Before the Covid-19 lockdown in France the Gilets Noirs, the headline-grabbing protest movement of sans-papiers in France, were continuing to break new ground and finding exciting ways to sustain their effort through the innovative ‘solidarity pot’. There can be no doubt that the Gilets Noirs are a formidable ensemble. Their occupations and protests certainly seize
A review of differential policies towards different populations draws attention to the ways in which civil society is mobilising to demand protection and an end to the stigmatisation of those with no escape from infection. The growing coronavirus crisis has exposed many faultlines in the UK and in Europe, and in particular, governments’ treatment of
The appalling, overcrowded, unhygienic housing offered to some asylum seekers and their young children is putting them at especial risk of Covid-19. A refusal of insanitary accommodation leads to threats of homelessness. John Grayson of South Yorkshire Migration & Asylum Action Group investigates the reality in Leeds, Halifax and Wakefield. Helen ‘I don’t want to
Below we publish a round up of race and civil liberties issues related to coronavirus in the UK and Europe. See our regular calendar of racism and resistance here. ASYLUM AND MIGRATION 21 March: A group of migrant justice organisations including the Public Interest Law Centre, Project 17 and Migrants’ Rights Network write an open
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe News stories related to coronavirus have been compiled in a separate calendar, view here. ASYLUM AND MIGRATION Asylum and migration rights 10 March: The Guardian reports on a former British army sergeant whose two sons are England rugby internationals, who
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe ASYLUM AND MIGRATION Asylum and migration rights 1 March: As the 3million, a group representing EU citizens in the UK, and other campaigners claim that vulnerable people are still ‘struggling to apply’ to the EU settlement scheme, and that
Join us for an important seminar that will explore the criminalisation of identity in Prevent and anti-gangs initiatives. Speakers will discuss a) the ways Prevent and anti-gangs initiatives, used in schools youth centres and beyond, pathologise and criminalise working-class black youth and Muslims and b) how this structural racism suppresses expressions of multiculturalism, forcing conformity
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe ASYLUM AND MIGRATION Asylum and migration rights 11 February: Italy’s senate lifts League leader Matteo Salvini’s immunity from prosecution, ensuring he will face trial on charges of false imprisonment arising from the standoff last year when he prevented the
How can the Mayor of London’s approach to knife crime work, when the structural causes of knife crime are not being fully addressed? A review of recent government and GLA initiatives. The number of knife and gang-related homicides in London has surged since 2014. And young black men are overrepresented as victims and perpetrators of
An eyewitness account of the ongoing struggles of the Gilets Noirs in Paris On 19th January, dozens of undocumented migrants filled the lobby of Hotel Ibis Paris Bastille Opera, just outside the centre of Paris, and declared an occupation. They were members of the Gilets Noirs, a collective of sans-papiers (so called ‘undocumented’ migrants, or those without the
