London MEP Jean Lambert has called for an immediate halt to deportation of asylum seekers following the breakdown of European negotiations on minimum standards for deciding asylum claims. Home secretary David Blunkett and fellow Justice ministers meeting in Luxembourg last week abandoned their meeting without reaching agreement on how EU members should decide asylum claims.
Theme: Health
Abbas Amini gets leave to remain but continues protest
Abbas Amini, an asylum seeker from Iran who has stitched up his ears, eyes and lips, is continuing his protest on behalf of all asylum seekers, though the Home Office has been refused permission to appeal against the original decision to allow him indefinite leave to remain. Amini’s protest, against the way he and other
Crisis of black underachievement in London schools
Nearly 2,500 delegates participated in the second conference on the underachievement of black pupils in London schools on Saturday 10 May 2003. Opening the conference, Diane Abbott MP said that GCSE pass rates of black pupils were getting worse and now bordered on catastrophic. She urged the conference to seek practical solutions and develop a
Campaign success for Ugandan rape survivor
A Ugandan woman, whose rape by state agents was described by an adjudicator as ‘simple and dreadful lust’, has won the right to stay after a successful public campaign. Rose Najjemba, who claimed asylum in January 2001, less than four months after her ordeal at the hands of Ugandan soldiers, was denied protection under the
Freedom to hate?
New research by Article 19 shows how the press is biased against asylum seekers. But change will not come about unless we go beyond liberal pleading. As long ago as the 1970s, the anti-racist movement learned an important lesson. Then, as now, we were faced with newspapers that warned of an invasion of immigrants, of
Iraqi asylum seekers fear being sent back
Thousands of Iraqi refugees in the UK are being left in a legal limbo, as the government plans to begin deportations to Baghdad in the near future. Since 20 March, the day the war on Iraq began, the Home Office has put all 7,000 Iraqi asylum cases on hold. Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister, told
Kurdish refugees attacked in Plymouth
Two Iraqi Kurds were the victims of a racist attack in an underpass in the centre of Plymouth. The attack, by two young white men, took place at about 9.30pm on Friday 9 May. The attackers repeatedly asked ‘are you f***ing Turks?’, before assaulting one man with a skewer and the other with a belt
Inquest finds Spencer Weston’s death was not an accident
An inquest into the death of a 21-year-old black man, who died in Leicester in 1999 after a police chase, has ended with the coroner taking the unusual step of giving a ‘narrative verdict’, providing a more informative account than the traditional verdicts of ‘open’, ‘accidental’ or ‘unlawful’. Spencer Weston received fatal multiple injuries when
The BNP in the local elections
The British National Party, with eight councillors, has become the main party of opposition on Burnley Council. And, in a significant number of wards in other towns in the North of England and in the West Midlands, the party has been able to win over a quarter of the votes cast in the recent local
Gangsters for life?
A new youth work video explores the myths and realities of Bengali ‘gangs’ in Tower Hamlets, east London. Claire Alexander, the author of a book on Asian gangs, discusses her involvement in the project. It is now nearly two years since the outbreak of unrest that scarred previously forgotten towns and communities across the midlands