An important legal ruling has clarified refugee law and should provide better protection for those claiming asylum on the basis of their sexuality. On 7 July, the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest court, ruled that gays who are forced to conceal their sexuality to avoid being persecuted in their home countries should be recognised as
Theme: Violence and harassment
Child detention review: the challenge for NGOs
How should the voluntary sector respond to the government’s review of children’s detention? The review (the terms of which were published on 10 June, allowing consultation till 1 July) will examine the way the UK Border Agency (UKBA) deals with asylum applications from families, including contact arrangements and access to legal representation; current arrangements for
Freedom – but not for all
The government’s much vaunted freedom agenda entrenches a two-tier system of rights, with migrants and other unpopular minorities largely excluded. On 25 May 2010, the Queen’s speech promised: ‘Legislation will be brought forward to restore freedoms and civil liberties, through the abolition of Identity Cards and repeal of unnecessary laws.’ The following day, 26 May
New government seeks to bully judges
Those expecting a new spirit of fairness and social liberalism to engulf the UK Border Agency (UKBA) following the insertion of the LibDems into government are perhaps beginning to realise the folly of their hopes in the light of recent news. The uncertain ‘good news’ that the detention of children is to be ended, at
Deportation targets trump children’s rights
When the newly-elected government announced it would end the detention of children, IRR News cautioned against early optimism. This week’s developments explain why. The Guardian‘s exposé that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) plans to set up a £4 million ‘reintegration centre’ in Kabul for unaccompanied minors shows that when it comes to unaccompanied minors, it’s
Playing the Gypsy ‘race card’
The Con-Dem coalition has started an offensive against the most marginal and disadvantaged of all Britain’s minorities, Gypsies and Travellers. Putting aside brave new world soundbites on ‘freedom’, ‘fairness’ and civil liberties, the first wave of ‘efficiency savings’ has wiped out £30 million already offered to local authorities and housing associations to support the development
Defend the remaining travelling Gypsies and Travellers, and Showmen
Below we reproduce a letter signed by campaigners and academics in protest at proposed funding cuts aimed at the Gypsy and Traveller communities. The coalition government has arrived with a progressive and civil liberties agenda. But not for the UK’s most deprived and discriminated against minority ethnic group – Gypsies and Travellers. Already the coalition
How good is the good news on child detention?
The heralded end to the detention of children in centres like Yarl’s Wood has to be treated with caution. The immediate ending of children’s detention in Scotland, announced as part of the coalition deal on 15 May 2010, has not resulted in the release of children. Instead, families with children, including Pakistani victim of domestic
Saluting Tony Hall
The anti-racist movement lost its most stalwart cartoonist when Tony Hall died in February 2008. Now a collection of his cartoons has been published with all the proceeds going to his widow, Libby. Tony was a committed anti-racist and he actually quit a well paid job on a tabloid newspaper because he refused to produce
Background to the French commission on the burqa and niqab
As Belgium and France move to ban the burqa, the IRR European Race Audit (ERA) publishes today a briefing paper on ‘The background to the French parliamentary commission on the burqa and niqab’. It examines how André Gerin, the Communist Party mayor of Vénissieux, ignited the debate on the voile intégral in a country where,