The Court of Appeal has upheld the right of a Tunisian refugee to appeal in the UK against cancellation of his residence rights. We have become used to dodgy manoeuvres on the part of the Home Office and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in their war on asylum seekers, terror suspects and other ‘undesirables’. Campaigns
Theme: Violence and harassment
Gypsy and Traveller concerns raised in parliament
A group of academics, lawyers and campaigners has produced a report on the coalition government’s policy on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers. The report, A Big or Divided Society is based on hearings which took place earlier this year in parliament where Gypsies, Travellers, service providers, legal and academic experts gave evidence on the implications of
A Mighty victory for FNPs
Two foreign national prisoners (FNPs), Kadian Mighty and Walumba Lumba, have won a significant victory for the rule of law in the Supreme Court. It has been a long struggle. Both men, ‘foreign national prisoners’, came to the end of prison sentences between March and June 2006 – and became embroiled in the fall-out from
Does Barnardo’s legitimise child detention?
The children’s charity’s decision to work with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in its planned short-term family detention facility has caused alarm among campaigners. On 9 March, Barnardo’s announced that it had agreed with the UKBA to provide staff at the proposed new immigration holding centre for up to nine families at Pease Pottage, Crawley
Open hostility to Gypsies and Travellers
Last weekend, on a wet Saturday morning, campaigners gathered for a weekend of protest at the high of levels anti-Gypsy/Traveller racism but, by Sunday, the protest had to be called off after threats were received. Over fifty people, men, women and children, gathered from across the UK to protest at the rising levels of racism.
Dirty dealing with Qaddafi
We should not forget, argues a leading human rights lawyer, how ready the UK was to use Qaddafi’s offices when it came to keeping African migrants and asylum seekers from reaching our shores. When we listen to our leaders’ vigorous condemnations of the human rights abuses and lack of democracy of Qaddafi’s and other authoritarian
German counter-extremism programme – a ‘spying charter’
As we await Lord Carlile’s much trumpeted review of the Prevent strategy, anti-racist groups are revealing the sinister danger in Germany’s new counter-extremism strategy The Berlin group ReachOut is amongst a number of victim support organisations which have refused to sign up to new grant conditions announced by the German federal government. Under a clause
Coming to terms with multiculturalism
The Institute of Race Relations reprises the succinct analysis of multiculturalism made by A. Sivanandan after 7/7. In his Munich speech, Cameron blamed the ‘state doctrine of multiculturalism’ for creating ‘segregated communities’. But as this Institute has pointed out time and time again, it is important to distinguish between multiculturalism as policy and multiculturalism as
Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy
Cameron’s speech signals a fundamental departure in British race relations. Why did British prime minister Cameron choose to attack ‘the doctrine of state multiculturalism’ and indicate the parameters of the government’s new counter-terrorism policy at an international security conference in Munich? The Munich International Security Conference was founded in 1962 and focuses on transatlantic relations
Immigration detention of children: a judge gets tough
A High Court judge has ruled that families with children can be detained for removal only in exceptional circumstances. A ground-breaking High Court judgment delivered on 11 January 2011, which means that henceforth, regardless of political decisions, detention of families with children can occur only in exceptional circumstances, when it is clear that no alternative