suicide?
The suicide of an Ethiopian asylum seeker has led refugee support workers to question methods being used by government officials to gain information. Seife Yimene, a 24-year-old Ethiopian man who came to the UK in July 2004, was living in emergency accommodation in Newcastle while his asylum claim was being processed. He became very depressed
Racism in the Age of Globalisation
Speaking at the Third Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture on 28 October 2004 organised by the National Union of Journalist’s Black Members Council*, Dr. A. Sivanandan, Director of the Institute of Race Relations, examined how the two trajectories – the war on asylum and the war on terror – had converged to produce the racism/imperialism of
Open verdict on death of asylum seeker who slept in a wheelie bin
Not suicide but an open verdict, was the pronouncement of coroner Leonard Gorodkin on the death of a failed asylum seeker, who walked in to the offices of Refugee Action in Manchester and set himself on fire. On 21 October 2004, Manchester Coroner’s Court heard that a verdict of suicide could not be established beyond
Living in fear
Speaking at the European Social Forum seminar on Civil Liberties and the War on Terror*, Liz Fekete, Deputy Director of the Institute of Race Relations, called for the protection of the most vulnerable in society – refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees are the main victims of terror. They have fled the terror of war and
‘I prefer to be killed here than go back to my own country’
A meeting at the House of Commons on 19 October saw the launch of a report on women’s experience of immigration detention in the UK. The report by the Bail for Immigration Detainees project and Asylum Aid’s Refugee Women’s Resource Project examines the experience of thirteen women asylum seekers, the majority from Africa, who were
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